Football Manager 2007 - Your seasons so far

[Del Boy]

Cup results
League Cup - Lost in 3rd round 2-1 vs Wigan
FA Cup - Won 4-2 on pens vs West Ham
UEFA Cup - Lost in 1/4 final 2-0 vs Liverpool on agg


Cup results
League Cup - Lost in 1/4 final 3-0 vs Man Utd
FA Cup - Won 4-0 vs Watford
Champions League - Lost in 1/4 final 3-1 vs Barcelona on agg


Cup Results
League Cup - Lost in 4th round 1-0 vs Man City
FA Cup - Lost in 4th round 2-0 vs Boro
Champions League - Lost in Semi final 5-2 vs Chelsea on agg


Cup Results
League Cup - Lost in 4th round 3-0 vs Arsenal
FA Cup - Lost in 5th round 3-1 vs Man Utd
Champions League - Lost in 1st knockout stage 5-3 vs Benfica on agg

My current team and formation

[Mardigan8]

This is brilliant Del Boy, I will get my current standings and tactics posted later today. I play a flat 4 in the midfield but am curious, what individual settings do you have each of the midfielders on??

[Ajay1986]

Ok here goes, ive been playing as Man U to get a feel for the game before i start my mighty York City game lol.

First Season - 3rd Place League, Won the League and FA Cups, Knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid.

Got rid of Heinze and Carrick, got Leandro Lima, Franck Ribery, Marcelo and Andreas Guardado.

[ryodi]

After a solid first season in charge of Liverpool taking them to second in the league behind Arsenal at the end of the season, picking up the Community Shield and League Cup along the way beating Chelsea both times my second season in charge has been a disaster. Defensive frailties have started to affect the team and I am losing games I really should have won and at the end of January I now sit in 7th place a mammoth 23 points behind the leaders Chelsea and have just been knocked out of the League Cup at the semi final stage by Newcastle losing both legs.

I haven't been helped after a 4-0 win over Reading resulted in my entire first choice midfield of Kewell, Gerrard, Sissoko, Luis Garcia and Xabi Alonso (who came on as sub) picking up injuries which kept them all out for between 6-8 weeks leaving my reserve midfielders to pick up the slack which they comprehensively failed to do reaching an all time low in a 4-1 hammering by Newcastle at St James Park.

The only bright point has been Darren Bent who has probably saved my job. Having been the my leading scorer in the first season hit the ground running in 07/08 and has so far scored 28 goals in 32 matches this season. He's the best ?10m I ever spent.

I'm still in the Champions League and FA Cup but with the current dip in form resulting in 2 wins in the last 9 games in all competitions I will need to string together a serious run of form to even hope to make the top 4 places.

[Marmite]

Im getting angry with this now! Im in my second season with Spurs and just when i think im doing ok i start conceding a load of goals again and seem to pick up a milion injuries at once. After a cracking start to the season i find myself langushing midtable after xmas, although the points gap isnt that big to the top.

Im really struggling to get anyone to sign for decent money as well. Been looking for a top left sided player for a while now and just cant get anyone to accept a bid up to 13 million. V annoying. Jan transfer window is shut now so will have to make do.

I keep getting the worst cup draws as well, like Chelsea in the cup away, and a Euro group consisting of Dinamo Kiev, Bayern Munich, and Athletico Madrid! I did do enoguh to get through, and then got drawn against Inter in the next round!! Played the first leg last night and unbelievably managed a 3-1 at home. Think it was pretty lucky though.

Anyone got any advice on sorting the defence out, as i seem to leak so many early goals its ridiculous.

[Jebus]

Having a torrid season to be honest, Anelka is regularly getting 5/10 ratings at half time which I can usually boost to a 7 with "no pressure"...Vaz Te is a star in the making but my defence is so damn leaky it's not even funny. Even with a 5-3-2 formation I struggled to contain Arsenal to a 3-2 loss, which looked a draw for a little while, then as usual in this game, they get the winner when they need it.

18th and am going from 3-0 losses to 5-0 victories...just can't understand what I'm doing wrong.

Can't find any good players either, no money to spend. Can anyone give me any hints for excellent cheap players...you know, those hidden gems in the game?

EDIT: This game is being slowly ****ing ruined by ridiculous scorelines for me. Half time I'm 5-0 down to Chelsea, I'm sorry but that is ridiculous. I've also recieved 2 red cards in one match AND a penalty against me, 3 seperate incidents in one half...

I wish this was more like last years version, at least it felt fairer.

[TheBlackLodge]

Into my fourth season with Rangers, thus far

SPL:
1st year -2nd behind Celtic by 1 point
2nd year -1st and comfortable by 14 points
3rd year -1st by 9 points
4th year -Joint top with Celtic at the moment

Scottish Cup:
1st year -Semi Final, lost to Aberdeen
2nd year -4th round, lost to diddy team
3rd year -As above
4th year -In the Quarters I think

League Cup:
1st year -Won against Celtic
2nd year -As Above
3rd year -Won against Aberdeen
4th year -Out to Queen of the South early doors

Europe:
1st year -Uefa Cup group stages
2nd year -Champys League 1st knockout stage (Lost to Man U on away goals)
3rd year -Uefa Cup Semi final
4th year -Champys League group stages

Formation wise I keep trying to use the old favourite of 4-1-3-2, but it's just now working for me at all thus I always revert back to a very old 4-4-2 I developed in the CM2 days.....

Various buys thus far have been Craig Gordon for 5.5M, Tomas Sivok for 2.5M, Celsinho for 4.5M, Delgado for 6.5M, although I've had to sell a load of players and slash the wage budget in half to be able to afford them. Money is amazingly tight.

Edit -Injuries.........Christ I get way too many, have had to alter my training methods completely.

[Mardigan8]

Aye, I had to change my training routines at the start cause ***** kept dropping weights on themselves. Feckin monkeys!!

Dont get too many injuries now though unless they are game realted. Although Maloney just returned from International duty with a 3 month torn hamstring injury, NOT amused as he been a key player for me since day 1 and was having a great start in my second season.

[TheBlackLodge]

Aye, weight dropping seemed to be a big problem for my guys..........Idiots.......

Any news on a patch as there seems to be some areas that seem a little.....well, broken.

[Mardigan8]

I usually just hit the "check for updates" option before I load a game but aint seen anything yet. They are usually really good with releases so shouldn't be far off.

Am gonna get pictures of my full standings on here later as I want to show how I have nurtured some real talent at Celtic... players like Sno and a young boy Simon Ferry are gonna be fantastic players for the future.

[Ratso]

I finished 4th in League One in my first season, but lost to Huddersfield in the play-off semis.

After seven matches of the new season I've won 3, drawn 3 and lost 1.

Injury frequency is something of a problem, but I have got a large squad (albeit mostly made up of real-life youngsters).

I have to say I've not experienced the widely reported problems of discipline or scorelines that others have, but I concede that these problems could be worse in the top flight where more extreme player stats could skew the balance.

I've come across literally one or two very minor bugs elsewhere, which for an out of the box SI product is pretty remarkable.

[TheBlackLodge]

Mardigan -Interestingly enough, Strachan punted Sno to Hearts after his first season, a decision thats come back to haunt him once or twice. As for nurturing talent, both Furman and N'Guessan have been really really good for me, however John Fleck has been nothing short of brilliant, for such a young lad, he's a dynamite finisher.

Edit -Oh and Beattie has just been given a free transfer......He was bloody awesome in FM06 as well........

[Mardigan8]

Mardigan -Interestingly enough, Strachan punted Sno to Hearts after his first season, a decision thats come back to haunt him once or twice. As for nurturing talent, both Furman and N'Guessan have been really really good for me, however John Fleck has been nothing short of brilliant, for such a young lad, he's a dynamite finisher.

Edit -Oh and Beattie has just been given a free transfer......He was bloody awesome in FM06 as well........

I had plans for Beattie but an early injury and a drop in stats during injury affected his chances greatly, so he is languishing in the reserves at the moment.

Maloney, McGeady, Sno and Wilson are fantastic young players and they get better and better if you use them well. Sno is 20 in my game at the moment, valued at ?2.1m and by the end of this season he is gonna be a star. Maloney is generating some interest aswell but got him to sign a 4 year extension to his deal so his future is with me

Absolutely loving the game and thankfully aint came across any mental results that didnt feel right so far. Its def the toughest version I have played but more enjoyable because of it. It does help when you have Joey Barton and Jimmy Bullard in your midfield though, hehe... happiest I have ever been when I bought the pair of them, first class signings!!

[ascender]

I'm in pre-season training for season 2 at the moment. I've been playing with Rangers in the SPL.

We went on a couple of huge winning streaks in the SPL and even though the winning margin of our title win was substantial, the form of the team dipped and we stumbled towards the title. It looks like the one thing they've got off to a tee in the game is the Jekyll & Hyde nature of the current Gers players. I couldn't quite understand how my team went from comfortably thrashing teams to struggling to get results against pretty poor opposition.

We got put out of both cups thanks to some dismal individual performances, but had a nice run in the UEFA Cup. I brought some youngsters through at the end of the season and guys like N'Guessan and Furman have both played very well. I've picked up a couple of young lads from the English Championship too.

Season 2 budget is ?600,000 but this is nowhere near enough as the squad is pretty thin on quality. I've therefore decided to raise funds myself as the board said they couldn't spare any dosh, so I've managed to get about 4M together so far by selling Buffel (average at best), Novo (distinctly average) and Hemdani (good money for someone his age when I have good cover at that position). I'm just trying to sign another centre half and a target man before the season starts, that will probably take most of my budget.

[TheBlackLodge]

Re the Jekyll and Hyde thing, I've experienced exactly the same thing in my game as well. Seasons 2 and 3 ended up nicely for me, but mid season was a complete slog. As Mardigan has said, it's definitely the hardest version yet. Oh, for those needing decent players on a budget, I've found that Gary Kenneth from Dundee Utd (Oh the irony......), Simon Lynch (Dundee Utd), Stevie Naismith (Killie) and Iain Black (ICT) are decent SPL squad players available for ?200K to ?500k.

Oh a special mention must go to Portsmouth, whenever I need to sell someone, in they step, great stuff that, they've bought Buffy, Hemdani, Murray, Papic, Rodriguez, Hutton, Bardsley......I love em :lol