Football Manager 2011

[choggy]

Interesting...I wondered if SI gave guidelines to CA. I'd give them all 200 PA if I was doing your job and let SI argue me down. Which is why I'd be rubbish at it!

 

[chapperzUK]

Started a 11.3 with Southend. Recommend Brandy and Sears (on loan). Get Brandy on trial, wait until his trial is up and then offer him a contract. Seems to want less that just straight up offering him a contract. Half way through first season and they have scored a combined 41 goals. Kevin Bobson is a pretty good LM/LW.

 

[markw]

started a new game on the new patch and am into the 2nd season :)
First season transfers

as mentioned earlier brandy is a class act on this game and oliver norwood goes for a free at the end of the season, with his stats he has the potential to be very good
second season

]
Midfield of norwood, parrett and bostock, and brandy coming off the bench to ruin teams with his pace, should be a good season

 

[Bluesmanager]

Now, admittedly I did cheat to get a 60million+ budget and a 82grand wage budget, but I did manage to go unbeaten since, like January through to the 42nd game, managing to claw myself up from 17th to 3rd and odds-on for automatic promotion.

Where my entire computer crashed.

Typical.

As it turns out, having money does not a good team make. Getting Roy Carroll and practically an entirely new defence as well as Febian Brandy (30 goals with 4 to play), that makes a good team.

No, seriously. My next highest scorer is Barker. With 7. All from corners or set plays.

 

[ShrimperChris]

Started a game on the 11.3 update today and after 13 league games I am 4 points clear at the top of the table with 11 wins and 2 draws. I also got through to the third round of the Carling Cup, after beating Swansea 3-0 at home and Portsmouth 1-0 at home, losing away to QPR 2-0. Went out in the first round of the JPT 3-0 at home to Gillingham, but I put out a much changed team in that game.

Transfers wise, I bought in Obika (Spurs, loan for season), McGivern (Man City, loan for season), Norwood (Man Utd, loan for season), Danny Hutchins (free), Brandy (free) and Borini (Chelsea, loan for 3 months). I let Paterson go to Shrewsbury on a free and released Bouzid and Sturrock. Will probably try to sell/release some others in January.

Brandy has been my best player with an average rating of 8.00, with 16 goals in 13 games, followed by Norwood (7.58, 5 goals in 15) and McGivern (7.51, 4 goals in 15). Initially struggled with scoring, Brandy aside, although some other players have started chipping in a bit more. Scoring a lot of goals from corners with Moshni adding 3 and Barker 1 to McGivern's 4 all from corners. Obika has started scoring and has 5 in 17 and Corr has 2 in 4 starts, 9 sub appearances. Will try to get some more firepower in during January.

 

[pringlejon]

Just out of interest, what do people set as their past experience when they start? I've always gone for "Sunday League Footballer" but I sometimes see people signing players that wouldn't even consider coming to me so am guessing others start as more experienced managers.

 

[EastStandBlue]

Just out of interest, what do people set as their past experience when they start? I've always gone for "Sunday League Footballer" but I sometimes see people signing players that wouldn't even consider coming to me so am guessing others start as more experienced managers.

Always automatic... Anybody who designates themselves as a former pro or international is cheating.

 

[MrB]

It says I need a minimum of 4 players trained at the club

If you get this problem just stick yourself on holiday for a few days and it should continue itself.

 

[ShrimperChris]

Just out of interest, what do people set as their past experience when they start? I've always gone for "Sunday League Footballer" but I sometimes see people signing players that wouldn't even consider coming to me so am guessing others start as more experienced managers.

I just leave it as automatic. Have occasionally in the past set it to former pro/international but mainly when starting at a big Prem club.

 

[markw]

always go for sunday league reputation :D

 

[markw]

on the 24th of december 2017 my southend team sitting comfortably mid table in their 3rd season in the premiership...

Suddenly ron martin relinquishes control of the club and my plans for a new stadium (still in roots hall) are thrown down the bog :P

 

[ShrimperChris]

Have now started my second season as Southend. Ended the season 2nd in League 2, one point behind Gillingham despite winning my last 4 games. after a strong start my team's form stuttered in the middle of the season seeing a double figure point lead at the top of the table waste away. was frustrating but at least I got out of League 2.

Final transfers in:
Obika (loan for season), McGivern (loan for season), Norwood (loan for season), Danny Hutchins (free), Febian Brandy (free), Nicolae Mitea (free), ashley eastham (free), Darryl Flahavan (free), Lauri Dalla Valle (3 month loan), Fabio Borini (3 moth loan).
Transfers out:
Paterson (Shrewsbury, free), Bouzid (free), Sturrock (free), Phillips (free), Prosser (Rushden, free), Evans (free), Soares (free), Clohessy (free).

Brandy ended the season with 51 goals in all competitions and had the highest average rating of 7.68. Norwood had second highest average rating of 7.30, McGivern third with 7.20.

Still trying to finalise some more transfers for my season in League 1, but have brought in quite a few new faces without spending a penny of the £85k transfer budget. Started the season with a 2-1 loss away to Swindon but beat Coventry 1-0 away in the Carling Cup so have high hopes of consolidating this season.

 

[EastStandBlue]

In the midst of one of my most enjoyable games at the moment...

Started out unemployed with automatic experience and took the Stockport job with them 22nd in League Two. Steered them away from relegation and, with the help of Ashley Grimes, guided them to the League Two title the year after that. Brought in some great players and had them comfortable in League One before being offered the Leicester job. Took that, and took Leicester from the League One doldrums into the Championship within 18 months. I left Leicester to take the ICT job up in Scotland and got them to within a point of European qualification before leaving again. 3 months later I was offered the Croatia job and took that.

Croatia are a piece of **** to manage, it has to be said. Four seasons in and the Luka Modric is joined by Rakitic and Badeji in midfield, Srna at full-back and they had two fantastic youth CBs to use, who were on the books of Palermo and Real. I knocked out England in the QFs (shock), Portugal in the SFs but lost to Germany in the final. I have my gripes with Germany on FM, because SI can't purchase the rights to portray their national team they're full of ridiculously talented regen players.

Anyway, I left Croatia afterwards and took over at Athletico Bilbao, completely forgetting that you can only sign Basque players. Big mistake. The Basque players available are either in the twilight of their career, young and inexperienced (read, shoite) or far too illustrious to sign for a clib like Bilbao. Regardless, I got them up to 7th before being offered the job at a stuttering AC Milan, who had somehow slipped to 17th. After gutting the club of all the aging, expensive players I spent one season bringing in some young talent before winning four trophies in three years.

It's now 2023, and I've just taken the Real Madrid job with a cool £250m to spend on transfers.

 

[ShrimperChris]

Am now into October in my second season so have finalised my transfers until January.
In:
Kevin Das Neves, free
Ryan McGivern, season long loan from Man City
Luke Freeman, free
Matej Miljatovic, free
Ryan Mason, free
Sam Walker, free
Rhys Murphy, season long loan from Arsenal
Orlando Smeekes, free
Therry Racon, free
Lauri Dalla Valle, season long loan from Fulham
Jonathon Obika, season long loan from Spurs
Haris Bukva, £85k from Strum Graz

Out:
Peter Gilbert, free
Kyle Asante, free
Marcus Milner, free
Lee Sawyer, free
Glenn Morris, £28k MK Dons
Barry Corr, £12k AFC Wimbledon

Had quite a slow start to the season. After beating Bristol Rovers 3-1 in my second game of the season I lost 6 games in a row in the league, including getting battered 7-1 against Sheffield Wednesday, although a lot of those games were against the better sides in the league. Have since won 3 in a row in the league, including a 3-1 win at home to Col Ewe.

 

[Medway Blue]

So I've started a new game with 11.3 and done the same thing as ESB - started unemployed and and starting applying for jobs when the usual October-December sackings start taking place. Finally got the Hereford job.....

Now to try and keep them up.....!

 

[Medway Blue]

Well, 9 games into the job and things have just been getting worse. The players were awful and 3 of the good ones were on 6-month loans and therefore returned to their parent clubs shortly after I took over. Morale was through the floor.....and I only won one game in those first 9.

However, the January transfer window has just slammed shut, I have brought in some decent new players with the £22k that I got given to spend, got rid of some deadwood to free up some wages, and have put together some new tactics, so hopefully things will start to look up now.

The table below shows the sitution as it is at the moment. 10 points from safety having been only 2 from safety when I first took over. But now that I have a balanced starting 11 and some decent tactics I hope that will change and I'm currently 4-0 up at home to Aldershot at half time.

Could the Great Escape be on.....?

 

[Medway Blue]

Goals scored by 3 of my new signings.

Hell to the YES. It's on!

 

[markw]

im in 2022, i have got to the semis of the europa league 4 years running, winning it once so far febian brandy has scored in every season he has been with southend, i signed him in the first week of playing the game :D

 

[Medway Blue]

Well, the Great escape happened. Having been 10 points adrift of safety after 30 games, the final table ended up looking like this:

The seasonal progress chart gives a good indication of just how dramatic the recovery was during a frantic final third of the season:

It was tough at first. Having taken over midway through December, with the team 2 points adrift in 24th place and devoid of any morale, things were looking bleak and the first part of my tenure up until the end of the January transfer window read P9 W1 D2 L6 F8 A15. By the end of the window I had moved to 10 points adrift.

However, when the transfer window shut, and after some wheeling and dealing and spending my £22k budget, I finally had what I thought was a balanced and decent-quality Starting XI when the team that I had inherited was anything BUT balanced. Add to that a tweak to the system and something changed. From the end of the transfer window to the end of the season, my record read P16 W12 D2 L2 F50 A23. Awesome.

As you can see from the screenshot below, the new signings just clicked - 5 of the team's top 7 performers Avg. Rating-wise were January signings and they only had half a season at the club. Brandy was remarkable, scoring 26 goals and getting 10 assists in 20 league games (if you use him correctly, i.e. as a target man and have him running onto the ball, he can do ********s of damage), and Liam Davis, who I signed for £4k from Northampton, contributed 4 goals and 8 assists.

Hereford only gave me an initial 6-month deal and I have now extended that for a year until Summer 2012. Thinking I already have a good spine in place for next season and a couple of quality additions either permanently or on long-term loan deals, could give me a team capable of promotion.

 

[Bluesmanager]

Now, admittedly I did cheat to get a 60million+ budget and a 82grand wage budget, but I did manage to go unbeaten since, like January through to the 42nd game, managing to claw myself up from 17th to 3rd and odds-on for automatic promotion.

Where my entire computer crashed.

Typical.

As it turns out, having money does not a good team make. Getting Roy Carroll and practically an entirely new defence as well as Febian Brandy (30 goals with 4 to play), that makes a good team.

No, seriously. My next highest scorer is Barker. With 7. All from corners or set plays.

Thank the lord for Auto-Save. Forgot about it - usually turn it off but must have left it on this time, got me back to January. Where I only lost once and drew twice to get third (on the last day, very tight, between me and Hereford and one other team).

Now about to start season 2 - should do well, fending off bids for Brandy (stupid 500k release clause) but I've found some (hopefully) gooduns after releasing pretty much everyone from the Sturrock era.