The Official FOOTBALL MANAGER 2012 Career Thread

[KneeOn]

End of my first season: 8th.

In: Loboue GK Free
Lee Williamson CM 200k?
Leigh Griffiths ST 1.3 million?
Maxime SomethingOrOther LB/LW 200k

was in the run in for the playoffs after starting shit, having a cracking run from november to jan, febuary was average, march was wank until i started to win after beating Forrest 2-1. Right up until I played reading i thought i was going to make it past reading to 6th. Then I played them and lost 5-1 then beat cov and millwall 4-something. Not enough though.

Out includes ankergren, vicente (didn't want to pay him 18k!), pires (who was good but old), Elphick (i think)

In include a load of young itallians who have PA's of 4-4.5 stars.

I'm not optimistic for promotion and think I should look in jan/next summer to sign established players rather than a team of young hopefuls.

I've not got the game up now so i'll get i tup later and put a propper post.

Also 3D super fast, or text only if i'm on my AMD Fusion netbook.

 

[raz_18]

7 games into the Prem and just won my first game 3 - 1 at home to West Brom

Followed by a 3 - 1 loss away to Newcastle

Noone is quality in the Prem shame bout the rest of my team..

 

[HastingsSeagull]

Just won league in 1st season with Eastbourne.
Semis of FA trophy
2nd round FA cup, beat L1 Hartlepool but lost to another L1 side

Hart is immense Partnered by Counago on a free aged 32
Bouzanis in goal
Bunch of other frees brought in as not spent penny yet including Battipiedi and a guy called Holt as CMs and Nicholas a CB
Other ex-Albion include Brinkhurst as wide cover both wings but edged out now by youngster FTs
Ollie Rowe was back up CB and RB until signed a promising youngster plays same.
Elphick (Gary) starts at CB but Tommy whilst on transfer list won't consider me yet just like any contracted Albion players but hoping maybe someone be released and help me in conference prem

Oh and got Plymouth as parent club for loans as by far best I got offered. They finished 12th in L2 but not sent me anyone yet. Promising academy there though. I got a LB through mine but bugger all else. Lots of FA 19 year olds though with promising futures hopefully.

Play on fastest 3D, highlights, no replays as want to see what's working for and against me.

 

[Falkor]

the only issue i find with Brighton is that when they had a bad patch, the moral just drops and its hard to get back to winning ways

 

[WhingForPresident]

Re-started my career on 2011, hope you don't mind me chipping in on this 2012 thread.
Currently at Atletico after winning World Cup 2014, European Championships 2012 and Confederations Cup 2013 with England and Premiership 2014 and FA Cup 2014 with Liverpool.
Had an unsuccessful spell at Fulham and left as soon as Atletico came in.
My side is currently top- Played 18, Won 16, Drawn 1 against Sevilla and Lost 1 to Barcelona scoring 59 and conceding 14
Squad is absolutely ridiculous.
GK- De Gea
LB- Filipe/Badstuber
CB- Dominguez/Badstuber/Sakho(worth £25mil)/Godin
CB- Dominguez/Badstuber/Sakho/Godin
RB- Corchia/Michel
LM- Reyes/Gotze/Muniain/ Ruben Castro
RM- Marin/Torje
DM- Miguel Veloso (worth £25 mil)/ Ruben Perez/ Elias
AM- Grenier/Diego Costa/Gotze
ST- Aguero(worth £31.5 mil)/Abel Hernandez/Tevez
ST- Aguero/Abel Hernandez/Tevez

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

Dont know why but always lose interest once I get Albion in the Prem... doesnt feel like the Albion anymore...

so have decided to play a career to take Bishops Stortford to the Prem. Hıge task but have started well... five games in the BSN and have slaughtered everyone with no transfer budget and wages total of 2000.

Currie, Butters and Carpenter as coaches. Currie has been brilliant on the field too!

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

the only issue i find with Brighton is that when they had a bad patch, the moral just drops and its hard to get back to winning ways

So it is realistic then

 

[HalfTimeOrange]

9 games into my Plymouth career now, was taken over by joint-acting FA chairman David Sheepshanks who completely cleared my debt and the club now sitting 435k in the green.

Finding free transfers on my very small wage budget was near impossible, so the loan market had to be the option, after I got taken over the money became available and I signed this lot -
Marko Mitrovic (loan)
Daniel Alfei (loan)
Omar Koroma (free)
Kiernan Hughes-Mason (loan)
Paulo Counago (free)
Alan Sheehan (55k)
Jamil Adam (free)

(that 55k) spent on Sheehan made me the biggest spenders in League Two :S)

Also went to the Albion for some loans and picked up Steve Cook and Torbjorn Agdestein for a half-season.

So as I say I'm 9 games in, and the league form looks like this - L/W/W/W/W/W/D/D/W

That form puts me 2nd in the table behind Northampton. The team morale is extremely high after takeover which is good because before they were all rock bottom.

Current starting line-up-

GK - Larrieu/Gray
RB - Nelson/Alfei
CB - Cook/Pearce
CB - Soukouna/Richards
LB - Williams/Sheehan
RM - Daley/Vassell
CM - Walton/Hourihane
CM - Fletcher/Leiconte
LM - Atkinson/Bhasera
ST - Adam/Agestein/Feeney
ST - Counago/Mitrovic/Feeney

Best player of the season so far has been Simon Walton, would recommend him for anyone in a lower league save, playing as Advanced Playmaker or Ball Winning Midfielder he's been MOTM in nearly every single game. Jamil Adam has also scored 4 in 8 for me, also a very good player for lower league saves.

 

[jcdenton08]

Well, here is my super-post - I only really like to do one long, proper career per Football Manager title and this one is mine;

OPTIONS:

Player masking enabled with real players.
Most major leagues in background, running all of England as playable from BSN/S

Started as the Albion as usual and set as "Professional Footballer" on past experience. Nationality English, second nationality Norwegian

PRESEASON:

Livingston (A) 3-0
Sheff Utd (H) 2-0
Worthing (A) 5-2
Northampton (A) 4-0
Brechin (A) 5-1
Burgess Hill (A) 5-1

As always, I play more than what comes pre-arranged and use these to get my entire squad fit, use a lot of trialists and mess with what tactics I am going to use - and hope that key players find form.

SUMMER TRANSFERS:

IN: Mariano Pernia (Unattached) - Free
Ben Amos (Man Utd) - Season Loan
Jordan Brown (West Ham) - £22k
Matthias Fanimo (West Ham) - £30k
Pablo Mouche (Boca) - £130k
Anel Raskaj (Halmstads) - £60k
Glenn Loovens (Celtic) - 5 Month Loan £95k - Future fee £275k
Shane Duffy (Everton) - Season Loan
Apostolos Vellios (Everton) - Season Loan
Steve Howard (Leicester) - £22k

OUT: Rafael Branco (Torquay) - Season Loan
Jordan Woodley (Salisbury) - Season Loan
Jamie Strong (Aldershot) - 5 Month Loan
The VERY gay looking Grant Hall (Kettering) - 5 Month Loan
George Barker (Cambridge) - Season Loan
Mitch Walker (Eastleigh) - Season Loan
Anton Rodgers (Kettering) - Season Loan
Ben Sampayo (Dagenham & Redbridge) - Season Loan
Ryan Simmonds (Aldershot) - 6 Month Loan
Steve Cook (Southend) - 6 Month Loan
Yaser Kasim (Port Vale) - Season Loan
Chris Cumming-Bart (Torquay) - Season Loan
Michael Poke (Dirty Leeds United) - £100k
Leon Redwood (Cambridge) - 6 Month Loan
Daniel East (AFC Wimbledon) - 6 Month Loan
Jamie Smith (Stevenage) - 3 Month Loan, then released
Matthias Fanimo (Hereford) - Season Loan
Jake Caskey (Luton) - Season Loan
Alan Navarro (Colchester) - Free + 50% of next sale
Tom Vickers (Aldershot) - 6 Month Loan
Ashley Barnes - Released
Calum Sheriff (Cambridge) - 6 Month Loan
Jordan Brown (Shrewsbury) - Season Loan

JANUARY TRANSFERS:

IN: Kazenga Lua-Lua (Newcastle) - £1m, agreed price
Loris Karius (Unattached) - Free
Joe Lewis (Peterborough) - £200k
Danny Drinkwater (Man Utd) - £500k
Martin Angha (Arsenal) - £55k
Harry Maguire (Sheff Utd) - £65k
Chris Wood (West Brom) - 3 Month Loan
Jamal Campbell-Ryce (Bristol City) - 3 Month Loan £35k

OUT: Steve Howard - Released
Josh James - Released
Glen Rea - Released
Ryan Cooper - Released
Jack Shonk - Released
Ben Gray - Released
George Cousins - Released
Elliott Levy - Released
Matt Sparrow (Barnsley) - 6 Month Loan £24k, future fee £150k
Will Hoskins (Inverness CT) - £300k + 45% of profit from next sale
Peter Brezovan (Stevenage) - Free
Ryan Simmonds (Barnet) - Season Loan
Adam El-Abd (Swindon) - Season Loan
Steve Cook (Plymouth) - Season Loan
Tommy Elphick (Port Vale) - Free
Grant Hall (Cheltenham) - Season Loan
Leon Redwood (Gillingham) - Season Loan
Casper Ankergren (Brøndby) - Free
Torbjørn Agdestein (Forest Green) - Free
George Hayward (Farnborough) - Season Loan
Shamir Goodwin - Released
Dougie Tuck - Released

Trialists Stephen Jordan, Giuseppe Scurto, Robin Nelisse, Jamil Adam, Amdy Faye, Glenn Verbauwhede, Samba Kanoute, Josh Wright, Michael Woods, Lomana Lua-Lua, Tom Nsaliwa, Sam Fisher and Gregory Cerdan came and went throughout the season.

As you can see, I am very aggressive in the transfer market. Anybody who definitely isn't going to play that season but has 'potential' to become at least as good as the best player in the squad in their position I keep and either intensively train, or loan out for first team experience. With loans, I only ever accept the offer if their "reason" is they feel the player will become a valuable first team member, never if they are going as backup, unless I am just trying to get the wages off the books (Adam El-Abd).

I play a modified 4-4-2/4-5-1 which I change on-the-fly depending on how things are going, it is the same tactic I have used since I developed it in FM 2009 and it still works nicely!

FINAL LEAGUE STANDING:

SQUAD STATS

This is how it looked at the end of the season.

CUP COMPETITIONS

I played my rezzies in the League Cup and did pretty well..

League Cup 1st Round - Plymouth (A) - 2-1
League Cup 2nd Round - Millwall (H) 3-1
League Cup 3rd Round - Sunderland (A) 4-1
League Cup 4th Round - West Brom (H) 0-2

FA Cup 3rd Round - Fulham (H) 1-1
FA Cup 3rd Round Replay - Fulham (A) 2-3

OTHER STUFF

Gus was given the Wigan job after they were relegated

I applied for the GBA Olympics manager and was beaten... by Sam f***ing Allardyce (West Ham, incidentally, lost in the playoff finals to Nottingham Forest) and Big Sam's job position is "Insecure". GBA U-23's lost in the final incidentally - to Spain.

LuaLua was named Championship Player of the Season and, along with Gordon Greer, named in the Championship Team of the Year.

 

[leigull]

You released Ashley Barnes?!

 

[jcdenton08]

He was behind Mackail-Smith, Vellios, Mouche, Bergkamp and Howard in the pecking order!

 

[leigull]

He was class for me, and looks like he's getting better and better. Has he signed for anyone else?

 

[jcdenton08]

He was class for me, and looks like he's getting better and better. Has he signed for anyone else?

MK Dons, scored 5 in 35 games in their relegation campaign..

 

[leigull]

MK Dons, scored 5 in 35 games in their relegation campaign..

Oh, that's cleared that one up then

 

[Chris_Highwind]

Nearly at the end of my 8th season(Yep, 8th....) Currently 6 with a game in hand, can still feasibly get 3rd/4th! In the semis of the europa league but have Chelsea, and just beat Liverpool 3-2 in the FA Cup semi finals! has set up a rematch of last years final, Brighton vs Norwich, where unfortunately I lost 1-0

 

[Conkers]

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/football-manager-2012-pc-sendit-only-13-84-delivered-poss-12-65-using-code-1064534

£12.65 delivered, today only!

 

[shaolinpunk]

An inconsistent first season saw me lead Brighton to 11th in the table. An improved side, aided by the signing of Leigh Griffiths who scored 21 goals from his Jan 1st transfer onwards, finished 3rd and cruised through the playoffs. Only played 1 game in prem so far, 0-0 with Chelsea.

My squad is quite different each year because if a player is running out of contract I only renew if I think they have a key part to play.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Just starting my first FM2012 season with Brighton. Couple of ins and outs so far:

In:
Martin Cranie- Coventry- £1.7 million - completely ripped off, but felt it was necessary
Heidar Helguson- QPR- £300k
Stephen Dobbie- Swansea- Loan (425k up front, 50% of wages)

Out:
Jake Caskey- Luton- Season long loan
Roland Bergkamp- Swindon- Season long loan
Steve Cook- Southend- 6 month loan
Leon Redwood- Kidderminster- Season long loan
Ryan Simmonds- Hereford- 6 month loan
Peter Brezovan- Cardiff- £55k

Lining up with a 4-1-2-1-2:
Ankergren
Painter
Greer
Cranie
Calderon
Bridcutt
Noone
Vicente
Dobbie
Barnes
Helguson

So far beaten Fleetwood 3-0, Motherwell 4-0, Burgess Hill 4-0, Worthing 4-0 and drawn 2-2 with Man City reserves in pre-season. Playing Helguson as supporting target man with CMS as a poacher was working a treat before CMS got injured for 6 weeks, so will be looking to play Barnes off Helguson for the time being.

 

[KneeOn]

My earlier fears were utter shite.

Currently sitting pretty in fourth, 3 points clear of the teams out of the play offs.

My squad goes:

GK Amos (loan)/Loboue (Sam Cowler is my third choice and covers the bench when Loboue goes off to Africa

DR Calderon or Vancelot (he's a fairly good fill in and gives me diversity on the bench)
DC Greer, Dunk, El-Abd, Linganzi (depending on my mood and the opposition. Usually Greer and Linganzi)
DL Painter or Poundje (my 200k singing from last year who only joined this season) Usually Poundje goes on the left wing but he is actually a LB. Starting while Painter is injured.

MCL/MCR - Bridcutt (signed a new deal), Sparrow (excellent for changing formation - can play almost anywhere in the middle), Williamson, Dicker and Cammarieri are also used.

AMR Buckley or Sanchez Watt
AML Noone or Poundje/Watt
AMC Bergkamp (he's a beast!) Harley (lost his place to the tank of Ronald)
Buckley, Noone and Sparrow have also all have had games at AMC

ST Griffiths/CMS. Griffiths is good for roughly a goal a game. 29 games, 27 goals. CMS Comes on for a midfielder when i need to chase a game or if Griffiths is being shocking (rare). Usually good for a goal every other game he plays. Early on in the season CMS pushed Leigh Griffiths but LG came in to his own and started scoring a hattrick every other game or something ridiculous.

Almost all of the backroom staff were replaced with coaches with decent stats (sorry Charlie!) and Ian Bowyer as my assistant. John Murtough is my first team coach. Scouts are all replaced including Glen Cockerill.

My finances are f***ing dire. The board won't expand the stadium. i've been given a HUGE wage budget which i can't sustain. I'm having to cut loose several of my youth or reserve players soon.

 

[KneeOn]

LG is now out for 3-4 months. Torn hamstring.