Football Manager 2012

by sodhat Tue 16 Aug 2011, 10:54 am

First topic message reminder :

Just a note (pinched directly from Wikipedia regarding the 2012 installment of FM. I am desperate to get a hold of this and start playing, I missed 2011 out but I fully intend to get back on this social life-sapping horse.

The next in the series of the Football Manager simulation game is set to be the 19th game released and is reported to include 800+ improvements. The new changes (of which only a few have been announced so far) include an improved 3D Match Engine, a new manager team talk system called "Tone" which will enhance your personality in the game and a different way to select the nations involved in your player database which now means that you can add or remove nations as you play.

The final version though, is yet to be finished as it will need the Summer Transfers within the game and some parts just need "finishing off".

More information from press releases is expected to come out in Autumn 2011 and the game is to come out before Christmas, but if the development stays on course it will be released (like previous versions in the series) in late October to early November 2011. A handheld version is also widely expected, but hasn't been officially announced as yet.

by Guest Sun 22 Jan 2012, 10:25 am

im still westham, and have been taken over, and given quite a bit of cash to spend Smile

by Uryu Ishida Sun 22 Jan 2012, 10:46 am

cherriesfan wrote:does pre-season mean much
im bein havant and watrerloville and i beat barnet 4- in pre-season,does that mean i willtrash evryone in the BSS

no...look at this...btw this is from an old season https://2img.net/r/ihimg/photo/my-images/521/vauxhallmotorsfixturesf.png/

by Guest Sun 22 Jan 2012, 10:51 am

i have billy sharp up front and he is banging in the goals Smile

by **Crimey** Sun 22 Jan 2012, 11:22 am

I doubt it.

I always score tons of goals in pre-season with everybody chipping in, even against semi-decent sides, but once I start the league the goals dry up.

by cherriesfna Sun 22 Jan 2012, 10:29 pm

ive got a great midfield with havant as thye have igoe and fogden

by Guest Mon 23 Jan 2012, 4:01 pm

in the game options i put the game speed to the far right, are you telling me theres another dial you can alter at the match screen?

by Guest Mon 23 Jan 2012, 4:17 pm

my players dropping like flies Sad

i have so many injuries its unbelieavble.

by Guest Tue 24 Jan 2012, 1:40 pm

right i've got a good laptop but this years fm match speed is appaling. snail pace is being kind. i dont understand why the match speed takes over 6 minutes per game????? u get on the game and then its just killing me watching the little dial at the bottom with the commentary ticking slowly, unlike the fast moving commentary on previous years. great game, so much detail but is killed by the match speed. surely something can be done???

by sodhat Tue 24 Jan 2012, 2:56 pm

John wrote:right i've got a good laptop but this years fm match speed is appaling. snail pace is being kind. i dont understand why the match speed takes over 6 minutes per game????? u get on the game and then its just killing me watching the little dial at the bottom with the commentary ticking slowly, unlike the fast moving commentary on previous years. great game, so much detail but is killed by the match speed. surely something can be done???

You are able to adjust the match speed at any given time and stop highlights or replays.

Are you sure you have the match speed slider (top right) to the max speed, and that you have turned highlights off altogether? If you have just clicked off the tab, then they will still play in the background and slow it down.

I think the game options are also top right corner, but go on to the pitch view tab and see if it's playing still.

by Guest Tue 24 Jan 2012, 3:40 pm

oh dear! basically im gonna go on it later but all i've done is gone into the options at the beginning of the game and moved the match speed all the way to the right. i did know there was another speed dial in the actual match screen you could alter in the top right! must have missed it!

by **ADMIN** Tue 24 Jan 2012, 3:47 pm

Does anyone not change the speed to max and remove the highlights?
Surely that should be default setting!

by sodhat Tue 24 Jan 2012, 4:06 pm

John wrote:oh dear! basically im gonna go on it later but all i've done is gone into the options at the beginning of the game and moved the match speed all the way to the right. i did know there was another speed dial in the actual match screen you could alter in the top right! must have missed it!

It isn't a speed dial as such, it's a drop down menu that you can click. I think it's called match options or highlight options or something.

My guess is you've still got 'key' highlights playing in the background and you didn't know it because you came off the pitch view.

I usually do that Hero, I did every other version except for this years for some reason. Think I'll pick it back up soon and play it like that, I much prefer it that way, or I'm there all night!

by Guest Tue 24 Jan 2012, 4:28 pm

yer all i want is the normal classic view with no highlights (basically fastest game possible). I've turned everything to the right and made match view as 'only commentary'

it reads match view- 'only commentary'
classic view - overview
left - overview
right -overview

and no replays selected - game still takes a good 5 mins

by sodhat Tue 24 Jan 2012, 4:31 pm

John wrote:yer all i want is the normal classic view with no highlights (basically fastest game possible). I've turned everything to the right and made match view as 'only commentary'

it reads match view- 'only commentary'
classic view - overview
left - overview
right -overview

and no replays selected - game still takes a good 5 mins

Hmm, well I'm stumped then! You've done everything I would do, so I'm out of reasons.

Do you have loads of background leagues playing? Or do you play on a large database?

Usually at the start of a game you get a rating of game speed/performance at the bottom based on what you have chosen. If you choose loads of leagues or large database, it will be slower.

by **Crimey** Tue 24 Jan 2012, 6:22 pm

Macclads wrote:Does anyone not change the speed to max and remove the highlights?
Surely that should be default setting!

I don't.

I have it just above half and I'm not sure about the highlights...Is that replays? I don't mind watching the matches, it's all part of the fun for me.

by compelling and rich Tue 24 Jan 2012, 8:42 pm

The 3d engine was killing my laptop, even on the fastest setting it was a snails pace. I totally turned the 3d engine off so I've just got the circles running round on the overhead view and works alot better.

On preferences go to display and sound, under 3d settings un tick the enable 3d match cameras. Try see if that speeds it up mate

by Guest Tue 24 Jan 2012, 9:18 pm

Yer much better now, cheers

by **Crimey** Sat 28 Jan 2012, 3:08 pm

I've started again on this, as my Leicester save was always a bit of an experiment, but it was driving me mad because players and fans were all unhappy, but the board weren't.

I've started again as Wigan manager, about to start first game of the league and have brought in a couple of guys.

Danny Wilson- season long loan
Gary Hooper- £3.5 million + Add ons
Alexandsar Tunchev- £500,000

So far....I think.

I missed out on Peter Whittingham, who chose West Brom instead, so am in the market for a decent right winger.

by Soldier_Of_Fortune Mon 30 Jan 2012, 12:07 pm

Soldier_Of_Fortune wrote:My birds laptop took the knock with my two saves as Liverpool manager and Wolves manager. With Wolves I was riding high in my 3rd season on course for a champs league place and probably wont be able to go back on it now.

After a week off work I decided to start a Wigan game. I brought in new staff and sorted the training out. Bought only kids in my first season: Erik Torres £3.5mill, Mbaye Niang£4mill, Lenny Nangris£3.2mill and Andile Jali £350k. Knowing that they go quality from previous saves, but decided to give them a chance in the first team due to Wigan being turd. I ended up finishing 16th (2 points ahead of relagation but only 5 points from 10th!) and 2 early exits from both cups. I manage to improve my Training facilities to Top at a cost of £6.5mill.

Second season.
As I survived I was entrusted with a £20mill transfer budget. As I was making at least 400k every month. I decided to spread the payments of my transfer for at least 24 months (more depending on the fee) and I spent BIG: Chris Samba £18.5mill, Jack Robinson £9mill, John Fleck £3mill, Romario (RB) £3.5mill and I loaned Alex Chamerlain and Jano (been bought by Man U after rejecting me in the first season). I also sold Rodallega £6.5mill to Juve (only had one year left on contract and would not sign a new one and Boseli to Udinese for £7mill (cos he is turd)

After a fanastic start I was on course for the champs league being in 3rd place at Christmas, but due to me spending all my budget in August, I was unable to make any signings with the likes of Chelase buying Cavanni, Arsenal Yamolenko and Tottenham Adebayor, I ended up finishing 6th with no place in Europe due to Liverpool finishing 7th winning the FA Cup and WBA winning the League Cup finsihing 11th. Erick Torres although only 18 when the season started, scored 24 goals in the league and 31 overall and came second in young player of the year, John Fleck also contributed 17 assists and he was injured for 3 months with a broken ankle, also Vitor Moses and Lenny Langris were also injured for months with a broken leg and jaw?!? I also have now improved my Youth training facilites to Good at a cost of £350k

3rd seaon so far:
After being given another £30mill Budget, but no European football to offer, I scourred the relagated team accorss Europe to see if I could attract anyone. Genoa had been relagated so I bought Sokratis Papastathopoulos but I had to spend £11.5mill to get him. I also purchased Vladmir Weiss for £7mill, Michael Vorm for £3.5mill and Giuseppe Prestia
£1.9mill (future world class CB). I have reloaned Jano after he impressed me but decided against Chamberlain as he was niot worth £30k per week wage Arsenal wanted me to pay.

So far am second after 4 games with 3 wins a draw. But already out of the league cup to Huddersfield on pens! (Dont think I have won one Pen shootout yet on all my saves on FM2012) But wins do include Man U and City. But I was pegged back from 3-0 up to draw 3-3 with Blackburn.

Am optimistic about this season and hope I can get top 4. If I dont I fear I will be sacked due to my large amount of spending

Best First XI

GK: Vorm
DR: Romario
DL: Jack Robinson
DC: Chris Samba
DC: Sokratis Papastathopoulos
MC: Andile Jali
MC: James McCarthy
AMR: Vladmir Weiss
AML: Jano
AMC: John Fleck
SC: Erick Torres

UPDATE

3rd Season

The mighty Wigan ended up finishing 3rd! It was really tight barring Man U running away with the league. I had Man U @ home second to last game and with the other contenders with easy games. I needed to win to stay in contention. Not only did I win but I won 6-0!! and with results goin my way it meant I had qualified with a game to spare.

The main man for me this season was Mbaye Niang! Scoring an impressive 23 goals (I think!) in the league. His form was so good he knocked the impressive Torres to the bench for most of the season, but to the lack of first team football. Torres was the put back into AMC and Fleck was moved out to the left.

My defense wasn't as good as I though it would be and I did shift 40 odd goals in the league this season but I was the top goal scorers with and impressive 87 (I will have to check this again also)

Vladmir Weiss was also impressive and came runner up in signing of the season, contributing with alot of assists and 10 goals in the league.

I had purchased 3 regens players couple of seasons back who couldnt join until they were 18 and they have all joined and already have impressive stats and potential! I will have to upload screen shots of them.

4 Season

Due to my spending ove the first 3 seasons I didnt want to spend that much. I got handed £18mill with the intention of usuing wisely, but when I spotted this impressive Argentian regen who had the stats to be world class at just 18, I had to splash out and spent £12mill on him (£5mill upfront and £7mill over 24months) I also but I another regen as cover for Romario and Robinson who is also impressive. I did try and get Tevez (on a free!!) but he wanted stupid wages of £180k per week and also a £10mill loyality bonus, and his agent wanted £9mill!! After walking away from the deal, he ended up at Boca Juniors and he was only on £18.5K per week furious

I had losts of interest in my players this window and done well to keep them all and keep them happy at the same time. Samba signed a new contract but is now on £90k per week which automatically made Papastathopoulos on that wage due to a clause in his contract (which I must have over looked!). With them both on a combined £180k per week! My total monthly wage bill is still only just over 500k per month which is still low.

Wigan's first champions league ever contains Inter, Valencia and Ajax Doh

Think I will struggle to get Europa League in that one.

First game I was beaten 2-0 away to Sunderland but I am 4th after about 6 games.

First game in Champions Leage against Inter ended in a 3-0 victory at the DW Stadium! Maybe it wont be as hard as I first thought and my team might have a fighting chance? I typing this from work so I can provide any screenshots etc but I will do once am at home, if your interested Laugh

by sodhat Mon 30 Jan 2012, 1:09 pm

Sounds like you're doing bloody well Soldier! What formation do you use when you play?

I've just started up again as Lazio and sit 5th in the league at the moment, only aiming for a top half finish though.

I'm struggling to work out our best formation at the moment and I've ended up with a 5-3-2, using counter. I think we'd be doing significantly worse if our defence wasn't so good, because we simply can't score goals and it's costing us...

by Soldier_Of_Fortune Mon 30 Jan 2012, 1:25 pm

sodhat wrote:Sounds like you're doing bloody well Soldier! What formation do you use when you play?

I've just started up again as Lazio and sit 5th in the league at the moment, only aiming for a top half finish though.

I'm struggling to work out our best formation at the moment and I've ended up with a 5-3-2, using counter. I think we'd be doing significantly worse if our defence wasn't so good, because we simply can't score goals and it's costing us...

Cheers

I play 4-5-1 Attacking. I score lots of goals but do tend to leak a few aswell due to Romario and Robinson getting forward, but they do contribute a few assists. I do ususally change things round mid match depending on how the games is going. If am playing away against a bigger rep club I change it to 4-5-1 counter

Am doing well now but it hasnt always plain sailing as I was nearly relegated in my first season Laugh

as I splashed Wigans budget on stars of the future who didnt have much of an impact in the first season (Niang scored 1 goal in 28 appearances, half starts and half subs) But this looks like its paying dividens now as Niang and Torres are both 'wonderkids' and both worth £10mill and have had bids for them both around £15mill rejected.

Am looking to improve Wigans rep now so I can attract more quality players and youngsters as I still seem to miss out on the players I want. I always seem to go out of Cups in the early stages so I now want to try and pick up my first throphy as Wigan manager after 4 seasons Laugh

I will have to upload a few screen shots of my squad and players etc.

by sodhat Mon 30 Jan 2012, 2:54 pm

That'll be useful, I need to know which young players to look for really.

I still have a game at West Ham I started, and I will likely go back to it. I got them back up and as far as I remember was doing pretty well.

I tend to get annoyed if I start losing, and turn it off though...

by Soldier_Of_Fortune Mon 30 Jan 2012, 3:12 pm

Am the same aswell haha. I had a Liverpool save and had just bought Bale for £67mill and then he got injured 4 months! I never went back on it and the laptop is now dead! Gutted cos I had a good little team there.

There were times with Wigan when I was going to sack it off cos they were really woeful and I was 19th at Xmas, losing all my closest rivals in the process. I changed my tactics and started to pick up a little form and ended up finishing 16th!!

Am glad I never now cos my team is starting to come together nicely I really dont fear anyone in the league now. I seem to do better against the big teams then I do the little ones.

For info on good young players you should have a look here http://footballmanagerstory.com/scout/players-by-position/
They provide you with current and future screenshots which show you how the player could develop.

by Gregers Mon 30 Jan 2012, 3:22 pm

Shall I post an update on my Sunderland save that I said about on the last page?

by sodhat Mon 30 Jan 2012, 3:24 pm

Go for it Gregers, I like to see who people buy and how they're doing with it.

by Guest Mon 30 Jan 2012, 3:53 pm

my west ham side doing really well..im in the europa league at the moment, and currently my side looks like this:

---------------------------LLoris----------------------------------------

------Sagna--------Marchena----------Barzaghli------------Clichy-----------

----S.Wright-phillips-----Noble------------Nolan--------------Malouda---------------

---------------------------Gomis---------Iaquinta-------------

by Gregers Mon 30 Jan 2012, 3:55 pm

Okay, here goes. Sunderland update (playing on fm09)

Pre season 3:

After being given the Ghana job the Ghanian FA expected the team to perform well at the world cup (not entirely sure what that meant). But managed to reach the semi finals! Lost to Germany in the semi and lost to Spain in the 3rd placed play off. Ghanian FA were pleased so I've got the job for now. ACN qualifiers throughout the 3rd season, no difficult ties so we are top of our group comfortably.

Back to Sunderland:

Season 2 reminder, finished 5th. Europa League place!

Season 3 media prediction 8th.

Transfers in:
Sebastian Blanco - Young Argentinian Right Winger
Dmytro Chygrynski - Russian centre back, chose us over Man City!
Bruno Renen (Loan) - Young Brazilian Defensive Midfielder
Antonio Barragan (Loan) - Spanish left/right back, bought as cover

Cleared out a lot of the squad, all rubbish reserve team players and players who were no longer good enough for the first team.

Season proper:

Managed to qualify for Europa League group stage and got Shalke, Feyenord and Zeta. Sunderland finished second in the group. Got knocked out by Inter Milan in first knockout stage.

4th at new year, brought in 3 new loan signings due to injuries (Djamal Bakar - Quality French Winger, Jesus Datolo - Decent Argentine Winger, Ricardo Costa - Decent Portuguese Centre Back).

With 8 matches to go in the league (we were knocked out of the FA Cup in the quarter finals) Sunderland currently sit 3rd! 3 points off of Man Utd in 2nd but only 1 point ahead of Liverpool in 4th and only a further 1 point ahead of Man City in 5th.

Current Formation:

4-5-1 (Counter)

GK: C Gordon
LB: Thiago Carleto
CB: Anton Ferdinand (c)
CB: Dmytro Chygrynski
RB: Martin Jiranek
CDM: Demy de Zeum
CDM: Paul Codrea
LM: Juan Angel Albin (Quality winger)
RM: Landon Donovan
AMC: Diego Buonanotte (World Class Attacking Midfielder)
CF: John Fleck (Wonderkid Scottish Striker)/Asamoah Gyan

by Guest Mon 30 Jan 2012, 4:02 pm

what do people think of my side?

by sodhat Mon 30 Jan 2012, 4:17 pm

Pretty good CF, what season are you on?

I'm midway through the second at the moment and the board have just sold Jordan Spence over my head, and he was easily my best RB! They didn't even give me time to get a new one in, it was right at the end of the window, so we're pretty thin squad wise.

My team is largely unchanged from first season, except I signed Demba Ba, Sean Scanell and Eliot Grandin. Very young, cheap squad thus far.

by Gregers Mon 30 Jan 2012, 4:18 pm

Getting in Malouda must have been hard CF!

by Guest Mon 30 Jan 2012, 4:19 pm

na gregers it werent hard im in the 2014 season so he's aging...

however considering im westham and in the europa league im very happy with that side..

better than my juve side, eh sodhat Wink

by sodhat Mon 30 Jan 2012, 4:22 pm

Got to be close CF

Sagna and Clichy are top class and the rest of the defence is too

You just need Lisandro to spearhead your attack

by Guest Mon 30 Jan 2012, 4:25 pm

i havent got his spirit though Sad

by compelling and rich Tue 31 Jan 2012, 10:36 am

im currently with psg just into my third season. first season won the league and league cup but was disappointing in europa and french cup. second season won all domestic competions getting 98 points in the league and got to the semi's in champiopns league so great season all round.

snapped up some great young players early on and threw them straight into first team so they have delevoped into class players, my current first team is

gk. romero
lb. corchia (adapted from right back, great young signing)
cb. sakho
cb. bochetti/otamendi
rb. vrsaljko
rw. pastore (adapted from am)
cm. badeji
cm. stepanenko/matudia
lw. di maria
cf. gamerio/fierro
cf. leandro damiao

struggling where to strengten my squad at the minute. di maria was a great signing as mourinho got sacked and brought in carlos ancelotti playing his diamond he put his wingers on the transfer list including ronaldo!!!! didnt have the wages to bring him in though so went for di maria instead. one place i may strengten is possibly someone like sissoko in midflied but stepanenko develops into a great player, only cost 3 mil aswell.

the other two great cheap signing were vrsaljko and badeji from dinamo for 1 mil and 5 mil. if you havnt had these players before you dont know what your missing. vrsaljko will come to most average teams at the start. badeji is slighty tougher as theres always a bidding war with loads of good teams in for him at the start of the game. first team football and better wages than he was asking for will get him though for a decent side like psg

by sodhat Thu 02 Feb 2012, 1:20 pm

Just returned to my very first West Ham save, to realise what an awful squad I have!

We managed to finish 10th in the Premiership, which was a bit of a pain in the end because now I'll have to repeat the trick. On the plus side, they gave me £20m to spend and I've been able to strengthen a pretty poor defence with Kyle Walker, Mirel Radoi and Liam Ridgewell.

I sold a whole bunch of rubbish squad players and brought in Miralem Sulejmani on a free, who is an excellent player for the wings or even up front.

I need now only to sign a back up striker behind Ba (I only play one up top anyway), and possibly get another CM in as cover. With £5m in the bank it may be a tough ask, but no Prem clubs want to talk to me about loans!

Been finding myself using youngsters from my youth team a fair bit too, and seeing if I can unearth a star. I think I've got one - 17 year old striker called Ali Cetiner - and there is another right back that my assistant has called 'one of the best players of his generation', so he'll get some matches too.

I don't hold much hope for the season to be honest - but if I can keep players fit and keep winning home matches I reckon we can sneak top 10 or at least around 13th or so. I've been linked with United and Chelsea in the off season but I don't want to move on just yet...

by XR Thu 02 Feb 2012, 1:42 pm

Can't get on with the newer versions of FM, think they've gone to far in making it realistic and over complicated things. I have FM07 and i love that game, it's a classic. So i am going to hijack this thread Very Happy

Now when i play FM, i like the challenge. So i go the crap, unfashionable teams and build them in to big clubs. My best ever game was confined to the welsh league where i went from 06/07 season to 2018/19 season with Llanelli and built them in to a team which qualified for the group stages of the champions league having to consistantly go through the rounds to get there. Although we would rarely win in the group, we had a couple of wins here and there but never got out of the groups. I stopped playing after it became such a farce, i'd be signing these wonderkid latvians, hungarians and lithuanians for peanuts and then prem teams would swoop in a unsettle them!

So I've started unemployed and got a job with Beijing Hongdeng in the Chinese equivalent of the Championship. I joined mid season and there were about 12 games left. We were 13th place in the league (out of 14) and i was tasked with keeping them in the league. Lost my first 2 games in charge but then went undefeated for the final 10 games, amassing 22 points from a possible 30 with 6 wins and 4 draws. Finished 8th.

Very pleased with that given the dross i was working with.

Managed to sign three brazilians in the off season, nothing spectacular and very average but by far the best players in my squad. Brought a lot of cash in to the club by staging friendlies with about 7 teams from the Australian League, to balance the books which hopefully will benefit my transfer budget at the end of this season.

Currently 3rd after 5 games but suffering a bit of an injury/suspension crisis which has wiped out 7 of my team, 4 of which are starters and their replacements are the dross i couldn't get rid of in my first season in charge.

Again, supposed to fight off relegation but the odds at the beginning of the season said expecting a mid table finish. I hope to finish in top 5, maybe not promoted as we would get annihilated in the Premier League.

Will post screenshots when i get in.

by sodhat Thu 02 Feb 2012, 4:49 pm

When was the last version you played GC?

I think 2012 has done a decent job of keeping it realistic, but also simple so you may like to give it a try.

I used to play 07 religiously though!

by XR Thu 02 Feb 2012, 11:43 pm

2011, just couldn't keep interested. 07 all the way!!

by Gregers Fri 03 Feb 2012, 10:55 am

Gregers' Sunderland Adventure Cont.

End of 3rd Season:

Difficult end to the season but just managed to cling onto 3rd place grabbing ourselves a Champions League Place.

(My Ghana side qualified for the ACN)

Pre-season 3 signings:

Jesus Datolo, Bruno Renan and Djamal Bakar who were all on loan were signed on permanent deals. Getting Datalo (who is worth £10 million) for just £1.3 million was a great bit of business. Ricardo Costa's loan was extended for the whole of the 4th season.

Vaclav Kadlec - £50k, good young prospect
Rafinha - FREE! So pleased with bringing him in, best right back in my squad by far
Carlos Arrieta - £29 million, a lot of money spent on this young Colombian wonderkid. Already better than Fleck and Gyan.
Dan Gosling - £12.5 million, yes the youngster from Everton. He's turned into the next Steven Gerrard on my game
Sun Yunpeng - £85k, good young prospect
Brede Hangeland - £6.5 million, wanted out of Man City and came to us as back up to the first team
Abel Aguillar - Loan, decent Colombian defensive midfielder. Signed to help Arrieta settle

Current first team:

GK: Gordon
LB: Thiago Carleto
CB: Dmytro Chygrynskyi
CB: Anton Ferdinand (c)
RB: Rafinha
DMC: Demy de Zeeuw
DMC: Dan Gosling
LM: Juan Angel Albin/Jesus Datalo
RM: Sebastian Blanco/Djamal Bakar/Landon Donavon
CAM: Diego Buonanotte
CF: Carlos Arrieta

Media prediction - 6th
Aim - 2nd

Thoughts?

by Beer Fri 03 Feb 2012, 12:54 pm

Kadlec is a brilliant buy on that game but he will eventually get homesick and go awol.

by Guest Wed 08 Feb 2012, 3:43 pm

how do you get wembley background added, I know its 190269 or woteva it is but what folder do i put it in and then the xml thing, any help

by Gregers Wed 08 Feb 2012, 5:13 pm

Sunderland save update

So into the new year we go and Sunderland are.... TOP OF THE LEAGUE! What's more we're unbeaten in the league. Pretty chuffed with that. Got knocked out of the league cup in the 4th round by Man City though. Also got knocked out of our group in the Champions League (Group had Lyon and AC Milan). But got entered into Europa League knockout stage so thats alright.

One signing in January:

David Beckham - FREE!

Couldn't resist, yes he's old now but needed cover on the right and had no money.

by sodhat Thu 16 Feb 2012, 4:05 pm

Anybody interested in playing a fantasy management game based solely on this site?

It requires dealing with other managers and buying/selling, as well as weekly writing of tactics.

Let me know and I'll link it you.

by compelling and rich Fri 17 Feb 2012, 6:03 pm

still on my psg file, but after winning the league 3 times in a row with ease felt i needed a challenge. start of the fourth season athletico madrid offered me a job. whats more of a challenge than trying to topple real and barca! so i took it.

they had little money, and i ended up selling nearly half the aquad to get some quality in. bought m'vila (description was world class midfielder) and nicked a few youngsters i had from psg who are amazing. midfielder who's only 18 and has better stats than m'vila and a brazilian left back who's probably the best on the game.

things didnt start too well had to qualify for champions league and got AZ, got beat 2-1 away which i thought wouldnt be too bad till i drew 0-0 at home 35 shots to there 0 but went out (the board were not happy). things brightened up though as i went on a title challenge. coming into the last game of the seaon i was one point behind barca on a ridicoulus points total of 95. they had granda away and i had getafe at home so wasnt expecting much as they had barely dropped a point all season. but they went down 1-0 and i won to nick it on last day of the season!! just won the europa on pens against zenit and have the cup final against real next game. probably my best ever season to topple the big two first time of asking

by **hampo17** Sat 18 Feb 2012, 9:20 am

My laptop crashed so having to start from scratch on a new one today, good shout C&R about trying to topple Barca and R.Madrid though.

35 shots and it was 0-0, shooting practice needed Laugh

by Gregers Wed 22 Feb 2012, 3:40 pm

Sunderland Save update: Beginning of Season 5

Firstly what a season the black cats had in season 4. Premier League and Europa League Champions! The board couldn't believe it and tbh neither could I. The difficult part will be keeping the success coming.

Also my Ghana side won the African Cup of Nations so a great season.

Transfers inbetween seasons saw a lot of players leave the club and a lot of youngsters come in. Spent most of my budget on 4 players tho:

Mario Ballotelli - £28 million, bit of a risk especially as I want him to play on the right. Hopefully his injury prone status won't come back to bite me!

John Obi Mikel - £12.5 million, rated as one of the best dmc's in the world on my save yet unable to get in the chelsea team already proven himself valuable

Cheik M'Bengue - £12 million, simply put I needed a left back as mine were championship quality. Cheik fitted the brief well.

Oleg Sytnik - £4 million, Ukrainian wonderkid right back

----

So far this season we are 3rd after 4 games played. Won the Charity Shield and the Euro Super Cup (Beat Man City on pens and Real Madrid 2-0 respectively) and beat Juventus in the champions league (Got Juve, Barce and Monoco in our group).

Finally, Diego Buonanotte cannot stop scoring!

by **Crimey** Wed 22 Feb 2012, 11:43 pm

What are you expected to achieve?

by Gregers Thu 23 Feb 2012, 12:17 am

Board wanted champions league qualification, I've promised a title challenge. Media predicts 5th.

by **hampo17** Thu 23 Feb 2012, 8:31 am

I've only just got around to reinstalling this after my laptop died a few weeks ago. I've started a game with Barnsley, the board want us to avoid relegation. Got a budget of £250k so hopefully bring some experienced players in to help.

by Guest Thu 23 Feb 2012, 9:24 am

crashed out the champions league in the group stage with west ham and the board arent happy at all Sad

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