Snapshot of your story - FM13

SantryRed

Well,

New game, new thread to document your stories of FM 13, once you can get yourself away from your FM12 games

Decided to start my first game of FM with Watford. Recently taken over by the Pozzo family who own Udinese, I thought it'd be an interesting one to do since there are plenty of players to get over on loan :pac:

Anyways, the league, which was mediocre up until the start of February, as I was winning one then losing one. However, it all changed after that and we went on a great run where we were winning a lot of games and only losing a couple, most games I drew were being all over a team, conceding early, and then staging a late comeback, so the team was always on a high. Unfortunately, the team finished just short of the play offs, as a loss on the 2nd last day made it too difficult to get up.





While you all thought that might be end of it for this season, it actually isn't, as Watford are the 2012/2013 FA Cup Winners To be fair, it was probably the easiest run in the history of the FA Cup, but I still had to beat what was in front of me and thankfully I did.

Only had to play 2 Premier League teams in the run, firstly playing West Brom at home where we drew 1-1 and then won 2-0 on penalties in the replay. The 2nd team we faced was a 5th round tie against Tottenham Hotspur. A savage performance was put in for 85 minutes in the home game, where we were 2-0 and coasting, until an 88th and 93rd minute goals sent us into a replay. A savage defensive display set up a 1-0 win after extra time to send us into the quarter finals. Easy wins in the quarter final and semi final set up the final against Blackburn Rovers. A brilliant display by my on loan striker Geijo, who scored a hat trick in a 3-2 win and send Watford into Europe :pac:



Next season is going to be a serious challenge now. Firstly, I have absolutely no idea how many of the on loan players from Udinese I will be getting back, so that's the first challenge. I'd love to develop my own team, but when you have some good quality players coming it's hard to say no. The 2nd impossible task is trying to balance the league and Europe. Obviously, getting promoted is the goal so I don't know if it'd be a good thing to almost throw the European qualifying games, or at least play the youngsters. Going to be a tough season ahead, hopefully with a promotion at the end of it!

SantryRed

Well, as predicted, it's December, and it's a struggle balancing it all. Didn't help that I drew 5 of my first 6 league games.



Board is getting on my back as I don't think the game can handle the fact I've so many games in hand.

retalivity

that is an LOI end-of-season amount of games in hand you're building up!

SantryRed

retalivity wrote: »

that is an LOI end-of-season amount of games in had you're building up!

I'll never forget the game with Kildare County I had, I won the Europa League and every other trophy available, so I was given 12 league games to play in 14 days :eek:

SantryRed

Season 2:

Awful season. Nothing went right at all.



Had to make a whole host of changes to my first team squad as I couldn't get any of the players on loan in the first season to come back. They thought Watford were beneath them :pac: It meant I had an awful start to the season where draws were a lot more common than wins or losses.

The Europa League wasn't any better as I drew Rosenborg, CSKA Moscow and AZ Alkmaar in my group. Ridiculously tough group where I didn't have a chance as I was playing my second team in most of the games as the games were already piling up. Eventually, I finished 3rd with 7 points, with wins over CSKA and Rosenborg and a draw in Norway too.

It took until April for me to catch up with the games in hand, the season petered out so poorly where I only won 5 games of my last 15, meaning the season didn't finish too well, with an 11th place finish. I was very lucky to keep my job as I was expected to win the league, which I personally thought was very unrealistic.



With 5 players retiring, it's a new era for Watford this season, as I've been given a 4m budget and a 200k wage budget. Thankfully, I'm only expected to finish mid table which imo, will be better for the players on our quest for promotion. Onwards and upwards, because I'll be sacked if it gets any worse :pac:

GRMA

How do you take those screenshots?

Just started with Nottm Forrest, had a five million budget, have brought in Meylar, Bebe, Paddy McCourt and Lee Bowyer

Pre season has gone very well, even got a win over Hamburg. Expectation is mid table, I'm aiming for playoffs.

Dravokivich

There should be a print screen button along the top right of Yer keyboard. Press that, then copy to ms paint or whatever you use like it.

cherryghost

Dravokivich wrote: »

There should be a print screen button along the top right of Yer keyboard. Press that, then copy to ms paint or whatever you use like it.

F12 saves screenshots for you in Steam

cherryghost

Playing as AFC Wimbledon in L2. After a few friendlies there was clear indication that the defence was abysmal, so I only targeted some defenders in the transfer window. Couldn't afford much else, loaned out one player but the team is relatively low on numbers so I couldn't chuck anyone else out :P



Anywho, Marques has been a blessing. We won the first 5 league games in 5, before a poor run of form due to himself being injured. Once he came back though we were back in the hunt. Halfway through the season and within shouting distance of the playoffs. Into the 2nd round of the FA cup, knocked out of everything else. My striker, Jack Midson, is currently top scorer in the league with 13 in 20 appearances

SantryRed

Well,

Thought I'd update. A new consortium came in at the beginning of the third season and wanted Curbishley as manager. Within, 10 games, when I was 8th!, I was sacked.

Loada sh1t. So I'm starting a game unemployed and semi-professional experience, lets see where it brings me :pac:

hots

Hi guys, not sure if this is allowed so mods feel free to take this down if inappropriate.

Basically I have to make a blog so I thought what better to write about than dear old footy manager, I figured as it's taken hundreds of hours of my life already I might as well get something out of it!

It will start off with a couple of posts of background and after that I will be starting a new game in the Championship with Champions League glory the objective (obviously).

If you like the sound of it check it out when you get a chance http://thebluerinse.wordpress.com/

cherryghost

Won L2 by a point :P

antomorro-sei

So, time for me to post here. After starting two games, one with St Pats, and then a FM Challenge one with Chelsea, and failed miserably in them two, I decided I'd have a bash with a lower league side in a league I don't know two much about.

So, I chose Cádiz, in the Spanish Segunda B (Grupo 4) to start with. Mainly, as I was on holiday there last year, and it was quality :pac:

Anyway, the team wasn't bad, but had to get in a decent assistant manager, two coaches and a good scout. There was no transfer budget, and just a little extra for wages.

So, I signed a DM, a centre half, an Argintinian LW/ST and then Christy Fagan on a free of St Pats! Also, try as I might, couldn't get rid of any of the deadwood, and couldn't loan any of the younger lads out. No idea why.

So, I only had one striker, Belencoso for a while, so decided to start with 451, playing attacking football. I tried to play defensively with counter attack, but that wasn't working. Stuck it to attacking and used the two wingers as "inside forwards" and it worked very well.



When the team was fully fit, they were class. Dominated teams!

Anyway, won the league by 8pts, but really should have been more. Conceded some stupid late goals to lose or draw games. Didn't matter really tho!





But, then I discovered something ridiculous. I noticed with a few games to go that they hadn't said anything about promotion or any of that. I then discovered that Cádiz had won the Segunda B4 last season too, which then meant, promotion playoffs...

I then had to enter the "First Phase Playoff" to gain a promotion place. Played Real Sociedad B team in the semi, and beat them comfortably, 7-3 on AGG, and they scored two flukey goals in the second leg when it was 6-1 anyway. Got Atletico Baleares in the final and beat them 6-5 over two legs.






Anyway, promoted in one season to Liga Adelente, the second division in Spain.

Hopefully I stay up! I'll post back here next season!

antomorro-sei

One cheeky snapshot. First win over a big enough side. Delighted!

Adios Béticos

cherryghost

On the verge of relegation in L1, but I had to upload this for the lolz. What the hell was the keeper thinking. Old head Adebola... all he needed was one touch!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSHvfjR2Q40

bigron2109

Second full season over and done, and absolutely cleaned up on everything.:D

Community Shield.Great start to the season.


Then followed the Super Cup. Tough Game against Madrid


Next was the carling cup, the run to the final was quiet easy but i made hard work off it with most of my games going to extra time and some Penalties. Used most of my Younger players in these games when i could.



Next up was the FA Cup which again i had a easy enough route to the final, which resulted in me scoring for fun in some games.


Then i clinched the title. Played well all season.



Had one of the Hardest routes to the final in the champions league, With Madrid, Barcelona and Utd in the final.



The tactics i have been using are as follows.

cherryghost

Once again, down to the final game drama, 22nd and looking down and out. Won the last game 5-2 and dragged myself out of relegation in the last game to finish 19th. Phew!

Problem was that in the first season in L2 a lot of my players were only on one year contracts, meaning I had to dig out a lot of players on free transfers in order to get a team together for the season. First half went season, 18 points in 23 games. January transfer window opened and bolstered my defence. Shockingly great 2nd half of the season. Delighted! My aim for next season now will be to be knocking on the top 10...

bigwormbundoran

Yes lads! Didnt play last years edition due to me laptop going tits up, but by a stroke of faith, when I ordered my new laptop it arrived the same day as the release of FM13, straight on the bus to Sligo I was and bought it, as well as socks and shorts for rugby, but I suppose thats a different story completely.

I present to you the story of my career with Wolves so far which has already over 2 days of my pathetic life in it.

Season 1: Very strong playing side for the Championship so I did very little by ways of strengthening the squad, bar bringing in Rivaldo on a free for the second half of the season (for the craic mostly) but hes still got it to be fair to him. I won the league by 5 points as you can see, but it was pretty pathetic because I felt I couldve walked the league but drew 20 bloody games.



Season 2: Onwards and upwards! Shipped out a load of dead wood and began reinforcing the squad for the rigours of the premier league! Andy Caroll didnt make it til Christmas the useless whinging donkey. Other than that most of these transfers turned out to be good pieces of business for me, notably the 3 bargains in Dembélé and Chamakh.




I somehow managed to get 5th even though I only won 17 games, Norwich the swines somehow got 4th so twas a mad ould season all round really. I also got to the FA Cup final but Man Utd beat me 3-2 after extra time, heartbroken to say the least, but it only made me and the lads more determined to comeback bigger and stronger than ever! I have a few more seasons finished including my European exploits, another (lost ) FA Cup final and various other shenanigans I cant think of which I shall throw up later, because this took me alot longer than anticipated to do.

EdenHazard

Why is Dembele so cheap and why do Spurs sell him? I guess I'll have to improve his stats in the Editor if and when I get this game

Munster Magic

EdenHazard wrote: »

Why is Dembele so cheap and why do Spurs sell him? I guess I'll have to improve his stats in the Editor if and when I get this game

Strange one alright, never seems to play for them but when I tried to buy him they wanted 40m:eek:

bigwormbundoran

EdenHazard wrote: »

Why is Dembele so cheap and why do Spurs sell him? I guess I'll have to improve his stats in the Editor if and when I get this game

I havent a clue but I jumped at the chance to get him, only wanted like 50k a week too! Inter offered me 13.5 mil for him after one season with me but I couldnt let him go. Very consistent player to rarely plays below 7.2 or so.

hots

So I've finally committed to a save and I've gone for Notts Forest. Decent budget and an okay squad, hopefully I'll be able to contend to a play-off spot this year.

Had a decent run in the opening friendlies so far and managed to get in some decent old pros (Salgado and Grosso being the headline grabbers).

Full story here.

bigwormbundoran

Pre-3rd season, brought in a few handy free transfers in, Enyeama, Vranjes, Clement Grenier, Joe Ledley and Chucky Mulgrew. On top of this are a few deadly young Re-gens, building blocks for the future, I try to buy as many players for the future at 17 if possible to get the ould trained at club status thingy. Also got rid of Jenas and Stephen Hunt despite good seasons due to age and contract demands beyond what I thought they deserved.



Nice solid season in the league, went out in the early stages of the FA and league cup and sent out a more or less second string in the Euros to concentrate on reaching the holy grail of 4th and it fooking worked! Far from a barn storming points total or anything but it got me where I wanted to be, always seem to collapse in the first couple of minutes vs City Utd and Arsenal for some reason and have only a few wins (probably < 5 out of 20+ id say) against any of the 3 all the games ive played any of them so far.

Had a nice run in the Uefa cup aswell considering it was playing 2nd fiddle to the league topped a group containing Bilbao, Heerenveen and Metalist, beat Basel 5-3 on agg in the next round, Napoli 5-3 aswell, knocked out in the quarters then though 3-1 by St Etienne the tramps.




Very little in the way of squad growth following this good season, but nikao and istomin are absolute gems of the highest order. Tino Costa stats wise was quality but performance wise he has been far from impressive, Escudero likewise.
In the same summer Arsenal spent 118m on players, how a mans supposed to compete with that I'll never know. (I was actually offered the job midway through the previous season but didnt want it Moyes got it instead and is doing grand and is a lovely fella to me in it so I shall hold no grudges)



Tried to run a similar campaign as the previous season with my first string being saved for the league but it went tits up at the very end of the season, was in 1st round early november, slipped to stay around 4th-5th for most of the season then, but following an almighty collapse of form in the last month.

My shot at Champions League glory came to an abrupt end too with Juventus knocking me out in the Playoff. I walked through another group stage easily, but Arsenal then dispatched of me in the second knockout round 3-2 on aggregate.

Made the FA Cup final again too, but Arsenal beat me 3-2 there aswell.





Time to pull the socks up now and let this league know I aint messing about no more!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1o82BVKFp8

hots

Okay so my pre-season expectations where midtable at best. I didn't manage to sign any superstars at all. Most of my team will be drawing the pension soon and yet we're still sitting in third place...

Is it because of absolute gems like this from Rob Carlos Greg Halford??

Check out the latest post http://thebluerinse.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/mid-table-mediocrity-pfft-promotion-party-for-one-please/ for details on season form so far, transfers in and out and a glimpse at the tactics I am using to get here.

SantryRed

Probably the only time losing the North London Derby 6-2 is acceptable

Last day of the season:

gnfnrhead

How far in are you to see Southampton finishing fourth?

PerrinV2

gnfnrhead wrote: »

How far in are you to see Southampton finishing fourth?

Ha,just about to comment on this,a 94th minute winner from whelan(possibly gleen?) to overtake newcastle and liverpool on the last day

gnfnrhead

PerrinV2 wrote: »

Ha,just about to comment on this,a 94th minute winner from whelan(possibly gleen?) to overtake newcastle and liverpool on the last day

If that goal hadnt gone in, City would have won on GD too! Dont think it would be acceptable to lose 6-2 then :pac:

SantryRed

gnfnrhead wrote: »

How far in are you to see Southampton finishing fourth?

Season 2!!

Yakult

Just started with Liverpool, needed a few players and little money so brought in Sidney Sam and Mario Bolatti on full season loans and bought Demba Ba for £7mil (valued at 13.5 so profit to be made). Pretty lackluster start to the season so far, 11 games in and four won, five drawn and two lost. Downing and Cole still a bitch to shift tho! Got Cole out on loan deadline day thank god! :pac:

Shzm

Started off a game with Club Brugge, 6 seasons later we're ranked around 20th in Europe and won the Champions League last season after a take over by a group of wealthy Danes around 2016 - 2017, who give me around €25mil to spend each year.

Star signings though have Gianni Bruno, Ricardo Centurion and William Barbio.. All three go on to become internationals and are well worth signing, especially Centurion.

Highly recommend playing in Belgium too if you're looking for somewhere different to manage

Yakult

Yakult wrote: »

Just started with Liverpool, needed a few players and little money so brought in Sidney Sam and Mario Bolatti on full season loans and bought Demba Ba for £7mil (valued at 13.5 so profit to be made). Pretty lackluster start to the season so far, 11 games in and four won, five drawn and two lost. Downing and Cole still a bitch to shift tho! Got Cole out on loan deadline day thank god! :pac:

Finished the first season, came 5th with a tally of 65 points. My highest scorers were Ba with 18 goals and Suarez 11, only conceded 20 goals, the best in the league but a lot of 0-0 draws! Sent Sidney Sam home in January, he was useless unlike Bolatti who did a good job in CDM when called upon. The stand out performer was Sabastian Coates. Immensely good and getting better.

Got a budget of 22m for the coming season, so far I brought in Pjanic (15m), Mutch (4.3m), M'Villa (18m), Ospina (free), Destro (free) and a wonder kid from INF Clairefontaine. Sold Carroll, Assaidi and Spearing for a combined amount of 23m, with Carroll bringing in 14m so I thought that was ok.

First team;

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Reina

---

-Johnson--Skrtel--Coates--Enrique-

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M'Villa

---

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Gerrard--Lucas

---

---

Pjanic

---

---

Ba

---

Suarez

---

Bench;
Ospina
Kelly
Agger
Allen
Shelvey
Sterling
Destro

xwave7000

Shzm wrote: »

Started off a game with Club Brugge, 6 seasons later we're ranked around 20th in Europe and won the Champions League last season after a take over by a group of wealthy Danes around 2016 - 2017, who give me around €25mil to spend each year.

Star signings though have Gianni Bruno, Ricardo Centurion and William Barbio.. All three go on to become internationals and are well worth signing, especially Centurion.

Highly recommend playing in Belgium too if you're looking for somewhere different to manage

ARRGH!! Don't talk to me about Centurion, tried to sign him on a free the first transfer window with Nottm Forest, agreed terms and he couldn't get a work permit!! Absolutely sickened me!!

gnfnrhead

Finally made the move to FM 13. Not sure why, just fancied a change. I was planning on waiting for 14 but yeah. Didn't happen.

Anyway, doing what I always do by starting unemployed with a Sunday League Rep. The goal is to win the Champions League on each continent, finishing in Europe before joining Arsenal to end my career by trying to overtake United's record (assuming someone else doesn't do it first) amount of league titles.

Before that however I packed my virtual bags and left Ireland on a plane to Peru and Cobresol Fútbol Club. Board told me I would not be judged on this season's results which is good news seeing as they were 15th out of 16 when I arrived, with only four games left in the opening stage. 10 points clear of 16th with 12 to play for meant I could still finish last if results don't go my way. Lost three in a row but I wasn't too upset as we played better in each game and more importantly, the goals increased. The final game was annoying though. A 3-3 draw having been 3-1 up should have been three points instead of just the one. Luckily Sport Boys were crap and lost all four anyway.

When I arrived it was easy to see why they were doing so badly. One goalkeeper with a 1 silver star rating, only two CM's, the best of which had a 1.5 gold rating and no RB. Had to play a few players out of position as I couldn't register anyone else until the mid season break.

Quickly got a 2 gold rated GK but after that it was only the best. A 4 and a 4.5 gold rated CM and DM were signed along with a 4 gold ST. Hopefully the second stage will go better with my own signings. On a related note, I love the Director of Football addition. He makes life so much easier.

I now have 14 games to play in the second stage. For the second half of the season the league splits into two. 1st, 3rd etc go into group A while 2nd, 4th etc go into group B. The winner of each group faces off to determine the champion for the season. I think. 1st place in group A is on 68 points, I'm on 24. I already can't win as even 14 victories will only give me 66 points.

Is their any way to change the match display to be the same as 12? I can't get it to be on the overview page and automatically go to highlights when shown. The highlights only appear in the background when I'm on the overview page.

Kylo Ren

Good luck with Australia and Antarctica!

Kylo Ren

Is there any point in not spending your transfer budget? Like I have 30ish million in January, if I keep it does it add onto my budget in the summer?

kryogen

Yeah, the money will be retained by the club, a new budget will be set for next season anyway but the more money you have the better. The more money the club has, depending on what your season expectations are, the bigger the budget

gnfnrhead

Managed to drag Cobresol to the dizzying heights of 14th in the final league table. Went into the final day knowing I could finish 13th with a victory for myself, a loss for Melgar, and a 12 goal swing. Melgar lost but I could only draw 1-1. Never looked like scoring 2, let alone 12. I did start to fear for my job at one point, but results took a turn for the better all of a sudden. Tactics were slowly getting more fluid but I don’t think that was the cause. I noticed my languages spoken had changed from “English” to “English, Spanish (Basic)”. Never realised how important that was but it does make some sense. Any new country that I hit the ground running in in 2012, they spoke English. Any country that took a while to get going, didn’t.

In the end, Cristal won the lot. The lost six games all season, five of them by a single goal. The sixth game was when I hammered them 4-0, the only time they conceded more than 2 in a match. It doesn’t mean anything since they still won the league while I finished 14th, but I’m counting it as a small victory. Got a 1-1 draw in the away fixture. Wasn’t at the club for the opening stage fixture. No mention of any cup competitions in Peru which is a shame as I was a bit of a cup expert in 2012.

I lost 7 out of 18, but am currently unbeaten in the last 6. Right around the time when I learned Spanish. I can only assume language plays a much bigger role than I realised. My Spanish is no longer basic so hopefully I can push on next season as the club showed some faith in me by giving me a new contract. An extra year and a pay rise of £500 per week. That seems like nothing, but that’s more than I actually make each week for real….