How are you doing?

[Lo.Fi]

Okay so we've hit a fairly rocky spell of form which coincided with the sale of our best midfielder Kazenga LuaLua to Tottenham for £4.7m. I really don't think he's worth that kind of cash so I let him go, however, I failed to buy an adequate replacement (John Oster on a free transfer) and we let slip our lead in the Championship and are now 2nd and dropping all the time

My hopes of a magical cup run were ended early on when we drew Liverpool in both the League and FA Cup. Needless to say we had no chance, but the ties have helped with financial stability.

Table stands like this with two thirds of the year done:



Main aim now is to cling on to automatic promotion spot whilst keeping hold of the thinning supply of decent players in the squad. About to resume playing now.

EDIT: wooooooooo!


By lo_fii at 2012-03-19

[cabe0002]

Currently playing with Juve. I finished 1st in the first season, won the Italian Cup and now my goal is to win the Champions League. I restrict myself by only buying players who have the Italian nationality (first or second, doesn't matter really).

Funny thing is I bought De Rossi from AS Roma halfway during the season:
1.jpg

and the first competition match in the second half of the season was home against AS Roma. De Rossi scored in 30 minutes (!) a hattrick against his old club and finally scored 4 goals in the match. I thought this was pretty hilarious stuff.

2.jpg
3.jpg

Current progress in the competition:
4.jpg

[Lo.Fi]

Finished our first season in the Premier League and my word, what a chaotic season it was: our maverick style guarenteeing shedloads of goals shipped and plenty more scored, making us, in effect the new Blackpool.

First off, I bought several key players to make sure we would avoid yo-yoing straight back down. Only Ben Foster, Vicente and Will Hoskins would survive as regular starters from the Championship winning side. In came these lot:

Spoiler!

I had my hopes up after hammering Everton 1-0 on matchday 1 (us 16 shots, them zero), and similarly after we upset Man City away (4-3 - Hoskins bagging a hat trick), however after christmas we faded away due to injuries and loss of form to key players, though happily we recovered to finish the season strongly:

Spoiler!

Really irked at missing out on Champions League football by such a fine margin, but can't really claim to deserve it. Too many fluke wins right the way through. So Uefa Cup it is.

Got a cash injection mid way through, choosing to keep most of the cash in the bank and splash out on defender Diego Polenta just before the deadline. The idea is to have him replace the injury stricken and ageing Jamie Carragher for next season.

Hoskins continues to shine in the top league, and the media outlets got their wish when he was called up and capped for England.

Spoiler!

[AMC]

You need to plug that leaky defence up mate! Could be the difference between the title and 2nd place next season.

Hoskins has done amazing too, more than worthy of his England call up.

[Lo.Fi]

You need to plug that leaky defence up mate! Could be the difference between the title and 2nd place next season.

Hoskins has done amazing too, more than worthy of his England call up.

Hehe thanks AMC! yes, i agree our defence is poor. But being Brighton, a low reputation club, and me being unfamiliar with this new database I really tried in vain to sign anyone decent. This new season I signed David Navarro on a free but no-one else, and Coventry City just nabbed my captain Jamie Carragher as their manager so I'm f*****. Hoskins is now club record goalscorer but now has competition in the form of Artjoms Rudnevs, a striker I signed from Polish side Lech Poznam, and his attributes are blinding.... I'm just gonna intergrate him from off the bench for now though...

thanks for the feedback

[Ishdalar]

Finished our first season in the Premier League and my word, what a chaotic season it was: our maverick style guarenteeing shedloads of goals shipped and plenty more scored, making us, in effect the new Blackpool.

First off, I bought several key players to make sure we would avoid yo-yoing straight back down. Only Ben Foster, Vicente and Will Hoskins would survive as regular starters from the Championship winning side. In came these lot:

Spoiler!

I had my hopes up after hammering Everton 1-0 on matchday 1 (us 16 shots, them zero), and similarly after we upset Man City away (4-3 - Hoskins bagging a hat trick), however after christmas we faded away due to injuries and loss of form to key players, though happily we recovered to finish the season strongly:

Spoiler!

Really irked at missing out on Champions League football by such a fine margin, but can't really claim to deserve it. Too many fluke wins right the way through. So Uefa Cup it is.

Got a cash injection mid way through, choosing to keep most of the cash in the bank and splash out on defender Diego Polenta just before the deadline. The idea is to have him replace the injury stricken and ageing Jamie Carragher for next season.

Hoskins continues to shine in the top league, and the media outlets got their wish when he was called up and capped for England.

Spoiler!

Bruma is a beast, bought him in my game with Deportivo la Coruña, i had in mind rotating him as a winger on both sides, since Guardado and Bruno Gama were superb the season before

3 league games after, he was my best player in the team and decided to sell Bruno Gama, now he is on my 2nd season and still on top form, 21 years old, 7'88 and 7'90 in two seasons



I think i've got quite a good squad, some good players now with Adam Lallana, Lazar Markovic, Vaclav Kadlec, Diego Rubio, Lorenzo Crisetig, David Addy, Marc Bartra

Being able to challenge Barcelona on league for 2nd consecutive year shocks me, yet i don't have other good players that barcelona signed on my team, like Dayro Moreno or Guoni Fjoluson, a lucky game scouting in this game, with hidden stats and first time playing this patch for me

[Lo.Fi]

Raced through season 3, so here's a quick update, as brief as possible.

Unbelievably, for the 3rd straight year we were eliminated from the league cup in R3 at the hands of Liverpool. Better fortunes in the FA cup, progressing all the way to the semi-final where we were defeated on penalties by a stubborn Manchester United. In the Uefa Cup (european debut for Brighton) we made it past Slovan Bratislava and Hearts before being hammered by Schalke in the 3rd round. Disappointing.

In the league things got off to another good start, and form reached its peak when we met Newcastle - this match being the high-point of my reign so far. Not sure I've ever had so many 10/10 performances from my players in one game.

Spoiler!

And so with new signings Jeremain Lens, Guillermo Molins, Guido Hernan Pizzaro and Artjoms Rudnevs all adding a touch of genuine class to the team (Lens being particularly outstanding with 18 goals and 18 assists) we climbed the table to a remarkable 3rd place, and well deserved European qualification. Delighted with the squad, but it's going to need some injection of quality if we are to avoid another repeat of the Schalke debacle.

Spoiler!

Also, after 3 seasons with Brighton I still don't have a major trophy to my name, and this is one of only two complaints I have so far, the other being that Real Madrid activated the release clause of my best defender Diego Polenta mid way through, and I was powerless to prevent him leaving for £8.75m. The bastard was only here for 9 months.

[Lo.Fi]

In the youth side too there's hope for the next generation of players at Brighton with players like Andy Rogers coming through. I doubt I'm going to here to see them come of age as I have decided that, whatever happens this season, I will leave Brighton at the end of it after 4 years at the American Express Community Stadium - lol.

Spoiler!

[AMC]

3rd's a great achievement mate, and that Newcastle result was very nice indeed! Still letting more in than I'd like though (more than one a game on average). Rogers looks tasty, shame about his pace and acceleration though.

What other leagues do you have running?

[Lo.Fi]

erm I think Italy, France and England. 3 leagues is about all this heap of shit computer can manage

[shikaka]

What. The. Hell?

Would you post a screenie of Rudnevs?

I have seen the fella play 3 times, he was playing at Zete and since it is not far from Budapest, we went down there with the mates when my dear DVTK was visiting Zalaegerszeg.

He seemed to be good as a youngster, but there were at least 20 players like him in the division. (I mean promising players on hungarian top tier level, but nothing exceptional)

[Lo.Fi]

What. The. Hell?

Would you post a screenie of Rudnevs?

I have seen the fella play 3 times, he was playing at Zete and since it is not far from Budapest, we went down there with the mates when my dear DVTK was visiting Zalaegerszeg.

He seemed to be good as a youngster, but there were at least 20 players like him in the division. (I mean promising players on hungarian top tier level, but nothing exceptional)

here you go...



is he this good in anyone else's game?

EDIT: he's so good I've just sold Will Hoskins to Panathanaikos for £3m. Wouldn't sign a new contract, so the Latvian is now my main man, and Michel Lallemand is hastily recruited as backup.

[shikaka]

here you go...

is he this good in anyone else's game?

I will have to check him out. His main skills were his finishing/cool head and offensive positioning/intelligent runs, so finishing/off the ball is quite OK. I never thought he could be this good in the game

[AMC]

He looks class! Will who?

[MrBuckminster]

Got the chance to sign Cabaye for 8M for Dortmund. should I?

[Lo.Fi]

Resigned as manager of Brighton on the same day as we clinched the Premier League title. Manchester United royally messed up on th very last day, losing to Fulham having only needed a point, us clinging on to a one goal victory away at Chelsea*

Having failed to get the best out of a squad of excellent players, and after weakly succumbing to Newcastle in our only Cup final, the time was right to pack it in.

My managerial stats, honestly, are not what I had hoped.

Spoiler!

And now after a short time unemployed, I'm back in work - with lowly cash-strapped Italians, Milazzo. £3.3m in debt and entering Serie C1 for the first time. Time to whip this bunch into shape.

*for any doubters: absolutely no cheating going on here. I never use ctrl-alt-delete even after powercuts. Just an improbable sequence of results the game often throws up.

[AMC]

Well done on the league win mate, best of luck in Italy!

[Lo.Fi]

Well done on the league win mate, best of luck in Italy!

Haha we've set the record for lowest ever attendance in serie C1/B. No money coming in. Debts Spiralling. Praying for a takeover or this could be the biggest fail I ever did.

[Lo.Fi]

Bugger.

[Pegster]

Aaah tough luck that. Grats on the win with Brighton though, and good job almost getting promoted with a small money-lacking club!

I've not had time to play much lately, did a whole season with only England and almost half a season with my new club, Derby County.
Won the European Championship with England, defeating Germany in the final, and resigned after the EC was done since I got a club job just after the league season ended. Derby lost their manager to Middlesbrough, and I was given the job of taking them back up into the top flight. They'd spent most of the game in 1st division, with a one season spell in the 2nd, and the last two seasons they finished 8th in 1. Division. Decent squad and some money indicated that this should be less challenging than the last two clubs, and so far it's looking good. Top of the table after 17 games, with 6 points down to Southampton at 2nd. My only signing is a backup drc, while I've thinned out the squad a bit both by actively selling people (lots of deadwood to get rid of) and accepting offers for players that aren't key players.

[shikaka]

I started up a save with Bristol Rovers. For now, home rules:
- I must use non-wibwobbed, "stock" tactics
- there can be 3 non-british in the squad at maximum

Bristol had a bad squad in the english 4th division, small (somewhere between 10-15k) stadium, and according to my experience they have bad rep. (=noone goood enough wants to sign)

The season started strange, as even before I played a match there were like 6-8 players who wanted new contracts OR simply wanted to move to a bigger club. I made some money luckily, as these unhappy players were sold (they were crap anyway) and I also accepted bids for pretty much everyone except for a few (4-5) players who seemed to be very good for the division..
I signed a few players, all from free: Smith (young scottish GK), Drummond (young n.irish goalkeeper), Mitchell (young scottish midfielder), Ferrari (veteran italian defender).
My scouts found some really good buys, unfortunately, with 0 dollars available for transfers, 0$ available for signing on fees, and a maximum player wage of 1300$/week, I had really tough time to strengthen the team...

The season itself was surprisingly easy, two of my original players (Carayol and Zebroski) went crazy on the wings, accompanied by a steady performance from Smith (young GK) and defensive pair Virgo-Ferrari, we simply won the division 2 matches before the end!

To celebrate promotion to DIV2, I had to sell Carayol (Preston), Zebroski (Hull), Virgo (Stoke) and Smith (Stoke). :wha:
They had a 750k release fee set in their contract, they were not willing to extend without it, so I lost them once the season was over.

For DIV2 I have to build a new team from scratch: who I really trust in my present lineup is Ferrari, noone else. At least I have about 1,5M to spend on signings (from the 4 sold players). Should be doable, let's see.


edit: Bristol Rovers seems to be a real hellhole for a manager, so I applied for a few jobs (Derby, Millwall, Dundee) unfortunately, noone wanted me

[Lo.Fi]

Good stuff. I find that happening with players wanting away and making unreasonable contract demands as well. It seems to be those who start the game with a club. When I ship them out and sign my own players over time, I have no problems with that kind of stuff, so my advice is: renew contracts for the good players whose deals are up at the end of the season and transfer list all the troublemakers

[shikaka]

Good stuff. I find that happening with players wanting away and making unreasonable contract demands as well. It seems to be those who start the game with a club. When I ship them out and sign my own players over time, I have no problems with that kind of stuff, so my advice is: renew contracts for the good players whose deals are up at the end of the season and transfer list all the troublemakers

Yeah, there is a moment after 15-20 good matches, when you see that 'wanted' sign near your newly signed players.
I check who is interested, and hope for Torquay and Dag&Red. It turns out that Arsenal and Stoke is interested. Crap...
Back to the drawing board.

[Kevin]

I've just started my 1st proper game on the latest update that I am determined to see through - at the same club without getting a twitchy finger on the 'apply for' button when other jobs come up

I do worry thought that there will be too much narrative (inane rambling) and not enough CM content/appropriate screenies so was wondering whether it should be posted here or elsewhere?

For instance the club is good old Aston Villa as I always feel guilty when starting a new save for taking someone else's job & this time there are no vacancies to start with apart from Darlington and England lol.
I decided to take a punt on the next best thing which caught my eye being an insecure manager and Alex McLeish at Villa.

I thought he should be possibly sacked anyway so didn't lose much sleep over it and immediately had visions of buying a new centre back as Collins and Dunne are no spring chickens and I remember the halycon days of floppy blonde haired Danish CB Martin Laursen so subsequently set about finding a like-for-like(ish) replacement for him - where could I find such a similar player??

[Lo.Fi]

I dunno about the floppy-blonde-haired side of things (never seen what the guy looks like), but Thomas Rogne I have found to be a reliable and sometimes exceptional (scandanavian) central defender - and cheap too.