FM14: Celtic FC - For it's a Grand old Team

[Ant26587]

Rubbish apart from Henderson, Chalmers, Denny Johnstone, Stuart Findlay and maybe Fraser (he's injured).

[McGougan33]

c.ronaldo7 and fayon, good starts to your saves, hopefully you can build on that and challenge in europe significantly!!!

I agree lads the player valuations are lower purely because of the league standing, and no old firm, but the bids we receive are derisory to say the least, most of the time well under the players valuation!

The under 19`s are mediocre, it will always be this way

[S2008]

The trick for me is to offer the player out to clubs at your chosen price and wait for a matching bid to be submitted. Thats how I got £8m for a £2.5m valued Biton

[Ant26587]

Whats everyones take on Bangura? He just returned from loan and looks pretty decent, but the squad is already too large and I have a few youngsters signing in the winter.

[c.ronaldo7]

c.ronaldo7 and fayon, good starts to your saves, hopefully you can build on that and challenge in europe significantly!!!

I agree lads the player valuations are lower purely because of the league standing, and no old firm, but the bids we receive are derisory to say the least, most of the time well under the players valuation!

The under 19`s are mediocre, it will always be this way

Interesting that you mention Europe as I qualified with ease and then got dumped in a pretty tough group that included Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Lyon. I managed to scrape draws away from home against Arsenal and Lyon, whilst beating Lyon and Bayern Munich at home which was enough for me to secure 2nd place in the group and proceed to the knockout round!

One player I can't recommend more for new starters is Yacine Brahimi. I've got him on loan for this season from Granada and he's almost single-handedly winning me games and was my star performer in the group stage.

[Sean1967]

2013/14 Season Review

Competitions

A good year for the club. We won the treble and had a fantastic run in Europe. We beat the likes of Tottenham, Swansea, Lyon, Juventus and AC Milan. This sets the bar for next season very high. I would like to expect at least a domestic double and a crack at the last 16 of the Champions League.

Key Players

Charlie Mulgrew was the stand out player, despite being massively underrated by our coaching staff, he was my rock at the back. If it wasn't for him there would have been a hell of a lot more conceded. He every pitched in with a few goals and assists from set pieces.

My most consistent performers has to be the wingers. Every one of them had a great season making team selection very tough. Especially when I had to drop the attacking midfielder to defensive midfield to try solve my defensive crisis.

Most Improved Player

The big mans stats have improved over the year, his shot stopping abilities are up there with the best in Europe and his ariel ability is slowly improving. It will be key for me to tie him down long term.

Tactics

I ended up settling with this towards the end of the season. One with more of an attacking threat and on that slows the game down and try to control it. Some matches I'd push up one of the centre midfielders and use them as a trequartista or use Sammy as a wide target man.

Transfers

I feel I done a lot of good business during the transfer windows. Firstly bringing in wonder kid Richario Zivkovic who score 10 goals and 5 assists in 22 games mostly from the bench. For a 17 year old that is excellent. The two free transfers turned out to be excellent signing with both regular faces in the starting line up.

Then we get to January and in comes Keith Watson for £300k to replace Mikael Lustig on the bench £3.6m profit and £13k saving in wages. Mo Bangura was back at the club for a week before he was shipped out. Already had to many strikers. Lucas Andersen came in on loan with very little wages and Tsepo Masilela for pennies after an injury to Emilio Izaguirre and gave him a run for his money.

[Sean1967]

Anyone who has signed Rhodes. How much did you pay and how much did you offer him per week?

[McGougan33]

The trick for me is to offer the player out to clubs at your chosen price and wait for a matching bid to be submitted. Thats how I got £8m for a £2.5m valued Biton

See i had done that also, but some of them werent taken heed of, but i think if you play them regularly, it helps your chances.

[McGougan33]

Whats everyones take on Bangura? He just returned from loan and looks pretty decent, but the squad is already too large and I have a few youngsters signing in the winter.

Bangura can be brilliant, I kept him on the demo, however i got rid of him in the main game.

[McGougan33]

Interesting that you mention Europe as I qualified with ease and then got dumped in a pretty tough group that included Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Lyon. I managed to scrape draws away from home against Arsenal and Lyon, whilst beating Lyon and Bayern Munich at home which was enough for me to secure 2nd place in the group and proceed to the knockout round!

One player I can't recommend more for new starters is Yacine Brahimi. I've got him on loan for this season from Granada and he's almost single-handedly winning me games and was my star performer in the group stage.

I qualified also from a pretty tough group in my first season, 2nd season I wasnt so lucky though, finished bottom of an even tougher group.

[Ant26587]

Anyone else noticed that McGeady is quite interested in a move to Celtic? Looks like you'd need to spend upwards of 10m and a bunch of wages though.

[Sean1967]

I noticed about McGeady. I'm hoping he gets transfer listed or get him on a free.

[fayon]

2015/2016

IN

Mariga -Loan

Snodgrass -Loan

Coleman -Loan

Helenius - 2M

Shane Duffy - Loan

Stefan Strandberg - 2,5M

OUT

Matthews - Loan

Tony Watt - Loan

A. Milosevic - 12,25M (profit!)

1st season: won treble, got out on round of 16 in the UCL

2nd season: won double, got out on the group stage in the UCL

3rd seson: welcomed Rangers to the SPL with a 8-0, but the team is playing poorly and lost the 3rd qualifying round of the UCL.

I don't think i can hold onto Van Dijk after this season, i rejected a 10M offer from Arsenal and ManU :C

Ended my 3rd season only winning the SPL. In the possitive side i think i finally managed to get the tactics right for my 4-2-3-1 formation.

As i said before i couldn't retain Van Dijk, who was my top player, because as policy i dont pay wages above 1,5M per year and he wanted more. I replaced him with Mathias Jorgensen because Xulu, who was my 1st target couldn' t get a working permit.

I also have to let go Pukki because he was demanding the move on his last year of contract, but i bought Finnbogasson as a replacement.

These are my transfers for my 4th season

2016/2017

IN

Mariga -Loan

Snodgrass -Loan

Coleman -Loan

Shane Duffy - 850k

Mathias Jorgensen - 3M

Lukas Hradecky - 1M

Alfred Finnbogasson - 4,5M

OUT

Matthews - Loan

Tony Watt - Loan

Van Dijk - 11M (Tottenham)

Tyton - 500k

Pukki - 4,2M

Mulgrew - Free

Currently in my squad of 22 i have 1 player from: sweden, norway, finland, iceland, nigeria, kenya, israel, greece, australia, wales, usa, honduras, england, korea

2 players from: netherlands, ireland, denmark, scotland

As you can see i respected my transfer policy and i'm hoping to bring in a good african with Xulu, and a n. ireland player so i can complete my collection , maybe i'll search for a polish too as i losted Tyton

[DKB]

@fayon

How is Snodgrass doing for you - he is amazing in FM13 as an inside forward on the right wing - still amazing in FM14?

His stats for FM13 (signed him just before the 2nd season)

2nd season: 29 games, 10 goals, 29 assists

3rd season: 35 games, 24 goals, 24 assists

4th seaosn: 32 games, 24 goals, 31 assists

If he is like FM13 I can only recommend him to you bhoys

[fayon]

He is more of a rotation player for me because he is somewhat slow. Although i mostly use him as an advanced playmaker his stats are:

1415: 9 games, 1 goal, 3 ass

1516: 23 games, 1 goal, 4 ass

[Ant26587]

Just signed Riise as cover for Izzy, 875k two year deal. He'll be a good tutor for Chalmers too, I'm hoping he'll be a viable back up by the end of my second season because right now he doesn't really cut it.

[DKB]

He is more of a rotation player for me because he is somewhat slow. Although i mostly use him as an advanced playmaker his stats are:

1415: 9 games, 1 goal, 3 ass

1516: 23 games, 1 goal, 4 ass

I had my reservations on him playing IF as well due to his lack of blistering speed - don't know if the game engine are totally difference from FM13 - but in FM13 he is brilliant in IF right

[McGougan33]

Second Season:

So this season held a little bit of mixed feelings for me also, qualified for the champions league with ease, however i got the group of death tbh!

1st R.Madrid

2nd PSG

3rd Leverkusen

4th Celtic

Really disappointed with that finish as I only took 3 draws, 2 at home, 1 away, the rest were defeats by small margins, I would suggest though that this is not the worst set of results i could have had.

A domestic double was completed once again, however this time it was the Scottish Cup we were to win after a 3-1 win over Ross County in the final. Sadly the Hibees gave us a 2-0 defeat in the Scottish League Cup, a game which we dominated, but were woeful with our shooting, the opponents however were clinical!

Played 56 games, won 33 of them, Drew 14 of them, and lost 9, margins are still to high for my liking here, i would prefer a significant decrease in both the negatives!

Spent a total of 5.39 mil over the season in transfers, Marc Muniesa costing me 4.9 mil, the rest were miniscule amounts.

I received in a grand total of 6.73 mil, however with this tiny little profit I saved around 40k pw on wages, i still somehow contrived to make a loss of 5.27 mil for the season, It has taught me a lesson to sell high, and buy low, unfortunately i fear the task for me is to manage a selling club, until I can get enough revenue in from sponsorship and perhaps international feeder clubs, With the 5.27 mil loss sustained, I am unsure as to whether I will qualify for the CL due to the financial fair play rules of 4 odd million loss a year.

Time to peruse potential signings, and await my Champions League fate.

[Hagi_07]

Started my Celtic save on FM14 over the weekend. Only signed Van Bruggen for 900k decent player for 20 and I'll try and bump his positioning up and play him as a DMC. Punted Sammy (3m) and Commons (2m).

Won my first CL qualifying 3-0 on agg against some mob from Hungary (there keeper was Lubos Kamenar!) and now I've got Elfsborg. Drew the first leg at CP 0-0 though after hitting the woodwork 3 times and there GK had at least 4 great saves. Looks like I'm going to have the same problems I had last year of thumping teams but not scoring. They played 5-3-2 against my 4-3-3 with a false 9, two inside forwards and both fullbacks set to wingbacks.

[c.ronaldo7]

Unfortunately after having the weekend to put some serious game time in, I was met with the evermore frustrating crash dump. On reloading my game I realised I'd not saved for quite a while and It has taken the edge off the save.

Will probably have another go at a Celtic save at some point.

[Henrik7]

I am just about to go into my second season. In my first season I really struggled at times, I did still win the league and league cup double but I failed miserably with only 1 win in the champions’ league group stage.

Ill post my signings up later and update on my progress going into the 2nd season.

For those that have played a few seasons how does Rogic progress, I have sent him on loan again as I don’t play with a AMC so was not really using him.

[fayon]

I am just about to go into my second season. In my first season I really struggled at times, I did still win the league and league cup double but I failed miserably with only 1 win in the champions’ league group stage.

Ill post my signings up later and update on my progress going into the 2nd season.

For those that have played a few seasons how does Rogic progress, I have sent him on loan again as I don’t play with a AMC so was not really using him.

I use him primary as an IF on the right side because Biton is my main AP, and is very good at it.

I had my reservations on him playing IF as well due to his lack of blistering speed - don't know if the game engine are totally difference from FM13 - but in FM13 he is brilliant in IF right

In my 4th season i used him as an AP but with support role and that helped him a lot.

Ended my 3rd season only winning the SPL. In the possitive side i think i finally managed to get the tactics right for my 4-2-3-1 formation.

As i said before i couldn't retain Van Dijk, who was my top player, because as policy i dont pay wages above 1,5M per year and he wanted more. I replaced him with Mathias Jorgensen because Xulu, who was my 1st target couldn' t get a working permit.

I also have to let go Pukki because he was demanding the move on his last year of contract, but i bought Finnbogasson as a replacement.

These are my transfers for my 4th season

2016/2017

IN

Mariga -Loan

Snodgrass -Loan

Coleman -Loan

Shane Duffy - 850k

Mathias Jorgensen - 3M

Lukas Hradecky - 1M

Alfred Finnbogasson - 4,5M

OUT

Matthews - Loan

Tony Watt - Loan

Van Dijk - 11M (Tottenham)

Tyton - 500k

Pukki - 4,2M

Mulgrew - Free

Currently in my squad of 22 i have 1 player from: sweden, norway, finland, iceland, nigeria, kenya, israel, greece, australia, wales, usa, honduras, england, korea

2 players from: netherlands, ireland, denmark, scotland

As you can see i respected my transfer policy and i'm hoping to bring in a good african with Xulu, and a n. ireland player so i can complete my collection , maybe i'll search for a polish too as i losted Tyton

I finished my 4th season only winning the SPL again and losing the final of the local cup (don't remember wich). No luck in Europe yet, finished 3rd in the UCL group and matched against Atletico Madrid losing on the 1st round.

On the bright side, this season looks promising because i managed to reinforce all the areas of the team, and brought Fletcher on loan from Liverpool to have a deadly asset on front.

2017/2018

IN

Snodgrass - Free

Lee Hodson - 3M

Xulu - 4M

Razak - 2,5M

Steven Fletcher - Loan

OUT

Matthews - 3,5M

Tony Watt - Loan

Ambrose - Free

Coleman - Loan ended

Mariga - Loan ended

Finnbogason - Loan

Also this is the last season in the club for Samaras and captain Brown because as policy, i wont renew contracts of players 33 years old.

Because of this i already bought the greek Kostas Fortounis for next season as Samaras replacement.

For next season there are plans to bring McGeady back as a moral replacement for Brown, cause he ends his deal with Everton.

One thing that bothers me is that the balance is going down year by year because i have a very competitive squad and everyone earns like 1M per year

[Hagi_07]

Well that was wonderful...

Elfsborg away, pummelled them again, their goalkeeper got MOTM again, after making my three subs Lustig gets injured 5 minutes before the final whistle and then Efe "effin" Ambrose gets a second booking just before the final whistle. Into extra time with 9 men still 0-0 in the match and on aggregate, still pummelling them even with 9 men!!! Game goes to penalties. They score all five and Biton misses the first one for us.

Needless to say I resigned the next day, five competitive matches in. Two 3-0 wins and three 0-0 draws.

I guess I'll start again.

[Higgy]

Just a quick question about Joe Ledley, I managed to sign him for Hull City summer window 1st season for £1.6million, and am planning on playing him as part of a 5 man midfield as a box to box midfielder. Would this get the best out of him? Or would you utilise him another way?

Cheers

[petauk]

SEASON THREE UPDATE

Finally i finish season 3, bit easier this season winning it by 18 points ahead of Inverness Caley Thistle, so quite happy with that, also picked up the Scottish Cup as well but once again it was a disappointing Champions League Season finishing 4th again in my group though losing out in the last game to galatasaray for the Europa League spot.

On a plus this season has seen some big strides in bringing thru some great young stars, Marcus Fraser & Paul McMullan both havng an amazing First Season in the First Team. But more on them & more later

TRANSFERS iN:

Eamonn Hutchinson - £250,000 - Livingston - Young 16 year old Central Defender who has already broken into the first team and has been outstanding scoring 8 goals in 16 games, If this is what he's like in his first season, cant wait to see whats he;s gonna be like this season..

Will Hughes - £4.8 Million - Derby County - Think we all know about Will & his skill's. Was on the top of my wanted list from the first season and glad i got him before anyone else snapped him up, great first season playing in the AMC role originally owned by Knockaert who moved to the right hand side.

Joe Dudgeon - £1 Million - Hull City - Must admit didn't know much about this lad until my scout flagged him up, had been looking for a strong Left Back to Rotate with Enda Stevens and what a find, looked strong when needed and his crosses caused a lot of teams problems.

Aaron Juhl - Free - Reading - 20 year old MC/DMC i picked up from reading. has been mainly been used as sub MC and has been looking a good wee player

Kenneth Omeruo - Season Long Loan - Chelsea - Back for a 2nd season to paradise after i was quoted £10 Million for him from Chelski, Another amazing season and he's gonna be missed next season unless Jose brings his price down a tad.

Nikos Giannakopoulos - Season Long Loan - Udinese - Goalkeeper brought in as back up for Forser that lasted till Jan before i got fed up hearing his manager moan i never played him, So he went back and one of my upcoming regen GK was back and looking good.

Andy Clark - £180,000 - Livingston - Another steak from livi, Young upcoming striker who has been tearing up my reserves with 35 goals in 41 games. picked up couple of games in the first team as sub but no goals yet.

Adam Lallana - Season Long Loan - Southampton - Has fallen out of favor at Southampton and seemed to struggle in the SPFL as well as he also was shipped back to his club at the end of Jan.

Gary Hooper - £2.4 Million - Norwich City - And Hoops is back in the only Color's he should be wearing along with his familiar number 88 shirt. Took a few games to get back into his stride since he was not getting any First Team Action at Norwich due to Jordan Rhodes tearing up the goals there, plus an injury just before he joined seem to knock him off his stride, but it was not long before he was back to banging them in again.

Total Spending: £8.5 Million

TRANSFERS OUT:

John Heron - Free - Had signed for Peterborough Utd but since been released again

Liam Henderson - Free - Now Playing at Blackburn Rovers

Paul Gazzangia - £125,000 - West Ham Utd - Never really settled in and took what i could get for him.

Anthony Stokes - 325,000 - Wolves - Didn't want to get rid of stokesy but he wanted first team football & i couldn't guarantee him that.

Teemu Pukki - £5.2 Million - West Brom - Gutted at this one, went in to renew his contract and was told not interested and next day i got a message saying he felt he wanted to play at a higher level so he was sold to West Brom with a good few clauses added in of course.

Darnell Fisher - Free - Now playing at Gillingham

Stuart Fisher - Free - Now playing at Doncaster Rovers

Jack Kirwan - Free - Was playng at barnet and had scored a good few goals for them but since freed

Mikey Miller - Free - Now playing at Motherwell

Conor McManus - Free - Now playing at Dundee

Paddy McNally - Free - Now playing at Preston North End

Stephen McManus - £14,000 - Sheffield Wednesday - Felt time was up again for big mick and he was picked up quite quickly

Thomas Reilly - £210,000 - Brighton - Another player had high hopes for that didn't seem to come through, Seems to have settled in well at brighton and last i checked Sheffield Utd were bidding for him.

Denny Johnstone - Free - Now playing at Preston North End....Totally gutted at this one as i am a big fan of the lad in real life as i am a major under 19s/Devolpmental fan and try get to as many games as possible. Just seemed to not click in my team at all but seems to be doing well at Preston as classed as a key player

Cody Cooper - Free - now playing at Shrewsbury Town

David Bentley - Free - Blackburn Rovers - was not really getting a game on the right with Knockaert, Johnston & Forrest dominating that area, so let him leave on a free.

Robbie Keane - Retired

Total Income:

£5.5 Million

Jordan Larsson Update:

So the king of kings Jnr returned after his loan spell at falkirk and has had a great season, Spilt my squad into two by rotating them each game and he has linked up with Paul McMullan creating a very exciting partnership..here he is after this season:

DOMESTIC NEWS:

"The" Rangers return to the SPFL was not everything the media predicted as they struggled the whole season ending up in 5th well off the pace, they beat me once in the 5 games we played this season, with me knocking them out of the Scottish cup 5-2 at ibrox. But for me this was by far my fav game:

Always count on a Larsson to break "The" Rangers hearts

Crashed out of the League Cup to Killie in the 5th round on penalties and the Trophy was eventually won by Hibs beating Aberdeen 2-1

The Scottish Cup Final was a repeat of the season before with both myself and Dundee Utd meeting up again, this time i came through 2-0 with goals from Tony Watt & Mikael Lustig

Dundee were relegated to the Championship with St.Mirren returning to the SPFL after winning the Championship. Once again Hamilton were left heartbroken after being beaten in the Playoff Final by Hibs...

Managerial Changes

Derek Adams became the new Aberdeen Manager after Derek McInnes left to take over Sheffield Wednesday

Chris Powell left Inverness Caley Thistle to take over the reigns at QPR and was replaced at Caley Thistle by Former Notts County Manager Jens Lehmann

Dougie Freedman left Motherwell to take over my feeder club Ipswich and was replaced by a local lad in Gary McAllister

On a nice wee side note a certain Neil Lennon Took over Huddersfield Town in the English Championship and finished 2nd and promoted to the EPL in his first season Way to go Lenny lol

going to post my upcoming young players in the next few post or two as some are looking well good.

[Sean1967]

2014/15 Season Review

Competitions

Another great season, completely exceeded my expectations. A second domestic treble was easily wrapped up. After thinking last years European run would be hard to top, we went on to reach the Champions League Semi-Final beating some huge teams along the way.

Key Players

It'd be hard to pick just one, most of the squad had a great season. I think Scott Brown is the name sticking out but. From midfield he managed 13 goals and 11 assists despite missing the end of the season.

Most Improved Player

Went from conceding 37 goals last season to 26. He leaves me with a dilemma. His contract is up at the end of the season and he wants £40k + to stay. I don't know what to do.

Transfers

I filtered out some of the loans/free transfers out. It was a very busy window, I wouldn't expect the same anytime soon. I have the core of the squad sorted, we just need a few tweaks.

Future Plans

The plan is to ship out a few high earner that aren't pulling their weight and bring in a few top class players to replace them.

[stavroshill]

First season as a Celtic manager in FM14, so far it's been more difficult than I had anticipated. I am sitting top of the league at the minute ( still in February ) but only on goal difference, and I'm still in all the cups after knocking The Rangers out of the League Cup in the 3rd round..

I've picked up a few long term injuries to first team players. Balde is out for 5 months and Ambrose out for 4 as well.. I've missed Balde on the goal scoring front as he was definitely putting in a shift before he was sidelined.

I did reach the CL group stages though which was a blessing, but being up against Arsenal, Dortmund and Atletico Madrid I never really held much hope of progression. Which was in fact the case, I did manage to get 3 draws out of the group though which was better than nothing and boosted the bank balance a little, a home draw against Arsenal and Madrid with an away draw against Dortmund was very pleasing..

I've signed quite a few players this year, all of them young promising players who I'm looking at for the next few years or more, I did sign one former EPL glory boy but he's still young and yet to make a proper name for himself..

Here's my transfers, in and out..

John Souttar - £1.6m ( over 4 years )

Callum Paterson - £2.6m ( over 4 years )

Ryan Jack - £250k

Andrew Robertson - £2.6m ( over 4 years )

Brad McKay - £170k

Stevie May - £195k

Ryan Gauld - £2.6m ( over 4 years )

Kenny McClean - £200k

Thomas Reilly - £1.2m ( over 4 years )

Peter Pawlett - £150k

Jason Holt - £375k

Federico Macheda - £130k

I've spent a lot of money, the majority over a few seasons, so I'm hoping that the investment is going to come good and I'm going to be able to at least ship them on for a big profit, Out of the guys I've signed only Ryan Jack and Andrew Robertson has made an instant impact, with the rest of them making the odd sub appearance. I've sent a few back out on loan to get some experience but with my youth team competing in the Champions League a long with the senior team I thought I should keep a few of them for that as well..

Here's my out goings to date also:

Kris Commons - £1.2m to Sunderland

Mikael Lustig - £5m to Lille

Anthony Stokes - £950k to Wigan.

I've still got a few million in the bank at the minute that I could have spent but I am hopeful that once I've got a full squad again we'll be able to push on and clean up domestically..

[themangus]

Bhoys!

Just bought FM14 and had to make my first game a Celtic save.

Currently at the end of Feb;

Top of the SPL by 8 points, (W15, D4, L7) had been really hot & cold in the league especially during the Champions League group stage time.

Qualified in 2nd in our CL Group, (W2, D2, L2) behind Schalke - ahead of Arsenal and Olympiakos (Beat Arsenal 3-0 and Olympiakos 4-1 at home, drew with Arsenal and Schalke away)

Losing 1-3 from the first leg of the KO stage vs Man United though.

Transfers:

Federico Macheda - 400k

Alexander Büttner - Loan

John Souttar - 975k

Jan Polak - 325k

Titus Bramble - Free

OUT:

Mikael Lustig - Ajax - 3.7M

Anthony Stokes - Watford - 1M

Teemu Pukki - Groningen - 1M

& Various loans

Jan Transfers:

Sebastien Kehl - Free

Julian Brandt has signed pre-contact.

Macheda has 24 goals so far, playing up front on his own.

Generally with Boerrigter and Forrest playing as AMR/L as attacking wingers.

Brown & Ledley in CM and Kayal as DMC (Kehl since Jan - due to injury)

and 4 accross the back.

So thats about it.

Should secure a domestic double (lost out of the Scottish Cup vs Hibs) - and then looking forward to the summer.

[themangus]

End of season one went as expected.

Won a domestic double, winning the league at a canter by the end - as soon as the Euro run was over it was a breeze... (Although, I never did beat Dundee United this season, 2D2L)

Over the summer - I spent the majority of my budget bringing in Jordan Rhodes.

Picked up Gary Mackay-Stevens from Dundee United, Raul Garcia on a free and Mousa Dembèlè on a season long loan (Paying around £2.5 million over the year) and renewed Alander Bütter's loan for another season.

Sold Kayal, Samaras and Bangura.

Team got off to a flying start in the 1st competitive game of the Euro Qualifiying campaign with a 10-0 home win over HB.

Didn't do any team over by a margin even close to that last season - so it was nice to bang in a serious number of goals in a game... here's hoping it continues.

[El_Loco7]

Once again we are blessed with marking 8, positioning 8 and anticipation 9 for Adam Matthews! He is a very good full back!

Right, after my little moan, it is time to finally have a decent 'sesh'. I'm interested to find out how you guys are setting up the initial team, what style of football you are trying to play etc.

It might just be a knee-jerk reaction to the other night but I'm thinking of seeing what interest there is in Commons/ Samaras and blooding youths.

[balloch_guy]

Anyone else struggling with this new patch.Everything I have tried and nothing works 10-15 chances against Ross County 3 CCC and they run up the park and score from an off side position.Possibly the worst patch yet as it is destroying every tactic.

[balloch_guy]

Just started and into October so far.What did I want to bring to Celtic well I wanted to focus on youth and build for the future but at the same time bring in some older heads.

Barcelona B have a cracking amount of young talent that are good enough to dominate the SPL and at same time train to get alot better.O course by bringing in so much youth means you have to face a poor start at the beginning of the season as they gel into tactics.However as the season progresses the team should gel really well and the youth should start to shine.

These two cost £600,000 and they bring total attacking football to my side.I shall update again in a few days time,

[McGougan33]

So where to start, where to start - I think the genuis of my transfers over 2 seasons we can begin with.

2015/2016 Season

Transfer In:

Gabriel Obertan - 900k

Jem Karacan - 4.7 mil

Patrick Roberts - 84k

Nani - Loan no wages

Andres Pereira - Loan no wages

Adnan Januzaj - Loan no wages

Alen Halilovic - Loan no wages

Sekou Oliseh - Free

Grzegorz Krychowiaz - Free

Davide Petrucci - Free

Stephane Ruffier - Free

Sergi Roberto - Free

Gael Kakuta - Free

Simao - Free

Transfers Out:

Charlie Mulgrew - 1 mil

Emilio Izaguirre - 2.5 mil

Scott Brown - 2.3 mil

Amido Balde - 2.2 mil

Joe Ledley - 3.9 mil

Georgios Samaras - 500k

Antonio Adan - 2.5 mil

Various other small transfers

Total Spent - £5.65 mil

Total Received - £14.9 mil

2016/2017

Transfers in:

Christian Atsu - 3.2 mil

Carlos Fierro - 2.6 mil

Curro - 2.2 mil

Imoh Ezekiel - 1.3 mil

Alen Halilovic - 4.6 mil

Pedro Chirivella - Free

Tonny Trindade de Vilhena - Free

Bruno Fernandes - Free

Vasco Regini - Free

Transfer out:

Gabriel Obertan - 2.8 mil

Davide Petrucci - 3.1 mil

Tom Rogic - 6 mil

Teemu Pukki - 7.25 mil

Bruno Fernandes ( 16 games later ) - 5 mil

Other loans

Total Spent: £13.97 mil

Total Received: £24.14 mil

As you can see I have made some pretty damn good profits, including for a player whos only played 16 games for the club!

So halfway through the season, i had lost 8 games, 2 at home and 6 away, I decided I wasnt happy with this, i felt that i was being exposed far too easily!, So a change in tactic was in order, I decided on a modified Diamond shape, the results improved dramatically, in the final 28 games, I won 20, drew 5 and lost 3, winning every single home game, fortress parkhead was born!!!

This change in tactic seen us put all teams to the test, and most of them to the sword, including my european opponents, sadly due to the previous tactic I had been knocked out of the Champions League, but the europa League was a different story!

Stuttgart

Anderlecht

AS Monaco FC

Man Utd

Arsenal

All these teams fell to the mighty sword of these fine parkhead warriors!

Won the league cup aswell, completing a beautiful treble!

Next season now this was really a season to remember!

Scottish League Cup - Not a problem

League Cup - Not a problem

League - Not even a challenge

Remaining unbeaten in every single match available there, a feat not many managers in the world have ever completed!.

European Super Cup, we were severely off the pace in this match taking a 4-1 thrasing off of Chelsea.

This however we would avenge in the champions league.

The champions league would certainly announce this magnificent Celtic team on the world stage, and announce me as one of the true greats in a managerial capacity.

My group consisted of BATE, SLB and AC Milan, a tough group I would have thought, but alas no this was not the case, doing the double over BATE and SLB, a 3-0 thrashing of Milan at paradise, however i lost 3-2 in the return leg at the San Siro! My 2nd loss in europe, two more to go!

Again many sides fell to the sword of these Mighty Hero`s

Everton

Chelsea!!!! ( beat them at their gaff, however they inflicted my only home defeat in 95 games, Jose Mourinho esque!!! )

FC Bayern

Now onto the final - Well lets just say i played the greatest team in the world, and they are called that for a reason!

A muniesa own goal, and a rafinha finish, ensured Barcelona would once again lift the Champions League!

Now that I have announced myself and my team on the world stage, i intend to remain there!!!.

[McGougan33]

Anyone else struggling with this new patch.Everything I have tried and nothing works 10-15 chances against Ross County 3 CCC and they run up the park and score from an off side position.Possibly the worst patch yet as it is destroying every tactic.

I was struggling mate but then changed it to my new tactic, perhaps a change in tactic is needed?

[petauk]

SEASON 4 REVIEW

Sorry bout the lack of updates as work overtaking a lot just now.

Ok so finally finished Season 2016/2017 and once again Celtic are SPFL Champions winning the league by a clear 21 points over Hibs & Killie. Ross county were 4th with 52 points followed behind in 5th The Mighty New Gers on 49 points.

We bit better run in the Champions League with us managing to make it thru to the knockout stages before bowing out to Juve 5-3 on Agg. Once again in the qualifying rounds we met Cliftonville for the second season running, also managed to dispatch dundalk. Couple of good results in the CL against Dortmund & Atheltico Madrid showed we are beggining to get used to the Champions League finally.

TRANSFERS:

As you can see finally succmend to Will Hughes leaving the club with a £8 Million plus add on's deal to Manchester Utd. Also moved on Broony & James Forrest as they were no longer 1st team starters, The Tom Rogic deal was done due to not being able to re-sign him on a new contract due to visa probs.

Jordan Larsson Update:

Tough season for jordan only managing 20 games with 3 goals after a injury ravaged season for the son of the king of kings.(Current Season Update: Well it looks like jordan's celtic adventure is over after we recieved a bid of £3 Million plus add ons for the youngster from FC Kobenhavn. Shame as he was doing well but a massive profit for a player i picked up for free.)

DOMESTIC NEWS

Ok season for us domesticaly with the SPFL win. Rotation system is workng well and Tony Watt & Paul McMullan leading the way in the team scoresheets, Lots of upcoming players making there marks thanks to the rotation system and the future is looking good.

In the SPFL Rangers have once again underperformed and have not beaten me at all this season, Highlight of the season was a 5-0 drubbing which saw Tony Watt hitting 3....

St.Mirren were the team relegated with Motherwell winning the battle of Lanarkshire in the Playoff final against Hamilton..

Once again Hearts have failed to make it back into the spl and have been looking pretty mediocre in the Championship..

MANAGERIAL CHANGES

Jens Lehmann was finally let go as manager of Inverness Caley Thistle after a horrid start to the season, His Replacment was Carlise Utd and former Dundee Utd & Partick Thistle Manager Jackie McNamara

[petauk]

THE FUTURE

GK

DEF

MY SHINNING STAR!!!

[petauk]

THE FUTURE PART 2

MID

ATT

[McGougan33]

Nice update mate, some of your youth is looking promising, however you will definitely need to get in a tutor with a severely high determination stat! Your goalkeeper and one of your midfielders will become good on their own, however i fear the rest will fall by the wayside particularly your young striker with a determination of 2!!!

Eamonn should be great but get his determination up and the sky`s your limit!

[RocheBag]

petauk what skin is that?

[petauk]

rochebag - http://www.fm-thai.com/board/index.php?/topic/116507-opz-elite-skins-fm2014

[Sean1967]

This is my squad at the moment..

Currently in my 3rd season. First season I only won the SPL, second season managed the domestic treble. In both seasons I managed to reach the Europa League Final, and currently in the group stage of the Champions League.

As for transfers in the three transfer windows I've spent just over £10m assembling the squad despite selling £30m worth of players. My best signing so far has probably been Franco Zuculini on a free the first season, I managed to sell Nir Baton to Anji for £10m despite being injured for 9 months and I got £8m for Amido Balde after two good seasons.

I now have about £30m available for transfers and no idea who to buy. Maybe once some players retire or want to leave I'll be able to spend some of it.

[Champfan10]

As per every year I have started a Celtic save, with the same goal of trying to bring Scottish football on and up with the top leagues! I'm currently in December in my first season.

On the transfer side pre season was quiet with Kayal (£900k) & Samaras (£1.6m) sold & Buttner (£2.1m), Broich (£300k) & Rochina (loan) signed. I was in for various other players but consistently got snubbed for bigger leagues, not bigger teams!

After exploring a few tactics I have settled on a 4222 formation with 2 DMCs & AMRL. Pukki & Stokes have worked well together and Pukki has really started banging the goals in as late, Commons is a magician as an inside forward off of the right wing!

In the league we are sitting 7 points clear after 17 games, we lost a couple early on while I tinkered with the formation but have been solid since and are currently 12 unbeaten. WEre through to the League Cup semis & Scottish Cup 5th round. In the champions league we beat Kalju, Maribor & M. Tel-Aviv to qualify and was drawn in a group with CSKA Moscow, Galatasaray & Barcelona. I was pretty confident that we could qualify in 2nd, but did even better! Against CSKA we won 3-0 & 2-1, Galatasaray we sruglled losing 2-3 and drawing 2-2 but it a massive upset we drew 0-0 in the Nou Camp and won 1-0 at home with Pukki scoring in the 87th minute. We won the group with Galatasaray finishing 2nd and Barca 3rd! We have been drawn against Atletico Madrid which should be a good game with a small chance of qualifying!

1

In January I will need to wheel and deal if I want to buy anyone!

[Sean1967]

One piece of advice. If you're not playing Rogic, loan him out don't sell him.

He spent a year at Kobenhaven and came back an absolute beast.

[Champfan10]

Completed the domestic treble in my first season, also narrowly lost out to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last 16 3-2 on aggregate!

Currently undergoing a squad overhaul for next season, trying to build a more technical team for the future.

[petauk]

finished my season but update wont be till xmas eve at the latest lads as am on 8 day constant nightshift at mo lol another good season though. hope your saves are going well

[Gerry1972]

Dilemma here. I'm just starting my 2nd season and have just qualified for the champions league again.

Liverpool came in with an 11mill bid for Biton, 2.4mill up front and 8.6mill spread over 30 months just before deadline day. Now, I would have liked a full up front fee if I was prepared to sell, which I'm not overly keen on, so I decided to try and scare them off and negotiated 15mill up front, then they come in with a 15mill fee up front now.

Thing is I like Biton as he can play DM, MC/R, and AMC and with the champions league coming up against Man Utd, Paris St. Germain and Brann Bergen I could be doing with him.

If I do accept and he goes, undoubtedly for a much higher wage I'd imagine,it doesn't leave me much time to get someone else in with the quality to replace him for the forthcoming champions league.

What would you guys do ??

[Kelt]

Have been reading through this post with some interest (being a Celtic fan myself), it's good to see other peoples ways of playing with your favourite team.

I myself have a Celtic save going.

Just about to start my 3rd season. Have won the domestic treble for the past two seasons and i am currently on a (IIRC) 38 games unbeaten domestic run (including cups). My self-created tactic took a while to get going but now that the team is fully fluent in it its working wonders....except in Europe where it gets me to the Group Stages ok...then i get mullered by everyone. Maybe needs some work defensively.

I think i might have sold Rogic in this window, i'd have hung onto him if i'd known he'd develop like that.

I would post my squad for comparison but to be honest, i can't remember how to spell a couple of my players names, i'll get it up when i get in from work.

I've just sold Pukki for £10mil to Bayern Leverkusen, was around the area of £6mil upfront plus addons. The boy scored 61 goals for me last season, including 40 in the league. However he wanted a move to a bigger club and he didn't believe me when i said my ambition was to win the Champions League (i like aiming high ). Following his departure, Dylan McGeouch and Nir Biton were unhappy at his sale. Fortunately Biton has since changed his mind but i've had to put McGeouch on the Loan list, shame because he's a pretty good utility man.

I have endevoured to make the Board upgrade my Youth Facilities / Bugets in the hope of getting some decent regens...to no avail. Best i've had so far is a Goalkeeper who wouldn't look out of place in the lower rungs of the Scottish Championship. He's only 16 though so im hoping for some ridiculous stats progression within the next couple of seasons.

Players still at the club (not including Youth).

Zaluska - In reserves and on Transfer List, not happy being 3rd choice keeper.

Matthews - Going nowhere. Consistantly brilliant.

Mulgrew - Scored 8 goals last season..12 games into this season he has 11 goals. Legend in the making.

Ledley - Playing in the DMC role. A rock.

Biton - Playing infront of Ledley alongside Geert Arend-Roorda. Plenty of assists and pops up with a goal or two aswell.

Boerrigter - Scores plenty, assists plenty...barely injured. Shame this wasn't real life

Stuart Findlay and (until recently) Dylan McGeouch were the only youngsters in my first team. The rest have either been sold, released or are currently out on loan.

*****

@ Gerry1972 - I'd hang onto him. Aslong as he still has a couple of years left on his contract and assuming he has a good half season, you may well get more for him in January. It should allow you time to find a decent replacement too.

[DKB]

Dilemma here. I'm just starting my 2nd season and have just qualified for the champions league again.

Liverpool came in with an 11mill bid for Biton, 2.4mill up front and 8.6mill spread over 30 months just before deadline day. Now, I would have liked a full up front fee if I was prepared to sell, which I'm not overly keen on, so I decided to try and scare them off and negotiated 15mill up front, then they come in with a 15mill fee up front now.

Thing is I like Biton as he can play DM, MC/R, and AMC and with the champions league coming up against Man Utd, Paris St. Germain and Brann Bergen I could be doing with him.

If I do accept and he goes, undoubtedly for a much higher wage I'd imagine,it doesn't leave me much time to get someone else in with the quality to replace him for the forthcoming champions league.

What would you guys do ??

£15m up front will get you a lot of spending power over 24 months - or just £15m to spend as you like

Question as always is "Is the amount of players that I can bring in for the money that the sale will bring me better than keeping on to him"

As you are just starting your second season, £15m most likely will get you a lot of improvement of the team - you just have to decide if you think that Biton is a vital part of your game or not

[DKB]

Said that I wouldn't but the £14 offer on Game the other day made it into I did

So FM14, here I come

Made some wheeling and dealing, but haven't made the most of the sales I feel, but players needed to be moved on if I were to bring in the players that I would like

So far...

Players sold: Sammy (£2.4m) Efe (£2.3m) Stokes (£1.6m) Izzy (£1.5m) Kayal (£775k) --- Forrest left on loan to Leicester and some youth players also left on loan

Players in: Kasper Kusk, AaB (£450k) John Souttar, Dun Utd (£900k) Stefan Strandberg, Rosenborg (£1.3m) Aaron Taylor-Sinclair, PT (£150k) and Ryan Guald, Dun Utd (£2.3m+£1m after 50 matches)

Chelsea and Arsenal were bidding for Gauld, and Utd wouldn't let me sign him for the same price unless I loaned him back to them for the rest of the season, so had to pay some extra to get him

Got through to the group stage of the CL and will face; Man Utd, Juventus and Ajax

[DKB]

Going to be a long season, the reserves to the first 11 I've put together are pretty pure, and with CL games there are plenty of games for the reserves (before the CL games, so the first teamers are fit to play in Europe)

Am I the only one that have problems with my strikers? Derk is my main striker and have Balde along side him with Pukki and McMullan as back up. They have loads of chances but they either fire straight at the keeper or miles of the target. I know that they aren't the finest of strikers, but with the chances that I create to them I expect better from them