FM Pentagon Challenge Thread

[hedger_14]

We improved our squad even further with a few new transfers. I brought in central defender, Alex Wilkinson for ?50k, a very good deal and also improved our wings dramatically signing our Australian Marquee, Brett Holman from Aston Villa for ?725k and also brought in Nathan Burns from Incheon for ?160k and strengthened our wing defence a little with fullback, Jack Hingert on a free transfer. Also brought in backup for Culilna with Matthew Thompson. Our starting XI looks much stronger now:

GK: Eduardo Gottardi (Fgn)

DL: Jack Hingert/Adama Traore (Fgn)
DC: Alex Wilkinson
DC: Aaron Mokoena (Fgn)/Petar Franjic
DR: Matthew Foschini/Jack Hingert

MC: Everton (Fgn)
MC: Jason Culina

AML: Brett Holman
AMR: Nathan Burns

ST: Brent McGrath
ST: Ronieli (Fgn)

Now my only tough decision is whether to register Adama Traore or Victor Hugo. I need backup in both positions but I'm not sure which I want to go through with. I might just end up dropping Mokoena instead, despite all his experience as we do have enough decent backup there.

 

[hedger_14]

lolol, just realised Traore's second nationality is Australian so nvm, lol. Also brought in Shane Smeltz on a free transfer as backup for McGrath. Also offloaded Argentinian midfielder, Marcos Flores for ?1.1m upfront and also Billy Celeski for ?170k and rubbish goalkeeper, James Chronopoulos for ?30k, so getting that much money for those 3 players who won't be playing first team football this year is very good. Tried to get rid of a few more on free transfers but nobody wanted to pick them up. Didn't help that the previous manager brought in shitty players in January and they didn't want to leave.

 

[hedger_14]

End of October Update

Champions League Qtr Final

17.9.14 - Zob-Ahan (H) - Won 3-1
24.9.14 - Zob-Ahan (A) - Drew 3-3

Champions League Semi Final 1st Leg

8.10.14 - Al-Ittihad (H) - Won 4-2

Hyundai A-League

14.10.14 - Perth Glory FC (H) - Won 4-0
18.10.14 - Sydney FC (A) - Won 4-1

Champions League Semi Final 2nd Leg

22.10.14 - Al-Ittihad (A) - Won 5-1

Hyundai A-League

25.10.14 - Newcastle Jets (H) - Won 4-0
29.10.14 - Wellington Phoenix (A) - Won 5-4

| Pos   | Inf   | Team                        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Melbourne Victory FC        |       | 4     | 4     | 0     | 0     | 17    | 5     | +12   | 12    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Western Sydney Wanderers FC |       | 4     | 3     | 1     | 0     | 7     | 1     | +6    | 10    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Newcastle United Jets       |       | 4     | 3     | 0     | 1     | 9     | 7     | +2    | 9     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Central Coast Mariners      |       | 4     | 2     | 0     | 2     | 4     | 4     | 0     | 6     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Melbourne Heart FC          |       | 4     | 2     | 0     | 2     | 4     | 5     | -1    | 6     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Wellington Phoenix          |       | 4     | 1     | 2     | 1     | 8     | 6     | +2    | 5     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Adelaide United FC          |       | 4     | 1     | 1     | 2     | 6     | 9     | -3    | 4     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Perth Glory FC              |       | 4     | 1     | 1     | 2     | 6     | 11    | -5    | 4     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Sydney FC                   |       | 4     | 0     | 1     | 3     | 2     | 9     | -7    | 1     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Brisbane Roar FC            |       | 4     | 0     | 0     | 4     | 4     | 10    | -6    | 0     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

We have absolutely dominated the league. We thrashed all our opponents until a very poor defending display against Wellington which meant we could only take a narrow 5-4 win. Everton has been an inspiration. 10 goals and 8 assists already this season and all of his goals have been pretty special. His hattrick against Wellington was one of the best you'll ever see as he struck two long range efforts, one to complete his hattrick and the second goal a beautiful curling free kick. The match against Wellington was a game of spectacular goals as Victor Hugo came off the bench to score a double, one an absolute scorcher from distance before Leo Bertos beat everybody, as he smashed one from long range, curling before hitting the inside of the post and going in. Ronielli has done well, with 7 goals in all comps despite only scoring 1 goal in his first 3 games, but a stunning hattrick against Sydney has helped him on his way, only failing to score at Wellington since then. McGrath suffered a small injury recently meaning he missed the last two matches but has done well, with 3 goals and 4 assists. It's really Everton's performances though that have really lifted the team and guided them into the Champions League final, which will be played later this month against Guangzhou, the current Chinese Champions and league leaders this season.

Just wondering, does this count as winning the Asian Champions League if I win it, considering I only managed from the quarter finals? I'll manage Victory next season regardless but just wondering.

 

[treva]

I think you'd have to manage them all the way through the Champions League for it to properly count as an achievement.

 

[hedger_14]

End of November Update

1.11.14 - Melbourne Heart FC (A) - Won 2-1
8.11.14 - Brisbane Roar FC (H) - Won 2-0
12.11.14 - Central Coast Mariners (A) - Won 1-0

Asian Champions League Final

15.11.14 - Guangzhou (H) - Won 3-0

Hyundai A-League

22.11.14 - Adelaide Unitd FC (H) - Won 3-0
29.11.14 - Wellington Phoenix (H) - Won 4-1

| Pos   | Inf   | Team                        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   |       | Melbourne Victory FC        |       | 9     | 9     | 0     | 0     | 29    | 7     | +22   | 27    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Western Sydney Wanderers FC |       | 9     | 5     | 1     | 3     | 11    | 6     | +5    | 16    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Melbourne Heart FC          |       | 9     | 5     | 0     | 4     | 11    | 9     | +2    | 15    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Newcastle United Jets       |       | 9     | 4     | 1     | 4     | 17    | 17    | 0     | 13    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Adelaide United FC          |       | 9     | 4     | 1     | 4     | 12    | 15    | -3    | 13    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Central Coast Mariners      |       | 9     | 3     | 2     | 4     | 8     | 8     | 0     | 11    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Wellington Phoenix          |       | 9     | 2     | 3     | 4     | 13    | 16    | -3    | 9     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Sydney FC                   |       | 9     | 2     | 3     | 4     | 8     | 12    | -4    | 9     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Perth Glory FC              |       | 9     | 2     | 2     | 5     | 11    | 23    | -12   | 8     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Brisbane Roar FC            |       | 9     | 2     | 1     | 6     | 10    | 17    | -7    | 7     | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

And we won the Champions League. They wasted their chances, we made the most of ours, as Franjic headed us ahead, Everton swinging in a lovely free kick. We went into the break 1-0 up but extended that lead in the 62nd minute when Culina put Ronieli in behind the defence and he made no mistake. We had surely settled the result when Zhang Linpeng was sent off for a professional foul. Ronieli finished it all off with a 90th minute goal after a superb run and a finish to match. Our wins in the A-League while haven't been emphatic have been dominant and the scoreline hasn't reflected our dominance, especially early in the month. McGrath and Ronieli are on a poor run of form in the A-League, with only 3 goals in the league this month between them.

Club World Championship coming up soon otherwise I'll just be focusing on the A-League until the ACL next year.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I'm still with fulham and still pulling my hair out. in some ways I'm ready to quit, my contract will be in 18 months so I'm going to have think carefully about the extension. on one hand it's clear we're a club that's not going to break into the top clubs of the PL on the other hand unless I move abroad I can't see me getting much better. the milan job might be available and seeing as my first job was in the italian part of switzerland my manager is fluent in italian so there's a slim chance.

the main problem on this version seems to be fashioning the right chances, I have good strikers, and good midfielders and we have lots of shots but we're not converting them. maybe I need to learn a bit of patience. the break through moment in my super succesful FM10 game was losing a CL semi final to madrid because I threw everything at them in the last 20 minutes.

anyway, I sold a DM for ?47m to barcelona, but there's not much market value out there so I'm going to wait a bit. no more youth players anyway, I've several teenagers and it's just a headache waiting for them all to become good enough for the 1st team. been a bit disappointing seeing as I've clocked up brilliant wins (a 4-0 at chelsea being a highlight) and disappointing losses in equal measure.

 

[treva]

Want that moved to the FM thread? Haha.

 

[treva]

Big couple of months that would decide whether we could gain automatic promotion or have to settle for the play-offs, or even worse, fall out of the promotion picture all together.

January started well with a promising performance in the FA Cup away to Southampton. However, despite following that up with a replay victory, we failed to win a single league game in the month, throwing away a chance at 2-1 to grab a needed three points at home to Blackburn.

We proceeded to the fifth round of the FA Cup with a win over Bournemouth, before finally winning in the league, beating Cardiff 1-0. We should have taken all the points against Southampton but ended up sharing the spoils, and despite coming back from 2-0 down to level, an Ebanks Blake hattrick handed us a loss at Wolves. We bounced back superbly against Hull, above us in the table, to win a tight game 3-2.

We had drawn Swansea in the cup and knew it would be a tough game. We had chances but didn't take them and they ended up scoring a late goal to put us out. Hard to take after such a good performance but we could now focus on the league.

Our final game of the month was another trip to a club above us, Blackpool. We threw away a lead twice, and it seemed to be a wasted opportunity, only for Nugent to pop out 3 minutes from time and hand us all three points.

We are still in touch with the automatic spots in 4th and we should, in theory, be able to win all 7 games in March.

 

[treva]

Finally, March was my first elusive unbeaten month, winning 5 of our 7 matches and setting ourselves up for a shot at the title.

The month started off well, having been given the award for manager of the month in February. We scraped a 2-1 win away from home against Middlesbrough before having a horror start against Bristol City the following game. We were dominated in the first half and went into HT 1-0 down. Grant Holt stepped up in the second half though to score four goals and hand us a memorable win.

Huddersfield provided little opposition in another 4-1 victory, despite the sending off Zak Whitbread who only started because of Wes Morgan's suspension for picking up his 10th yellow card. We could only muster a 0-0 draw away to Sheffield Wednesday which was a little frustrating.

The ref completely ruined the game inside 50 seconds against Palace, sending off Morgan for apparently being the last man and bringing down their striker. Awful decision that left us struggling to attack for the rest of the game, causing us to have a second successive goalless draw.

We rounded off the month with two comfortable wins, scoring 3 goals in each to defeat Coventry in the 'M69 Derby' and Burnley.

Nugent has been a big asset since his return, even after he was sidelined for two weeks for yet another injury. Holt has been consistently good whilst de Graaf down the right as been phenomenal. I'd love to sign him permanently for next season but I don't think we'll have the funds or the appeal.

To finish the season we play West Ham, Birmingham, Charlton, Derby, Leeds and Forest. The most difficult game will be up next against West Ham, having lost to them already this season.

I picked up a second consecutive manager of the month award whilst de Graaf picked up young player of the month.

 

[treva]

"We are the champions, my friend..."

Beautiful end to what has been an unbelievable six months at Leicester. We finished the season off with a 1-0 win against Forest, making it 14 games unbeaten, 5 games without conceding and just 2 goals let in in the last 10 games.

The month started off solidly against West Ham, drawing 1-1 at home thanks to a Nugent equaliser. We proceeded to batter Birmingham and Charlton 3-0, before we got a slice of luck that made me really believe the title was ours. A frustrating game against Derby seemed to have ended at 0-0, only for Nugent to first shoot, then gather the rebound and square to Holt who slotted the ball home with basically the final kick of the game.

We drew against Leeds 0-0 in our penultimate game, but with Hull dropping points too we just needed a win in our final game of the season to secure the title by a point. Nugent popped up early on to give us an early goal and then Forest were brought down to 10 men on the hour mark. The game pretty much ended there and we were crowned champions despite a Hull 4-2 victory over Birmingham.

Also won my third successive manager of the month awards. Happy days.

 

[Manly]

Ipswich in the Prem or League 1?

 

[hedger_14]

End of January Update

6.12.14 - Western Sydney Wanderers (A) - Won 2-1
10.12.14 - Perth Glory (A) - Won 5-3

Club World Championship

Qtr Final:

13.12.14 - Xolos Tijuana (N) - Lost 4-3

5th Place Playoff

17.12.14 - Wydad Casablanca (N) - Won 2-0

Hyundai A-League

27.12.14 - Newcastle United Jets (A) - Won 5-1
31.12.14 - Melbourne Heart FC (H) - Won 4-0
3.1.15 - Brisbane Roar FC (A) - Drew 0-0
7.1.15 - Sydney FC (H) - Won 6-1
10.1.15 - Central Coast Mariners (H) - Won 3-0
17.1.15 - Adelaide United FC (A) - Won 3-0
24.1.15 - Western Sydney Wanderers (H) - Won 3-0

| Pos   | Inf   | Team                        |       | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts   | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 1st   | Q     | Melbourne Victory FC        |       | 18    | 17    | 1     | 0     | 60    | 13    | +47   | 52    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 2nd   |       | Melbourne Heart FC          |       | 19    | 10    | 1     | 8     | 30    | 25    | +5    | 31    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 3rd   |       | Western Sydney Wanderers FC |       | 19    | 9     | 2     | 8     | 24    | 23    | +1    | 29    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 4th   |       | Central Coast Mariners      |       | 19    | 8     | 4     | 7     | 16    | 17    | -1    | 28    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 5th   |       | Sydney FC                   |       | 19    | 7     | 4     | 8     | 22    | 28    | -6    | 25    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 6th   |       | Adelaide United FC          |       | 19    | 7     | 3     | 9     | 24    | 31    | -7    | 24    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 7th   |       | Perth Glory FC              |       | 19    | 5     | 6     | 8     | 22    | 35    | -13   | 21    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 8th   |       | Newcastle United Jets       |       | 19    | 6     | 2     | 11    | 29    | 40    | -11   | 20    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 9th   |       | Wellington Phoenix          |       | 18    | 5     | 4     | 9     | 22    | 29    | -7    | 19    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| 
| 10th  |       | Brisbane Roar FC            |       | 19    | 4     | 5     | 10    | 19    | 27    | -8    | 17    | 
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Continue to dominate in the league. CWC didn't go as well as expected, unable to win our first match, before securing fifth place. Our winning streak in the league finally came to an end with the goalless draw at Brisbane, who ironically are last in the league, but since then, we've come up with a 6-1 win against rivals Sydney before winning the next 3 games 3-0. Champions League coming up now and we'll be looking to make it back to back wins in the Champions League.

 

[puddleduck]

I guess I can slowly work towards this Went with the second lowest reputation and having not played a FM in a while had no idea I could have applied for B teams and U21's until reading the first page ha

Still, first job is at Havant and Waterlooville and after being predicted 16th we sit 2nd after 24 games in the Blue Square South. Board loves me, fans not so much since I make them play fairly dire football, but needs must! Could call me Jeremy Alardyce considering I make them get it out wide, play down the flanks with direct football and then float crosses into my target man all game.

That all said, last 5 games or so I've started using a 4-2-4 rather than the 4-5-1 we were initially employing and we've started to actually win games more than 1-0 every time. Intending to take this manager around the world and eventually back again to Spurs when my reputation is actually good enough. Gotta love the lower league stuff, think I only have 3 players on part time contracts and the rest on non contracts

 

[treva]

Ipswich in the Prem or League 1?

League 1. Gone back up as champions with nearly 100 points though.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

still fulham.

last three games of the season:

Fulham 1-1 Arsenal
Sunderland 1-0 Fulham
Fulham 5-0 Norwich

league standings

1st Arsenal 73
2nd Spurs 73
3rd Fulham 72

I CANNOT !#@%ING BELIEVE SUNDERLAND COST US THE TITLE (in fairness it probably has something to do with me forgetting our form striker had recovered from a niggle). and incidently, we utterly demolished arsenal as well, how they left there without conceding 4 goals I have no idea.

oh, but we did win the FA Cup, from 2-0 down we came back to win... 7-3! I brought my wonderfully promising 21 year old, half brazilian, half german midfielder (the boy was bred to play football) and he scored a hat-trick in the last 20 minutes. been fending off 25m bids for him all summer. The other highlight of the season was coming back from 2-0 down against blackburn, my swedish winger scoring a hat-trick with the goals coming at 87, 91 and 94 minutes.