FM13: Portsmouth FC - Still No Money, Still No Players!

[Bradz FM]

Some solid signings, especially Cerny. Give it time!

Things have picked up a bit. After 2 draws and 2 losses from opening 4 games, won 4 and drew 1!!

[Ty]

Brilliant stuff. Mid-table with the squad at your disposal is the aim, anything about that and you have done well.

May ease off my game at the moment, as my mate has finally got his new laptop so we will be finally doing our network game. Will obviously be playing as Pompey when he isn't online, just don't expect the updates to be coming as fast as they have been

[Sheer Class]

Find that save game then!

[Calvin94]

Really dont know where to go from here. Only managed to bring in Jordi Gomez on loan and that was in early June. Since the window opened nobody has become available. Every premier league team wants their players to play at a higher level, and any championship team want monthly fees and wages. Any foreign free transfers want wages I cant afford and any actual available loans are worse than my under 18.Plus my board wont give me a parent team.

No way am I getting play offs with this team, I havent even got 11 players.

[pompeyfan]

Finished my 4th season, and we were looking good at Christmas sitting in 7th, then the slump started and we ended up finishing 17th in the Championship. Next seasons expectations are mid-table with a massive £65k to replace the players who have left, although the wage budget is now up to £99k. Cardiff came in for McManaman (cost £350k) with a £4.9m offer, which I negotiated up to £5.75m and the board very generously gave me £266k to spend:( although the bank account is now a healthy £4.5m. Signing players is still a problem and I can't even get in any decent loans as clubs want too much so it'll be another season relying on promising youngsters signed on frees (average age of the squad is 22).

[Bradz FM]

Season turning sour again. Im now involved in a relegation scrap 1st season

[JBC#1]

Started a game with Pompey because all my saves to now have been ruined with continuous crash dumps until the new patch and I never got into any of them, and am lying 2nd after winning 4 of my first 5 games.

Signed a lot of players and let anybody on over 105000 pounds a year go on a free.

Having great success with a 3-5-2 (Wing-Back) Formation.

Dumbuya and Scott Morrison (Scottish, LWB, Free Transfer) providing the width.

[NFFCdan123]

I've just started a Pompy game after reading this. I haven't had a take over yet and it been 2 weeks. How long did everyone wait before they had one?

[rossatron7977]

I had to wait until mid November until a fans consortium took over. In that time I had been under a transfer embargo for 2 months, which is not exactly ideal when half your squad don't want to sign a new contract in October!

Apart from that it is a cracking challenge as Pompey have nothing going for them

[Ty]

Started a game with Pompey because all my saves to now have been ruined with continuous crash dumps until the new patch and I never got into any of them, and am lying 2nd after winning 4 of my first 5 games.

Signed a lot of players and let anybody on over 105000 pounds a year go on a free.

Having great success with a 3-5-2 (Wing-Back) Formation.

Dumbuya and Scott Morrison (Scottish, LWB, Free Transfer) providing the width.

Good to see someone playing with wing backs, seems to be a popular decision amongst a lot of people on FM.

I've just started a Pompy game after reading this. I haven't had a take over yet and it been 2 weeks. How long did everyone wait before they had one?

Mine happened in January.

I had to wait until mid November until a fans consortium took over. In that time I had been under a transfer embargo for 2 months, which is not exactly ideal when half your squad don't want to sign a new contract in October!

Apart from that it is a cracking challenge as Pompey have nothing going for them

More people playing as Pompey, great stuff.

Update in here regularly and keep this thread alive

[Sheer Class]

Finally a good one! Joao Pinto as chairman!

[Ty]

Any updates you make are now invalid through so much save/reloading

[Vazza]

Playing as Pompey in a new game after my AS Monaco save went belly up. Now in March in 7th position, 2 points off the last playoff place but still haven't had any takeover offers even though my financial status is insecure?! Also still can't sign anyone...although I almost had Reo-Coker joining on £950 a week before those so and sos at Derby came in and gave him 9k per week

[Vazza]

As I type, a Uruguayan tycoon has taken over the club...happy days!

[Ty]

Sweet

That is what it is all about!

[Sheer Class]

As I type, a Uruguayan tycoon has taken over the club...happy days!

Save game!

[Sheer Class]

Any updates you make are now invalid through so much save/reloading

Didnt save it, computer kept crashing

[rav1878]

How high are chances of tycoon takeover? :-) I mean how many people got rich one and how many got supporters or not exactly well chairmans in control.

[Sheer Class]

Minimal chance overall, its very small to get a proper tycoon takeover

[gotlandskommun]

for a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 what team instructions work best for portsmouth ?

[rav1878]

Minimal chance overall, its very small to get a proper tycoon takeover

It's random? Or should I start new game if i don't get one?

[Sheer Class]

Talking thousands to one shot...

[rav1878]

So how many times did you load your game?

[Sheer Class]

Still not had one proper yet. Getting bored now

[gotlandskommun]

can someone give me some help?? =(

[Ty]

Just to make you all jealous and mouth water... going into the 2016/17 season;

My 2015/16 update will come tomorrow perhaps. Great season.

[Craig_R.U.F.C]

Just to make you all jealous and mouth water... going into the 2016/17 season;

My 2015/16 update will come tomorrow perhaps. Great season.

Still going good I see.

You had any success of even attempted to ask the board for a new stadium or an expansion? Surely it can't be too long now until it'll happen?

[Ty]

They expanded it themselves last year, and again this year with under-soil heating. If I have a good campaign in Champions League in 16/17, I'll ask for either a new stadium or another expansion.

The facilities are being upgraded for the final time. After this, they shall all be State of the Art.

[pompeyfan]

Getting a bit pee'd off now - just about to start the 2017/18 season and still in the championship - was given a wage budget of £110k pw and £46 transfer funds (yes 46 quid, not even £46k), but what really gets me is how every time I hit upon a decent tactic and go on a run, I'll lose against the top team away narrowly then can't buy a win and plummet down the table whatever I do:( eg. started the season well and at the end of October was 2nd on goal difference to the top team and had only lost once, played away to the top team and lost 1-0, then never won a game until January when I was down to 17th, then it was win one, lose three and ended up finishing 18th.

[Ty]

£46

Why doesn't it just say £0.

--

I have £60m, but no-one I want to spend it on.

[Ty]

Currently my two strongest sides going into 2016/17 (5th season);

Then I have who aren't listed;

- Belfoldil (ST)

- Cork (CM)

Have £55m and no idea if I even need to spend it? Was debating buy lots of promising regens and building a reserve team, ready to finally enter the reserve team league in 2017/18.

[wisla_krakow]

Who needs your fancy-pants tycoons, we're promoted at the first time of asking without one

Really didn't see it coming - we went on huge unbeaten runs over the first half of the season, something like 12 games at one point. Only issue being 11 of them were draws! We were 1-1 specialists for quite a long while, we then lost the first game of 2012 and from that point only won 11 of the last 17 games! Incredible form which saw us go from the edges of the play-offs (for much of the season 4th to 12th were separated by barely anything) to firm play-off contenders, to taking a promotion spot around game 35 which we just hung onto for the rest of the season. Was an outside chance of the title with 5 games to go (Notts County began slipping up), but they stabilised after that and we lost two in 3 games. I feared we could lose 2nd to Colchester/Coventry however we won Games 44 and 45 to secure promotion, then for good measure went to 3rd placed Coventry on the final day and won 2-0!

I'm surprised we've gone up considering the squad we have - I only released four players (Harley, Compton, Eastwood, Walker, all when their contracts expired) and signed just one man permanently (a German GK as back-up to loanee Andersen). We had a lot of loans over the seasons (we ended the year with Mikkel Andersen (GK), Eric Lichaj (RB/LB), Scott Wootton (CB), David Meyler (DM), Albert Crusat (AM), Rob Hulse and Xisco (both ST), Ignasi Miquel (CB) was the only other notable one who we lost in January as I wasn't allowed to extend it) but of course could only use 5 in any one squad (for the majority of our great end of season run that was Andersen/Lichaj/Wootton/Crusat/Xisco). So really it was the basic spine that we started with - Rodgers, Howard, Michalik, Buzsaky, Webster, Harris and Russell all featured in over 40 games, Dumbuya and Williamson would most likely have done so too if not for 3 month injuries.

A lot of the thanks goes to one man - Luke Rodgers, who scored an incredible 40 league goals in 45 games! I really wanted to see if he could beat Guy's record of 42 league goals in a season, but sadly he hurt his wrist a day before the final game of the season at Cov, but still 40 goals is absolutely exceptional! I've never been an FM player who can get one man scoring bucket-loads but seemingly on this version I've finally cracked that art. Photobucket refusing to upload atm so here's the only working link I can post to show how well he did:

So yeah, Rodgers was excellent and was the main constant up front (Rob Hulse was his main strike partner in the first half of he season, ousted by Xisco who arrived after January to score 8 and assist 5 in 11 games!). The other main man was Lubor Michalik, an absolutely rock at the back and a whopping 7.46 rating. We conceded a lot of goals but clearly it would have been much more if not for the great work of the Slovakian! He too was the main constant at CB, he had a mix of Miquel, Ertl and Wootton partnering him, even Webster who moved from LB to CB once Wootton's loan expired in April (Wootton also averaged 7.46 over 14 games, with several MoMs). We had two assist kings - Ashley Harris and Brian Howard who set up 31 goals between them (16 & 15 each), Harris played all his games in the AMC role while Howard mixed between all three central midfield positions of AMC, BWM (RCM) and DLP (LCM). I was of course delighted to see Ash fit in so well considering his age and the fact he's still only rated two stars of current ability (4.5 PA).

Finally I was pleased that the youngsters fit in so well - as alluded to above Webster played over 40 games with a 6.93 average rating, playing at a mix of LB and CB, while Harris averaged 7.05 over 41 appearances with 5 goals and 16 assists! In addition, Jed Wallace was involved 18 times (7 starts) in the "Ball Winning Midfielder" CM position, while Dan Butler, Alex Grant and Dan Thompson were involved more than 6 times each with Elliott Wheeler, George Colson and Harry Medway all appearing at least once as well (Medway made an assured debut at Cov on the final day, 7 rating at LB!) As you can see their inclusion every now and then did not harm us in the slightest, on the final day Webster, Medway, Wallace, Harris and Thompson all started in our win at Coventry while Alex Grant came off the bench (with Jack Whatmough and a Youth Academy winger unused subs). Webster and Harris will certainly remain in the first team next season as should Wallace, while the likes of Medway, Whatmough and two academy products that came through in March will have tabs kept on them.

Up we go, no idea what the budgets will be like. We got a local businessman takeover who added £2.2m more to our debt as he temporarily put us back into the black (now £800k in the red), so I don't think we'll be spared much money. Hopefully I can add a few freebies to add more spine to the squad so I don't have to rely on having five loanees in the first team next season! Still, back in the Championship straight away which is brilliant, I think if we hadn't stayed up this year we'd probably have struggled to get out for a while. Now our aim will be staying up but if we can play as well as we did this season then anything is possible!

[Ty]

I was of course delighted to see Ash fit in so well considering his age and the fact he's still only rated two stars of current ability (4.5 PA).

I think every game, no matter what, Adam and Ashley will be either 4.5/5 PA when you start the game. Due to the quality of players at the club. Webster started 5* and now is 1.5* in the Prem (due to the quality I have and Webster being a good Championship player at best) His contract ran out in the summer and it hurt to let him go.

[wisla_krakow]

I think every game, no matter what, Adam and Ashley will be either 4.5/5 PA when you start the game. Due to the quality of players at the club. Webster started 5* and now is 1.5* in the Prem (due to the quality I have and Webster being a good Championship player at best) His contract ran out in the summer and it hurt to let him go.

Aah well, I'm hoping that with so many games under their belts they should be able to cope in the Championship don't expect back-to-back promotions as I really can't see us having the finances to do so...just hoping there's good young freebies available and we can have a solid mid-table season. I've renewed most of the squad (could hardly release Rodgers after this season even if he is only rated 2*!) so it's really replacing the loanees that'll be the issue, we have gaps in quite a lot of places without them but I imagine with our rep being very good still I will having some decent pulling power. Pretty much every player re-signed on lower wages (Michalik has gone from £2.9k at the start of the season to £850, Williamson from £5k to £1.4k for example) so hopefully we have some room there to spare. I can't see our budget ever increasing until we sell some players and we don't really have anyone of value yet bar perhaps the younger players with potential.

[peterb93]

Hiya managing Portsmouth looks like an interesting challenge so i may try it.

Theres been no mention of the backroom staff though does everyone keep the same staff or has anyone got any recommendations for new staff?

[Ty]

I kept mine the same for the first season, but now I have a brilliant backroom staff.

Ryan Giggs is an amazing ball controll coach with 19 attacking and 20 technical. 4.5*, hoping once he gets his Pro License (currenly A), he will be 5*.

My u18s I like to sign ex-Pompey players. Currently have Rocha, Benjani and Hreidarsson.

[wisla_krakow]

Off-season's been interesting - a lot of signings but the squad is still pretty small. From the first team squad we released Gyepes and Thompson, and sold Ertl (£30k, Rochdale) and Buzsaky (£1m, Admira Wacker) which may not sound bad but factor in the 5 first-team loanees returning, we needed at least 10 signings.

The reason Gyepes/Thompson/Ertl were so merrily moved on was because my first 5 signings were all defenders - in hindsight perhaps not the best use of my wages since we are already very solid in this department! In came Paul Caddis (free, Swindon) which moved Dumbuya down the pecking order, Ben Gordon (free, Chelsea) so we have a proper LB in competition with Webster. It was at CB we went a bit mental, signing Dorian Dervite (free, Charlton), Ignasi Miquel (free, Arsenal) and Scott Wootton (£16k, Man Utd). Michalik is the only original CB left, I really hope our defensive foundations are more solid than ever as this is our strongest position now without doubt.

Next came two strikers, and great ones at that. The wonderfully named Michel Platini (free, CSKA Sofia) came cheaply and is a great replacement for the Xisco/Hulse "Deep Lying Forward" role. Also coming in was Simon Church (free, Reading) which I thought was a bit of a coup considering our small wage offerings. We have the rep to attract good players but not the wages, so really I was having to work with who would be willing to join for around £4k a week. Along with Luke Rodgers we should be sorted there (I'd include Izale in that, but one he isn't very good, and two he did his cruciates in the off-season so won't play all year anyway!), we had a decent striker come through the youth academy (3.5* PA) so he will likely fill the bench if one of those 3 gets injured.

This is where it got tricky. I hadn't offered huge contracts (of those above, Platini is making the most on £4.5k) but we were pretty much out of budget, and we needed a keeper and a few midfielders (we play a DM, two CMs and a AM and needed more than just Russell, Williamson, Howard and Harris!). You may ask why Buzsaky was let go - I was told he was beginning to decline so didn't want to keep him while he was valued so highly and then have to release him in a year, I chose to cash in, not that it gave me many more wages to offer...first of all a GK came in (Sammy Bossut, free, Zulte Waregem) which meant we would be fine there, but Connor O'Hara will have to be stand-in until I can loan a semi-solid back-up. Koen Persoons (free, Lokeren) solidified the DM position, but it was getting an extra CM and AM where I had real trouble. Soren Tchoyi was all lined up but couldn't get a work permit, neither could Rubin Rodriguez. Annoyingly the board would happily let me offer up to £5k a week to players who would not get work permits, but only £350 for the likes of Conor Clifford, Ryan Tunnicliffe and Jesse Lingard who I would much rather have signed. In the end, Simen Brenne (free, Brescia). came in as a stop-gap AM cover (and is also decent at CM, well decent for the players we have right now), and finally after the Rodriguez deal collapsed was I able to give Conor Clifford a good contract, which he accepted (free, Chelsea).

So it's a solid squad, we're great in defence and up front but are pretty average in midfield, particularly in the centre. We have little to no back-up in goal and up front either should an injury crisis hit, we can't really sign any loanees from the Prem as they want you to pay some wages, and well we can't offer anymore! Even though current projections has us going into the black by the end of the year...maybe then the chairman will loosen the wage budget a little and let me create a decent-sized squad of 25. But it wouldn't be managing Pompey would it without having a tiny squad!

[pompeyfan]

Started a new Pompey game (4th attempt) and thought I might have hit the jackpot when a tycoon came in to buy the club and was going to give £49m for player purchases, went into the transfer embargo and I got all excited and it bloody fell through:(

On the pitch things are going bloody awful - playing either a 4-3-1-2 or 4-1-2-1-2 formation and after 13 games its 23rd P13 W2 D1 L10 F13 A35 Pts 7 - any ideas how I can turn this around? what are the best settings for things like strategy, roaming, creative freedom etc?

My transfer dealings this season have been:

Out:

Jon Harley Released

Izale McLeod Released

Luke Rogers Released

Simon Eastwood Released

Darel Russell Wouldn't Renew

In:

Loans:

Eric Lichaj

Frederic Piquionne

Callum McManaman

Neil Etheridge

Peter Gulacsi

Free:

Paul Stalteri

Mahamadou Sidbe

Jason Koumas

Smajl Suljevic

Pascal Chimbonda

All other players in the squad renewed till at least the end of the season.

Any advice/help appreciated

[wisla_krakow]

Well, if you've conceded 35 in 13 you have got to sort that defence out right now! Personally I would say get in a loanee CB from the Premier League, someone of Miquel/Wootton's quality should do a good job (they did for me anyway). Michalik has started at CB for me in the Championship so he should be more than good at that level, I found Ertl a better partner for him than Gyepes or Thompson. Sounds like you'd want Lichaj or Webster at LB, then one of Dumbuya/Stalteri/Chimbonda at RB (really I'd say you have too many options here. I realised the defence often push up a lot more under my basic tactics to the extent it was costing us goals; perhaps try what I've done and give your CBs and DM manual instructions to play a defensive mentality (for CBs about 3 notches from the left, for DM about 6/7), your your CBs set to Limited Defender and only able to close down one notch above "Around Own Area". I don't play counter attack nor offside.

Your only issue with a 4-1-2-1-2 is that I don't really see you having any DM options now but Ertl? Meyler from Sunderland may be a good choice on loan if he hasn't been snapped up. you've got a load of good CM options in Howard/Buzsaky/Williamson, play them in their preferred roles and you'll do great. AM is up to you really; Harris excelled here for me but Howard would be a safe option, I don't know Koumas' best position but that's good competition. Up from I play an Advanced Forward on the left and Deep-Lying Forward on the right so see which of your strikers best fit in there, most of my goals came from the Advanced Forward role so make sure whoever ends up there has solid Finishing/Composure/Pace.

Shame you couldn't keep Rodgers and Russell, they were both excellent for me in League One. Rodgers scored a hat-trick in the Carling Cup first game of our Championship season so clearly he has not slowed over the summer!

[salquay]

Just stared with Pompey on FM13, top of the table after two games - all down hill now then! I just wondered if the 10 points deduction kicks during the game, please. Some great tips on this thread, but this is going to be the hardest Pompey game I ever done and that goes back a very long way...

[Ty]

Portsmouth Update 2015/16

----------------

League

Going to make this update quite short really, as I want to get straight back into playing the next season.

Great season, but if you look at the squad then it is something that we should be achieving now anyway! We was 8th with 5 games left, but that was because we had 4 games in hand, so we played all our catch up games in a small space of time and due to our depth in quality and large team, we was able to win all these games and our last one to take 3rd place.

We didn't get Champions League football this season (even though we finished 4th), as United who finished 5th, actually won the Champions League. So now I know what Spurs felt like this year.

Transfers

In

Santon and Walker were agreed before the window opened. Both were unhappy at Tottenham because their manager was playing a 3 at the back formation, with no wing backs, which meant they wasn't getting any football. Cheap fees for both pleased me, and due to lack of funds (I know, shock), I even let the chairmen buy Santon for me, which he was happy to do.

M'Vila was also transfer listed by request, not sure why, perhaps Rennes wasn't in Champions League or Europa so felt he was playing under his ability. £23m for one of the worlds best CDM's in 2016 is a bargain. Lorik Cana's contract was running out in 2017 so needed a solid replacement. Was one of the top rated players at the end of the season, so can only call it a successful transfer.

Jack Cork, now an England international, was transfer listed due to another team after his services and becoming unhappy. I took advantage of this as I needed a solid BBM after allowing Denilson to leave for £5m.

Antoine Greizmann, another one of Man Citys big transfers... left to not play and rot in the reserves or on the bench. Wonderfully gifted player, and with a bit of potential a solid signing. Due to not playing with wingers, and choosing inside forwards week in week out, I felt Beister and Redmond needed strong competition.

Cleverely was brought in to give Eikrem some competition and to give myself some more homegrown players, rather than living off the glories of other nationalities. Solid player, we all know about him.

Kyriakos, the second Greek god to arrive on the south coast to join up with international team mate and fellow CB Sokratis. The boy has done wonders in his first season becoming the best rated player at the club. Absolute bargain price.

Five star rated ter Stegen comes in on a free, weirdly I faced no competition for his signature either. Was a free transfer for a week before I finally went in for him. Become undisputed number one and Adler didn't get a game all season. Just need him to learn English (or Greek) and we are well away!

January signings of Di Maria and Oscar came out of the blue, but my god, what big names for Pompey. Di Maria signing from Arsenal and Chelsea's Oscar, two first team players coming from bigger clubs shows the force we are becoming. Should do wonders this season in the Champions League for me. Di Maria actually scoring a beautiful free kick against Arsenal not long after signing was the highlight.

Out

Mainly all the Championship players that I still had at the club allowed to leave. They wont get near the first team and it is better for them to move along now rather than sit in the club doing nothing.

The highlight was Denilson for £5m. Was a free signing at the beginning of the year!

Europa League - FA Cup - Capital One Cup

Well, after disappointment of not getting CL football, Europa was the next step. Not losing in the group stages was a massive boost, Ajax, Anji and Frankfurt all feeling the wrath of our new super team. We made it all the way through to the semi-finals before losing to another English team, Spurs.

FA Cup was replay hell, we could never secure the result in the first leg. This also was reason behind our fixture congestion leaving us 4 games in hand, but in the end, a disappointing 1-0 loss to Ipswich meant we only made the semi-finals of another competition.

Success in the Capital One Cup, but it was the only cup the board didn't really care about, damn. Oh along with the Charity Shield which we lost on penalties to City.

Next Season?

Strengthen the squad and perhaps change the formation to accommodate the players which we have at the club. The facilities are being upgraded again, so they will soon be state of the art.

Also good to see wonder boy Redmond impressing for England as well during their Euro Championship win. Scoring 3 goals and assisting 7 during the competition.

[Calvin94]

WHAT??!!!

Seriously just been sacked, I lost my last game after a bad run of form and quit straight away (having saved it). Just loaded it up and they've give me the sack.

Absolutely ridiculous. I had about 5 players by November in the first season, and my wages were lower than any team in England (including League 2 teams). Even so, i took them to playoff contenders eventually finishing a very respectable 11th (media prediction = a deserved 24th)

Second season was under even worse circumstances. No loans from last year wanted to come and prem teams wouldnt lend me anybody else because they wanted them at a higher level. I couldnt get free transfers because anybody half decent wanted too much. I ended up getting a team full of young loans from Holland. My wage bill was even less then last season. Even so we started the season brilliantly and were in the play off places. It is now 2nd October and I lost maybe 4 out of my last 5 games hitting bad form. Even so, we are 11th and only 3 points off the play offs.

Not only do I think this sacking is extremely harsh, I was actually regarding this as one of my most succesful saves in a long time. I was spending 10k a week on wages and delivering the results regardless. I didnt recieve any warning and this is completely out of the blue, I was actually a little annoyed that my last board confidence message was only satisfied.

I doubt I will get a job in League 1 because the reputation in FM still is a little flawed and the job I did wont get fully appreciated. I might update this at the end of the season and I bet Pompey will have slipped down the table and fighting against relegation. But im not bitter;)

[Ty]

11th and sacked very harsh!

We lose another Pompey user

[wisla_krakow]

Scott Wootton is beast - took 6 MoM awards in our first 8 league games!

Luke Rodgers onto 50 club goals as well, top scorer this season. Wonder if a Prem club will want to give him a go in January?

[rallav]

I found this thread to be really interesting.

My game is still in the preseason. Actually iam about to do my first "team preview" in this save after iam finished writing this.

I got cleared of "In Admission" really quick but still no take over or whatsoever. (22 juli 2012 ingame, started in germany, thus june, to have more time preparing)

Here is what i did at the begin of the season:

Staff:

Under 18s Manager: Andy Awford (2013)

Assistant Manager: Paul Groves (2014)

Head of Youth: Mark Kelly (2014)

Coaches:

Dean Austin (2015)

Paul Hardyman (2015)

Guy Whittingham (2015)

GK Coach: John Keeley (2013, he asks for too much wage to renew so ill try again in the winter)

Under 18s Coach: Mark Chamberlain (2013, ill renew this in the winter)

Fitness: Neville (2013)

Head Physio: Steve Allen (2014)

Physio: Lee Pragnell (2014)

Under 18s Physio: Paul New (2013)

Scout: Glyn Chamberlain (2015)

Scout: Horst Dieter Höttges (2013)

So as you can see i did not change much. Got Groves in, and promoted Hardyman. Also i released two junior coaches. I dont remember those names though...

Also i changed the Squad a bit:

In

Eric Addo (Free)

Emile Mpenza (Free)

Paul Stalteri (Free)

Cristiano Zanetti (Free)

Iain Turner (Free)

Thomas Chatelle (Free, highest earner)

Luke Garbutt (Loan, from Everton)

Derrick Williams (Loan, from Aston Villa)

Athanasios Mentizis (Loan, Bayer Leverkusen)

Chris Kane (Loan, Dunfermline)

Eric Lichaj (Loan, from Aston Villa)

Radek Cerny (Loan, from QPR)

Thomas Eisfeld (Loan, Arsenal)

Iam not entirely sure of this pays out. As far as i know youre not allowed to bring more than 5 players in the matchsquad from the same NATION. Thus Chris Kane and the greek young goalgetter won't count...well atleast thats what I hope.

Out

Simon Eastwood

Jon Harley

Gyepes

Michalik

Dumbuya

Walker

Compton

Izzy

Russel

Higgins

Colson

Jed Wallace (Loan, to Wrexham)

Wheeler (Loan, to Hereford)

Butler (Loan, to Mansfield)

D.Thompson (Loan, to Hereford)

Grant (Loan, to Kidderminster)

So yeah iam playing a 4-1-1-3-1 or 4-2-3-1. I got really good experience with this in FM12 with my AFC Wimbledon save so i hope this tactic will be succesful in 13.

I would likely to see a nice takeover without a sugardaddy, but as i said iam just in the beginning of the season. Also i still try to put 1,2 good backup players for free in my squad, but my wage budget wont increase until i get a takeover. So i have to sit and wait.

[rallav]

I found this thread to be really interesting.

My game is still in the preseason. Actually iam about to do my first "team preview" in this save after iam finished writing this.

I got cleared of "In Admission" really quick but still no take over or whatsoever. (22 juli 2012 ingame, started in germany, thus june, to have more time preparing)

Here is what i did at the begin of the season:

Staff:

Under 18s Manager: Andy Awford (2013)

Assistant Manager: Paul Groves (2014)

Head of Youth: Mark Kelly (2014)

Coaches:

Dean Austin (2015)

Paul Hardyman (2015)

Guy Whittingham (2015)

GK Coach: John Keeley (2013, he asks for too much wage to renew so ill try again in the winter)

Under 18s Coach: Mark Chamberlain (2013, ill renew this in the winter)

Fitness: Neville (2013)

Head Physio: Steve Allen (2014)

Physio: Lee Pragnell (2014)

Under 18s Physio: Paul New (2013)

Scout: Glyn Chamberlain (2015)

Scout: Horst Dieter Höttges (2013)

So as you can see i did not change much. Got Groves in, and promoted Hardyman. Also i released two junior coaches. I dont remember those names though...

Also i changed the Squad a bit:

In

Eric Addo (Free)

Emile Mpenza (Free)

Paul Stalteri (Free)

Cristiano Zanetti (Free)

Iain Turner (Free)

Thomas Chatelle (Free, highest earner)

Luke Garbutt (Loan, from Everton)

Derrick Williams (Loan, from Aston Villa)

Athanasios Mentizis (Loan, Bayer Leverkusen)

Chris Kane (Loan, Dunfermline)

Eric Lichaj (Loan, from Aston Villa)

Radek Cerny (Loan, from QPR)

Thomas Eisfeld (Loan, Arsenal)

Iam not entirely sure of this pays out. As far as i know youre not allowed to bring more than 5 players in the matchsquad from the same NATION. Thus Chris Kane and the greek young goalgetter won't count...well atleast thats what I hope.

Out

Simon Eastwood

Jon Harley

Gyepes

Michalik

Dumbuya

Walker

Compton

Izzy

Russel

Higgins

Colson

Jed Wallace (Loan, to Wrexham)

Wheeler (Loan, to Hereford)

Butler (Loan, to Mansfield)

Thompson (Loan, to Hereford)

Grant (Loan, to Kidderminster)

So yeah iam playing a 4-1-1-3-1 or 4-2-3-1. I got really good experience in FM12 with my AFC Wimbledon save so i hope this tactic will be succesful in 13.

I would likely to see a nice takeover without a sugardaddy, but as i said iam just in the beginning of the season. Also i still try to put 1,2 good backup players for free in my squad, but my wage budget wont increase until i get a takeover. So i have to sit and wait.

[mellow yellow]

bah this is a tough one! i did get a takeover but from a local businessman, gave me naff all monies but still got sacked before christmas. gonna have another go with them this weekend.

[Moomin Grecian]

Have really enjoyed this thread so I thought i'd start my own Pompey save.

Still in my first season and am currently 9th after 15 games. Talks have been ongoing with local businessman, David Sheepshanks but they broke down so I am still waiting for a new owner.

Transfers in (pre-season):

Gulasci (GK) - Season loan from Liverpool

Andre Wisdom (CB) - Season loan from Liverpool

Fabio Grosso (LB) - Free

Rob Hulse (CF) - Season loan from QPR

Freddie Piquionne (CF) - Season loan from West Ham

Out

Jon Harley - released

Luke Rodgers - released

I started the season poorly, but then stormed to a 5-0 away win at Walsall with Piquionne scoring four goals. Piquionne then scored a hat-trick the following week in another win, so really pleased with that signing. I am using a 4-4-2 at home and a 4-1-4-1 (counter attack) away from home which really seems to work.

One good thing to do is to wait till players such as Williamson, Buzsaky etc are about to run out of contract and then offer a new deal, which should me you can make some savings on the wages. Williamson was on £5k per week but managed to sign him on a long term deal for £2.5k per week.

With the saved money on some players wages i made a few more signings to beef up the squad, which were:

Moreira (GK) - Free transfer, very good keeper who used to play for Benfica.

Matthew Bates (CB) - Free transfer. Ex Middlesbrough regular who has just recovered from a knee injury. His value is £1.2M, so could be a real quality signing as still only young.

Kaliffa Cisse (CM) - Free transfer. Ex QPR and Bristol City, good player for L1

Andi Weimann (CF) - 3 month loan from Aston Villa.

Only just signed the above and they have already made an improvement to the team with two wins on the trott. Should be a good season now.

[wisla_krakow]

Having a mixed season 2; nearing Christmas and I'm firmly mid-table, not too far off the play-offs but a very safe distance from the relegation spaces. Not on the best form last few games (without a win in 4, despite Luke Rodgers scoring a hat-trick at Bristol City in that time!), doesn't seem to be many easy games in this division.

Realised recently the board and fans are not happy with the way I'm playing - I went Attacking first game of the season but pretty much ever since, I've been playing a Counter strategy with Attacking only utilised against teams from the bottom - when I have tried it against anyone better we lost...heavily. I'd rather not lose games and be a bit more scrappy but the fans aren't happy with my logic! I'm "Very Secure" though so I don't see that costing my job ("Board Promises" is 35% because I'm not playing attacking!).

Again we've been pretty reliant on Rodgers' goals, he has I believe 13 in 20 games this season in the league. In contrast, I think Ashley Harris is next up with 4; fellow strikers Platini has 3 and Simon Church has yet to score in 16 games...he's a Welsh 2005 version of Benjani!

We still need to beef up the midfield but the only good players I can find are either AMCs or DMCs, positions we already have good cover. Did try and dump Brenne (he's 32 and dropped to 3* now) since I was able to find someone better who the board let me allow actual wages to (first Oscar, then Kahlenberg) but both moves were dependent on being able to shift on the Norwegian playmaker, and no-one would bite at all. I'm not going to welcome £5k more a week onto the wage-bill without cutting some first! To be fair to Brenne he hasn't done badly, but it's clear he's declining and his contract won't be renewed, so I want to get something for him like I did with Buzsaky, but no-one is interested thus far. Kahlenberg would be a great replacement (and a year and a half younger), but ideally I just want the board to allow me to offer good wages to younger players instead of just the oldies who will do a job for two seasons max. Lingard and Tunnicliffe both found clubs in the end which was incredibly frustrating, they'd have been great to have here but the board refused to budge on their "you can offer them £350 a week" stance. Could have got them both for £4k combined wages going off what teams picked them up for, much less than the talented but older players the board are sanctioning me to offer up to £5.75k for!

[Ty]

Just to let you poor people know... I broke the British record transfer fee