Football Manager 2011

[Jimmy]

Just beat West Ham 6-0 with my Ipswich team, Bakambu scoring 4 of those. But, just as the save bar was about to complete, my PC crashed again. I hate having to play matches again where I have no hope of mirroring the score line.

[Jimmy]

Just played the game again and won 3-2. I had to take Bakambu off due to his lack of luck in front of goal and he failed to get on the score sheet. Played the exact same team as the 6-0 win. This game is crazy sometimes.

[Katsuya]

Grrrr. Arsenal have started to lose their form a bit, mainly picking up draws and losses. Unfortunately, we've not really been able to pick up on it, so the gap is down from what was 14 points to 9, with 11 games left. It's achievable in theory (and we have a 10 point gap back to the fight for 3rd, between Liverpool, United, Newcastle and Crewe so nothing really to worry about there) but the only top ten teams (ATM, at least) they have to play in those 11 games are United, Crewe and Everton. I have Crewe, Cardiff, Sunderland, Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham from the top 10 >_<

United got their own back on me with a 4-0 win in the return fixture, but my team just seem to constantly struggle against United no matter who I put against them.

[Gazz]

The really interesting thing is that Atletico Madrid "B" are on course to be promoted from the Second Division in Spain, which...yeah, that'd be a new one.

B teams can't be promoted to La Liga, which is crap, because I'd love to do a game where I try to make Barca/Real B better than the first team.

[Katsuya]

The really interesting thing is that Atletico Madrid "B" are on course to be promoted from the Second Division in Spain, which...yeah, that'd be a new one.

B teams can't be promoted to La Liga, which is crap, because I'd love to do a game where I try to make Barca/Real B better than the first team.

Huh, that sucks. They've slid well down the table anyway, and Barca/Real have recovered to the top two positions in La Liga, so my hope for a truly random Spanish contingent in the Champions League has faded.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Phew, win in the cup away gets us through to the semis which was the season's target. We're playing Havre at home so the final should be in our grasp. That will keep the wolves from the door.

In the league we've just won three in a row after going 12 games without a win - I was a game from the sack. Beat some rubbish team but then LOSC away who are pretty good and then won the local derby against Nice. We're out of the relegation zone for the first time this season and things are looking up. Coutadeur is amazing as a central midfield playmaker - like a budget Van der Vaart. Frederic Bulot is fast and exciting down the left and best of all my loan signing Jordan Spence (from West Ham) has been bossing the defence and has scored 4 goals from front post head-ons from Coutadeur corners.

[Gazz]

I signed Stijn Wuytens at the end of season 1 on a £22,500 per week contract, at the end of the season he got a 15% pay rise to £26,500.

Now, due to a clause in his contract after playing 30 league games, he has had a pay rise to... £25,000.

[stokeriño]

Hah, small print eh.

[IAceI]

I feel bad because I'm over spending on my wage bill. Gohouri is on like 12.5k a week because he has a match highest earner clause so when I picked up Yannick Sagbo for £2m and the wage so it's starting to cost. Unfortunately the job isn't getting done, I thought I was off a flier when I went top after 2 easy wins and good scores too, but my last results have been less impressive.

Latest score first

W 4-0

L 1-5

L 1-3

D 0-0

L 0-2

L 0-1

I can't seem to get Sagbo scoring. Guly do Prado is doing better in the Championship than he managed in L1. And I lost Chamberlain to Chelsea for £3m after the chairman went over my head to sell him, that's how I funded the £2m signing of Sagbo. Need to start getting the wins together now though, no consistency at the minute.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

1-0 down away to Stade Rennais at half time, come back to win 3-1. We just can't lose at the moment.

After only winning twice in our first 14 games (both in cup games) we've just gone.....

W 1-0 Stade Brestois - cup

W 2-0 Arles Avignon

W 1-0 LOSC

W 1-0 Nice

W 3-1 Stade Rennais

Up to mid table now and surely that's enough to cheer up my players and board who wanted me gone.

Spence is averaging 8.02 in his last five games and has scored 5 goals in 11 - all from corners.

[IAceI]

And now a 4-1 loss on the road at Norwich.

To be honest I just don't want to get relegated this season but it's just one way traffic in every match. I thought my team would be good enough to at least be mid table but all these big scores are just mental. Won 5. Drew 1. Lost 7.

[DavidMarrio]

Right I'm putting my Liverpool game on hold and thought after the past game I had with them it's time to exorcise the demons at Cardiff.

Only transfer I made was getting in Edu on a bosman which I thought would add strong depth to the midfield.

Team:

GK= Tom Heaton

DR= Kevin McNaughton

DCR= Paul Quinn

DCL= Adam Matthews

DMC= Edu

MCR= Peter Whittingham

MCL= Jason Koumas

AMR= Chris Burke

AML= Craig Bellamy

STC= Jay Bothroyd

Subs:

Darcy Blake

Gabor Gyepes

Seyi Olofinjana

Stephen McPhail

Gavin Rae

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas

Michael Chopra

Only played two league games which I both won 2-0 against Boro and Bristol City, beat Port Vale in the 1st round of the League Cup 3-0 and set to play Huddersfield Town in the 2nd round.

Bit guttered though as I lost Bothroyd to injury after 20 mins into the Middlesbrough game for 6-7 weeks so Chopras moved into the 1st team and Jon Parkin is on the bench.

[EddieG]

Yeah, a good example of the B teams is Malaga, they were the first one to have their B team in the segunda, and won it, or either way were in a promotion place the year Malaga qualified for the UEFA, and they had to spend another year then, stayed there till Malaga got relegated and then the B team while doing well got relegated by default.

[Jimmy]

Oh man, I was one game off doing the 'win 10 consecutive competitive matches', but I drew 1-1 against Sevilla. Missed a penalty in the game, too.

[IAceI]

Argh. Beating 3rd placed Blackpool at home 4-1 only to then labour to a draw with 22nd place Ipswich 2-2 is so frustrating. I find with this tactic I use, no matter who the team, consistency is never there. Barnard scored a hat-trick against Blackpool but was awful against Ipswich. My strikers never seem to have consistently good matches or score regularly back-to-back.

Bane of my life.

[The Future]

Got Bolton promoted to what is a very different Premier League in 2014.

The reigning champions are Sunderland, the top 4 has been broken after last year's finish of Sunderland,Spurs,Everton,City.

Chelsea have sacked manager after manager and have a very imbalanced team while United despite a strong squad can't seem to finish above 5th.

[IAceI]

It's weird, because one little catalyst like that can screw things up for ages. Eg. One bad finish for a big team, then suddenly the manager is out, they bring a new one in, they sign loads of players, wage bill goes sky high, things screw up and it goes from bad to worse. Or similarily in 15 years time the big four could be identical every season. Over at another forum I go to someone simmed to like 2160 or something and the big teams were still pretty much the same in the top 5 leagues, there weren't too many anomolies so it's odd that in 2014 things are so radically different in your game.

Just got offered my first job. Derby County. Didn't take long for me to say no. I really want to get Southampton to the Premiership in the next few seasons. Currently on 36 points after 26 games leaving me in 12th. Only 4 points ahead of 17th but similarly 8 points off 7th so it's quite tight in the middle. Need to stay solid, then next season lower the wage bill but also add quality to make us a top-half team.

[Pesci]

Got Bolton promoted to what is a very different Premier League in 2014.

The reigning champions are Sunderland, the top 4 has been broken after last year's finish of Sunderland,Spurs,Everton,City.

Chelsea have sacked manager after manager and have a very imbalanced team while United despite a strong squad can't seem to finish above 5th.

I hate people like you who get random shit like that. I've never had anybody outside of the "traditional" big four win the league when I've played

In other news, I finally caved and ordered this off of Amazon. Kind of wish I wasn't so spazzy at pirating stuff but it's down to £13 now so I don't mind too much. There's only so many hours you can spend on The Sims 3 until you start wondering if you're not compensating for what a horrible life you lead Inspired by Arsenal's awful slump in the last six seasons I quite fancy trying to make them an actual team. A Crawley Town game could be good fun too.

[Hobo]

I've yet to get anything really bizarre yet. Aside from Portsmouth going into administration again and ending up in League 2, Huddersfield are in the Premier League for the 2017/18 season. Leverkusen are a strong force in Europe. Ruud Van Nistelrooy manages aMan Utd and they've gone from winning the league and the Champions League to competing in the Europa League. Birmingham's dramatic rise and fall was the best thing. Champions League to Championship in a season.

Shinnik, my old side are in the Europa League, Catania, who I move to at the end of the season are in the Europa League, so are my Viking side. Although we got a bit battered by Vitoria. I'd love if Catania drew Shinnik in the group stages Or if we managed to get through that the three sides would end up together.

[Jimmy]

I had Everton win the league one year after they got loads of quality loan signings, only to finish 14th the following two years before getting relegated. The top 5 is always the same in my game, except my Ipswich team is always top 4 now. But Arsenal and Man City always finish in the top 2, with Tottenham and Man United finishing in 4th and 5th. Chelsea are a bit awful, though.