The Blyton Clan - Get me out of the Championship

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome to an FM 2012 network game between myself and 3 other friends, starting out in the championship with teams that are not guaranteed to gain promotion. The challenge is to get your chosen club out of the championship and into the big time.... The Premiership.

We are all from different parts of the UK, and three of us met up on a online racing website, where we race for fun in online sim-races. Whilst there, three of us discovered our love for Football Manager and through various discussions of previous versions, players and our own saved games, we took the plunge by starting a network game in Football Manager 2011. That network game was very similar to this one, with us all starting in championship clubs.

I (Adam Vaughan) enjoyed 2 Premiership titles and 2 League cups with Chelsea, having taken Swansea to the Championship title in the first season.

Redhawk (Ryan Callan) played it safe and enjoyed promotion in season 2 with Notts Forest, and positive results with fairly small budgets at Fulham and Tottenham and always having positive turnover due to his excellent tactics and managerial ability.

DentistTubster (Toby Davis) got off to bad start taking him three seasons to get promoted to the Premiership (failing with Cardiff and Wigan), eventually taking the job at Man United following Fergerson’s retirement, and taking the biggest honour of all the Champions League, and the Premiership in the same season.

H4rl3quin (Ryan Liddy) is also a Football Manager nut and after meeting Redhawk at University, he decided he was going to take the challenge of our network game, and is an excellent addition to the team bringing lots of lolz and rage.

RULES

In our game we have a couple of rules to keep the game interesting and to maintain the challenge:

- You are not allowed to change clubs during the season, unless you get sacked

- If you do get sacked and take control of another club, you must remain on holiday until after the end of the season

- Only allowed to change to a club in that same division

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AdZV (Adam Vaughan)

Well after my success with Swansea and Chelsea I'm back for FM12 to join the network game in hope of even more success.

I've been loving the FM/CM series since CM 03/04 and I'm quite the newbie in comparison to the other guys. Im a Liverpool fan from Wales but at least I can see the city from where I live which is a good enough excuse .

In our network game last year I started with Swansea knowing that the pace they possessed would give me a chance at the Championship. I sured up the back line with Verkhotshov and also adjusted set pieces to also get the most out of him. I ended up dominating the Championship with fairly simple tactics due to the pace of the team.

In Season 2 I built up the squad with the likes of Paulo Henrique, Jordan Henderson & Phil Jones to stay in the top flight and also build for the future. I finished 7th after a very successful season but missed out on Europa League due to circumstances in the domestic cups and, ironically, Liverpool winning the Champion's League but not finishing in the top 4.

Season 3 I took the job at Chelsea and started to build a entire new sqaud. My plan was get rid of the ageing dead wood, Lampard, Cole, Terry etc and bought in Lavezzi & Pastore to add some pace up front. I ended up taking the League Cup and Premiership title.

Season 4 was a mixed year with poor performances in all competitions due to rebuilding the entire squad and making some world class purchases such as Cavani and a wonderkid regen called Toninho.

Season 5 I won the Premiership after clawing back a 10 point deficit to Ryan Callan's Spurs. I also claimed the League Cup but poor performance in the Champions League again made me question my own ability in that competition.

This year I have took over Cardiff and as a Welshman want to take the Cardiff to the top flight and get rid of their debt. I usually like taking over clubs with money to spend but wanted to work hard for success and improve my tactical knowledge during this dificult challenge.

My long term ambition is to take Cardiff to the top flight within 2 seasons. Then to build for the future and also try to bring through top quality Welsh players.

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DentistTubster (Toby Davis)

After a reasonably successful introduction to the modern FM games with the FM 2011 network game, I’m looking to build on it this time round.

I began with Cardiff in our FM 2011 game, who despite having Bellamy, Whittingham and so on, had zero funds so I was unable to buy my own players. As a result I packed the side with wise heads with good technical ability but not much pace, and it didn’t work. I ended up in the playoffs for most of the season but a bad run near the end of season 1 left me in 10th place.

In season 2 it was even worse, as I didn’t get a transfer budget and had to sell one or two quality players (and lost Bellamy). I signed Blasi on a free, and that was my best transfer, but the team wasn’t up to it and I got sacked after declaring interest in a job mid-season. I remained without a club until Wigan (who had been relegated in season 1) offered me their job in January. I gladly took it, and brought them up to a mid-table position. This is allowed in our rules as I was sacked and did not resign.

In season 3 I dominated the league, with a 4-2-3-1 formation. N’Zogbia and Rodellega played as inside forwards in wide positions, and I bought Leigh Griffiths as a centre forward in January, and ended up winning the league.

Upon promotion, Alex Ferguson retired and Man U offered me the job, which I couldn’t refuse. In season 4, I ended up being there or thereabouts for the title, and I ended up sneaking the result at the end of the season by beating Wigan (ironically) to win ahead of Ryan Callan’s Tottenham and Adam Vaughan’s £150million Chelsea side. I also won the Champions League, beating Barcelona and Bayern Munich on the way to the win.

I splashed out over the summer, spending £90mill on Cheillini and Criscito, but despite these changes, the success I had in season 4 was not to follow. Rooney was injured for most of the season, so Javier Hernandez stepped in and playing in a poacher role, scored over 50 goals. It was not enough, as my defence was all over the place, with the new players failing to gel until it was too late.

For our FM 2012 game, I have chosen Reading, with their transfer budget appealing to me, allowing me to build up my own side. I intend to get out of the league as soon as possible and hope to get into the top 10 in season 2 in the Premiership.

[redhawk]

Hi I'm Ryan; after being the constant bridesmaid in our original (5 season) game; I'm determined to gun for success this time around.

A quick overview of my story in the previous online game:

Season One: I took over at Forest (having a weak spot for Brain Clough). Squeezed every ounce I could from their squad with Rob Earnshaw & Blackstock leading the way in a diamond formation. Ivanschitz & Samuel being my main buys. Was so close to finishing second behind Adam's all-conquering Swansea (bloody Nathan Dyer). In the event I got to the play-off final; losing on penalties. A header from Blackstock in the dying seconds drifted two inches wide; thus showing the thin line between success and failure.

Second Two: A much more successful year; finishing second to West Brom in the league as we both dominated the championship (West Brom with 106pts, myself with 102). I could do nothing about Odemwingie firing West Brom to the title; but had a Bakambu of my own who scored almost 40. Beat Man City and Liverpool in the League Cup.

Season Three: After some deliberation I decided to jump ship to Fulham hwere things did not go too well. Despite signing some excellent players; Diakhate, Cana, Valdivia, Neymar(!), I could not get the team to gel, and they languished 18th at Christmas. I reluctantly resigned; clearly I did not have the skill or luck to get them working well together, probably too many signings.

Season Four: I took over Tottenham at the start of Season Four and this was a match made in heaven. Selling Lennon (to Adam's Chelsea) and signing Krasic and Doumbia; we got off to a slow start before we really accelerated towards April. It was was an epic season with all three of us competing for the title, I was some way off with four games to go. Somehow I managed to get myself to the head of the table with a game to go. Toby and Adam were level; while I was just one point ahead. fate would decree that Fulham away would be my crunch game; with Toby having an easy game and Adam playing Arsenal. And lo and behold the team I built (which finished 7th after my resignation) beat me soundly, meaning I finished third (bloody Neymar!). The last day swung one way then the next with Toby finally taking the honours and also winning the Champions League in his first season at Man Utd.

Season Five: For some reason I received very little budget, but after some wheeler dealing I managed to snag Abel Hernandez to support Doumbia up front. And everything went swimmingly. 10 points clear. Until the ACN. The ACn took away Doumbia and Bassong and my team lost consistency and blew the lead I had in just 6 games. Went on to finish a close second to Chelsea while going to the latter stages of the Champions League and FA Cup.

So as I say; the bridesmaid! This time will be different.

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Ryan Liddy

Hello, I'm also Ryan and this is my first venture into FM network gaming.

I decided to take charge of Hull as I fancied the challenge of clearing their debt and triumphantly returning to the Premier League... 3 trashed rooms later I began to question my decision but I have now resolved to stick with them until the day Hull have a Premier League victory lap around the 100k all seater Ryan Liddy arena.

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Season update to come. Including signings and where we are at at this current moment. There is also a surprise in the update.

[redhawk]

Season: 2011/12

League: nPower Championship

Transfer Budget: 350k

Wage Budget: approx 180k

Board Expectations: Promotion

Media Expectation: 4th

Your Expectations: Promotion

League record: Pos 3rd, W 28, D 10, L 8, F 88, A 47, Pts 94

League Cup: Winners (v Stoke)

FA Cup: 4th round (v Leicester)

First XI (narrow diamond): Loboue, Parnaby/Chambers, Antunes, Mosquera, Keller, Moussi/Diao, Cohen, Moussi/Reid, Majewski/Gomez, Miller, Rodriguez/Findley

Top Scorer: Ishmael Miller 27

Top Assists: Radoslaw Majewski 24

Average Attendance: 24334

Fans Player Of The Year: Aquivaldo Mosquera

My Player Of The Year: Radoslaw Majewski

Notable results: 3-1 Leicester, 3-1 Sunderland, 1-3 Coventry, 3-0 Man Utd, 5-1 Doncaster, 3-5 Leicester, 6-2 Ipswich, 4-2 Blackpool, 4-2 Burnley, 2-1 Stoke, 3-0 Derby, 4-1 Southampton, 2-2p(agg) Leeds

Results against opponents: 0-2a, 3-2h Reading. 1-2a, 0-0h Hull. 3-1a, 1-1h Cardiff.

Transfers In: Lots, probably too many! Jay Rodriguez was signed for a whopping £5m during the summer. Aqivaldo Mosquera was the other big purchase at £2.4m. The rest of money was spent on the three loan deals of Jordi Gomez, Ferronetti & Antunes. Also brought in on frees were Loboue, Parnaby, Sander Keller, Wayne Brown, Siviglia, Luccin, Samuel & Iezzo. Salif Diao was signed as a replacement for Boateng in January for £150k. Spent the exact amount I received.

Best Buy: Mosquera, expensive but absolutely worth it; would walk into any Premiership side. Keller on a free was also rock solid as his partner.

Worst Buy: Didn't do badly, but a little below par from Rodriguez considering he cost £5m. Gomez was also very disappointing.

Transfers Out: Plenty of average players could be weeded out; both goalkeepers, Smith (£475k) & Camp (£2m), were sold to free up funds as Loboue was better than both. The average extra strikers, McGoldrick and Tudgay were both moved on to Peterborough. Both wingers, Mcleary and Anderson were sold. Lynch and Wes Morgan were sold, while their partners in defence, Gunter & Moloney were also moved on. Best sale though was....

Best Sale: ....Lewis McGugan £2m. Thankyou very much Southampton.

Worst Sale: None that I really regretted, but it was a shame to lose Boateng on a free in January after he got fed up with being on the bench.

Seasonal reflection to come.