FM14: Ipswich Town FC Thread - Life out in the countryside

[goosey3131]

Goosey and anyone else who knows? How do you find the regens?

Player search - aged under 17 who are interested in joining you. My most used attribute search is to have every attribute ticked with an attribute level of 10 and then lower the 'match' rating until you have gained some results. Run the same search but for 15 instead of 10. I have always wondered if that is a common search?

[keepersam1]

Right so, my FM decided to crash, meaning I had to go back slightly. Final league standing was 3rd on goal difference. I then faced Watford in the semi-finals drew 2-2 away and won 4-0 at home. The final was against Blackburn which was a tense affair for the opening half and hour, with both sides having a number of attempts on goal. I then switched to attacking mentality and all hell broke loose. Long story short, I won 6-0 with Wordsworth scoring 4!!

After this my transfer budget looked healthy again causing me to sign George Long, who is a replacement for Loach.

I then brought in Macheda on a free, with McGoldrick leaving for 2.1m- I just didn't see him in my plans

I was in talks with Boyata when the clubs takeover took center stage, after which I was sacked!!!!!

I went back to an auto save which the owner decided to keep me on, he also imprved the training facilities and gave me a tasty transfer budget to play with.

Players In:

George Long-3.3

Macheda-Free

Boyata-1.7

Griffiths-2.1

Parrett-75k

Williams-4.7

McClean-2.5

Players Out:

McGoldrick-2.1

Gerken-230k

and a shed load of loans

Had an alright start to the season, won 4-0 against stoke on opening day, followed by a 3-0 loss to Hull, then a 2-1 win against Cardiff and to finish off a 1-0 win against Arsenal

[Prongsie92]

Sucks about the crash, keepersam. A great start to the new season though! How's Macheda performing for you?

Owen, whilst I'm not as proactive as goosey in finding amazing regens (highly jealous, btw), I have half my scouts assigned to U21/U19 competitions and often scout the highest performing youths in internationals. Can bring up some future stars.

Goosey - can we bring you in as the Ipswich manager if MM gets bored with us?

[Owen Garven]

Season 4 is over and we managed to finish a very respectable 10th, all games resulted in less procession than the opposition and half as many shots, but we came through in the end. Only major signing is Wickham who is joining at the end of the season, no significant transfers out.

Still playing a 41212, top 11 are

GK Ruffier (Free)

LB Creswell

RB Hewitt

CB Smith

CM Backman

DM N’Zonzi

CM Hyam

CM Skuse (Been Sold)

AM Holt

CF Bent

CF Nouble

Got some good youngsters coming through both purchased and from youth, need to look for a new CM and general strengthen everywhere if we wish to push on.

Budget is £20m so gonna spend big

[goosey3131]

Keepersam1 - My game also crashed last night. It's weird that I was playing the Beta without any problems until yesterday and only until I have moved from the full release that I have problems

Prongsie - you can be my assistant, in an O'Neill/Keane kinda way.

Owen - Good going! seems like you have got the hang of it. How is Nouble playing for you? surprised he is playing in a mid-table team like yours! Ruffier must be a great signing.

On a side note it's great that so many of you are playing as Ipswich already. Brings a tear to my eye.

[keepersam1]

Prongsie- It wasn't too bad thankfully, the last back up save was a month before it crashed. Macheda is doing ok, he has decent stats still even though he couldn't score to save his life IRL.

[goosey3131]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just done this!

I should have lost, that's obvious.

you can also see from the match report that they had a disallowed goal on the 92nd minute!

[goosey3131]

If anyone can find the ITFC 2013/2014 team photo that I can add to the OP's that would be great. I can only find last years.

[Owen Garven]

Goosey: Great win against Barcelona, Nouble only in cause he is the best of a bad bunch. But have just picked up 3 regens who are all far better than anything I have got so he has been sold!

[goosey3131]

Excellent. Can you show me some screenshots of the regens? How much did you get for Nouble?

[keepersam1]

Only just realised Goosey, but in OPs you have put no youth keeper prospects but Michael Crowe has the potential to be a decent back-up keeper or at least sell able at a good price

[goosey3131]

Only just realised Goosey, but in OPs you have put no youth keeper prospects but Michael Crowe has the potential to be a decent back-up keeper or at least sell able at a good price

Yeah I didn't think he was worth mentioning (like so many of the youngsters). Was hoping he would be better this year. Do you still have him in your team?

[keepersam1]

Yeah I didn't think he was worth mentioning (like so many of the youngsters). Was hoping he would be better this year. Do you still have him in your team?

I've sent him out on loan, but he could be a decent backup

[keepersam1]

So i haven't been able to play that often, but am currently 8th in the league but would be a lot higher if I could beat the lower teams. In January I bought in Odemwinge for 125k, Seydou Keita for free and George Elokobi for free as well.

[fairsy]

Yeah I didn't think he was worth mentioning (like so many of the youngsters). Was hoping he would be better this year. Do you still have him in your team?

He's a negative PA so it could be that on some games he is worth keeping and others he isn't

[Mattias333]

Tough decision this...

Declined.

what!?!? How can you not take this job. Big club in the biggest league in the world. Every FM players dream job surely

To those of you moaning about Ipswich in real life, surely Mad Mick is slowly getting it right though? Going to take time and not a 5 minute fix. Give it a couple of windows of gradual progression via signings and you'll be challenging, mark my words. Could be worse....you could be Norwich fans...or even worse have Chris Hughton as a manager.....christ now that really is depressing at the minute!

Keep up the good thread chap

[Mattias333]

Quite pleased with the result in my opening Premiership fixture!

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Sadly it looks like FM14 still has a long way to go towards being realistic

[Prongsie92]

Yeah, you're right.

Villa 2nd?! Shockingly bad realism.

[goosey3131]

This season I had a disappointing 0-0 against Norwich on Boxing Day and it was the definition of a bore draw. Merry Christmas fans!

[Prongsie92]

Season 4

The toughest season I've had so far. With entry in the Champions League I knew I needed to bolster my squad to aim for CL qualification next season and not make Ipswich an embarrassment in Europe. Sadly my dedication to Europe meant some bad spells in the EPL and I make some unfortunate transfer choices. Whilst I'm happy that Jordan Rhodes finally turned good, finding form at the end of the season to finish as my top scorer, I wish I had looked and spent more time on my strikeforce as it was the weakest area of my team. I ended up bringing Diego Rolan and Luis Suarez on transfer day (Sept) after a lacklustre start and later bought Adam Campbell to give myself more options. Suarez was the only one to make much of an impact.

My other transfer targets did fantastically. Eric Dier is a beast alongside Tommy Smith, Nick Powell gives Will Hughes a challenge and Romulo is a steal on a free. Ravel Morrison was also brought in but hasn't shown any of his RL prowess.

The board agreed to my proposals of expanding the Academy; they'll now be Category 1 and the expansion to the facilities were completed in November to Superb rating. They rejected an expansion to the training facilities though.

Competition-wise, the EPL started badly before picking up to finish 5th (W18 D13 L7). Lost to Tottenham in the 4th Round of the Carling One Cup. Lost to Newcastle in the FA Cup 6th Round. A good run in Europe brought me to the CL Quarter Finals against Man City where I lost in extra time (frustrating!). Whilst not a bad season, it was definately a trying one at times. My focus for pre-season will be ensuring world-class strikers come in (or as close as I can find) and looking for a solid goalkeeper to takes the reigns from Valdes.

Transfers In: Hamdi Salihi (free), Jordan Rhodes (6.75m), Eric Dier (6m), Ravel Morrison (1.7m), Nick Powell (free), Romulo (free), Brice Samba (free), Hiroshi Kiyotake (free), Diego Rolan (4.1m), Dilan Nicoletti (free), Luis Suarez (275k/pm loan), Pablo Sarabia (free), Adam Campbell (275k)

Transfers Out: Cole Skuse (75k/pm loan), Jay Bothroyd (free), Bryon Lawrence (free), Christophe Berra (free), Abdul Razak (free), Liam Palmer (2.3m), James Wallace (1.4m), Erik Falkenburg (240k), Gary Malkay-Stephen (725k), Ross Turnbull (free), Sergio Canales (11.5m),

Team of the year:

GK: Victor Valdes (53 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.98)

DR: Adam Smith (33 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.60)

DC: Eric Dier (47 apps, 10 goals, avg 7.54)

DC: Tommy Smith (41 apps, 3 goals, avg 7.24)

DL: Aaron Cresswell (51 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.37)

MR: Adnan Januzaj (38 apps, 6 goals, avg 6.86)

CM: Luke Hyam (52 apps, 3 goals, avg 7.12)

CM: Will Hughes (34 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.06)

ML: Sergio Canales (20 apps, 2 goals, avg 6.99)

ST: Jordan Rhodes (59 apps, 29 goals, avg 7.09)

ST: Luis Suarez (39 apps, 13 goals, avg 6.96)

Subs:

Dilan Nicoletti (5 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.76)

Kristian Alveraz (26 apps, 2 goals, avg 6.99)

Elliot Hewitt (38 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.37)

Romulo (48 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.00)

Diego Rolan (24 apps, 4 goals, avg 6.75)

Louie Boto (academy regen) (21 apps, 1 goals, avg 6.70)

Billy McKay (19 apps, 13 goals, avg 7.06)

[keepersam1]

URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/843/r1l5.png/][/url]

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So I found this monster...

[Prongsie92]

The next Beckham?

[keepersam1]

I hope so! I signed him for a potential 25 million!

[goosey3131]

Nice going KeeperSam, did he come through the youth intake?

I'd play him in the middle due to his lack of pace, poor positionally though.

So what tactics were we playing in the 2nd half during the Blackpool game yesterday? interested to emulate it in FM.

[keepersam1]

No, I signed him from Palace, who seem to have a very good youth system

IRL, the Blackpool game was a strange one, I think it was a 4-3-3 with McGoldrick being part of the midfield paying in behind the front 3, also delighted that Taylor and Nouble scored, will raise their confidence massively (although Nouble has too much confidence for his ability)

[ipswichjon2]

I think we played a 4-2-1-3 with DMG at the tip of the midfield and Murphy, Taylor & Nouble interchanging in a front three and width coming form Edwards and later on Hunt as wing backs - VERY attacking but I don't know if this is replicable other than when your chasing a lead!

[ipswichjon2]

(although Nouble has too much confidence for his ability)

If Nouble can develop a higher work rate and add greater physicality consistently he could be the next Shefki Kuqi! has the physique but it seems he does poorly when he has time on the ball, when he acts instinctively he looks a much better player!

[Prongsie92]

From the sounds of it, it was a 4-2-1-3. FM would probably have the player roles as:

DR/DL - Wingbacks (attacking)

DC/DC - Limited (defend)

MC/MC - CM (support)

AMC -Enganche (attack)

ST/ST/ST - AF (attack)

A breath of fresh air with the formation change from MM. Hope it is a sign of us being more attacking rather than holding out for 1-0 wins.

[keepersam1]

I have competed season 3 with my beloved Ipswich, which sees then return to the Europa League since there last appearance almost 12 years ago.

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As far a the season went, I am pretty unhappy with some of the results I had, if I had beaten most of the lower half of the table sides I could have been in the Champions League.

[fairsy]

I restarted my game after I became so frustrated during the 2nd season (and was sacked). I literally dominated every single game but just couldn't win - my strong defence was breached seemingly from every shot. I was gutted to lose my best ever regen but in a fit of rage I started again and saved over my previous game!

In my first season this time I have acheived automatic promotion, my only signings were Jordan Bowery on loan and Marc Doherty (£200k - Wolves) to give some competition to Elliot Hewitt at right back. The star of my season was Frank Nouble, 38 goals in 42 (6) appearances, which earned him the Championship Player of the Year and a call up to Roy Hodgson's preliminary 2014 England World Cup squad (he was subsequently cut when the 30 went to the final 23).

My starting XI was:

(4-4-2)

Loach; Hewitt, Chambers, Smith, Cresswell; Anderson, Hyam, Skuse, Murphy; Bowery, Nouble.

My subs all came in and contributed as and when required, and I ended up coming 2nd in the league.

I have just started pre-season for year 2, only signing so far is Niko Krancjar on loan who will add a bit of quality to the midfield when it's required (as a sub mostly I'd assume as need a side of hardworkers in the Prem).

[goosey3131]

I restarted my game after I became so frustrated during the 2nd season (and was sacked). I literally dominated every single game but just couldn't win - my strong defence was breached seemingly from every shot. I was gutted to lose my best ever regen but in a fit of rage I started again and saved over my previous game!

In my first season this time I have acheived automatic promotion, my only signings were Jordan Bowery on loan and Marc Doherty (£200k - Wolves) to give some competition to Elliot Hewitt at right back. The star of my season was Frank Nouble, 38 goals in 42 (6) appearances, which earned him the Championship Player of the Year and a call up to Roy Hodgson's preliminary 2014 England World Cup squad (he was subsequently cut when the 30 went to the final 23).

My starting XI was:

(4-4-2)

Loach; Hewitt, Chambers, Smith, Cresswell; Anderson, Hyam, Skuse, Murphy; Bowery, Nouble.

My subs all came in and contributed as and when required, and I ended up coming 6th in the league.

I have just started pre-season for year 2, only signing so far is Niko Krancjar on loan who will add a bit of quality to the midfield when it's required (as a sub mostly I'd assume as need a side of hardworkers in the Prem).

That's great going! Can't believe Nouble has turned out so well for you - has his stats improved as a result?

[goosey3131]

Despite last years Champions League finish, the 2017/2018 season finished disappointingly and ended up finishing 9th, though I do go on to the Champions League quarter finals, losing 4-0 to Man City who ended up winning the competition.

At the beginning of the season I decided to go big and abandon the team that got me to 4th place the season before and invest in some spectacular looking regen and so this ended up backfiring.

Some of my regen signings were:

Oscar De Angelis - bought for 3.1m

Mario Pugliese - 1.2m

John Hagman for 750k

Alejandro Gomez on a free transfer

My favourite player - Abel Contreras - bought for 850k

and my key player Shearer now looks like this:

and I've now created a solid tactic in what I like to call as the '4231evolved'. I still think I can get more out of it and if I do I might end up sharing it to the community. If you have any ideas on how to improve the tactic by looking at the screenshot then I wouldn't mind hearing it.

[ipswichjon2]

Season 2 in the EPL completed, a respectable 7th place got me third in the manager of the year award and I've begun to gradually fill my backroom staff with former town legends!

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Jon Walters was probably my key player with 16 assists and 11 goals from the wing, Most of my signings were merely adequate apart from this little gem I signed from Denmark on a free in January and who'll hopefully be my number 1 for the next decade, high mental and technical stats and rated as the next Peter Schmeichel!

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Pretty pleased after my net spend of £3m only and being predicted to finish bottom. Now the hard work begins trying to avoid what happened to Burley's boys in season 2!

[Hurricanez]

Definitely will start with Ipswich in the next game. Always had a soft spot for this club, hope you'll reach old days glory asap irl. Good guide as well, do you guys usually sign experienced players in the first season?

[goosey3131]

Definitely will start with Ipswich in the next game. Always had a soft spot for this club, hope you'll reach old days glory asap irl. Good guide as well, do you guys usually sign experienced players in the first season?

Truth be told, with not a lot of money in the kitty it is hard to buy young players for the first team, as the board require you to do. After the first season though you should find it easier to meet the club's philosophy and as long as you meet other targets then this will not bother the board too much.

[Hurricanez]

So free players then.

[Prongsie92]

Season 5

After last season, I knew some adjustments would have to be made if I wanted Ipswich to continue their run in the EPL top half. With a weak front line, a big money signing or two would be required to bolster the strike force. A good partner for Rhodes was a must, as well as some options in case Rhodes decided to repeat his poor form streak. Given the runs in Europe, it was becoming tougher to bring in quality signings without depleted my entire transfer budget. As such, I decided to scout South America from some young gems that could stay in the side for a while.

The season was much better than last with Ipswich finishing 4th (W23D9L6), winning the Capital One Cup against Newcastle, losing to Man Utd in the FA Cup 6th Round and with the fortune of being drawn against weak teams... won the Euro Cup. Stoke put up a vailant fight in the fight before Rhodes decided to trounce over them. Jordan Rhodes, who I almost sold in the last season after a poor start, ended the season as the EPL top scorer and coming second in the Europe Goalscorer Award Thingy (the technical name). Aaron Cresswell, still the dominant LB at the club, took the UEFA Cup assist record.

A new 4-year contract was signed by myself in November and the training facilities and youth facilities were upgraded at my request (now at Superb and Excellent respectively).

Transfers In: Ezequiel Rescaldani (12.75m), Adnan Januzaj (7.75m), Luis Suarez (65k/month loan) Roberto (regen, free), Kurt Zouma (free), Jeronimo Rulli (2.2m), Nicholas Alvarez (regen, 2m), Jack Robinson (free), Paulo Freitas (regen, 24m), Andres Ochoa (3.25m), Michael Carrick (free)

Transfers Out: Richard Kane (regen, 525k), Connor Wickham (1m), Daniel Hewlett (academy product regen, 5m), Alessio Cerci (3m), Ravel Morrison (1m), Hiroshi Kiyotake (6m), Kristian Alveraz (6.75m),

Team of the year:

GK: Jeronimo Rulli (57 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.89)

DR: Adam Smith (45 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.43)

DC: Eric Dier (60 apps, 14 goals, avg 7.46)

DC: Kurt Zouma (44 apps, 7 goals, avg 7.37)

DL: Aaron Cresswell (55 apps, 7 goals, avg 7.58)

MR: Roberto (41 apps, 12 goals, avg 7.28)

CM: Will Hughes (51 apps, 6 goals, avg 7.07)

CM: Romulo (54 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.07)

ML: Pablo Sarabia (38 apps, 4 goals, avg 7.22)

ST: Jordan Rhodes (54 apps, 40 goals, avg 7.28)

ST: Paulo Freitas (52 apps, 22 goals, avg 7.02)

Subs:

Victor Valdes (8 apps, 0 goals, avg 7.15)

Tommy Smith (37 apps, 4 goals, avg 6.97)

Elliot Hewitt (44 apps, 3 goals, avg 7.01)

Luke Hyam (51 apps, 1 goals, avg 6.99)

Ezequiel Rescaldani (24 apps, 8 goals, avg 6.95)

Jack Robinson (13 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.72)

Luis Suarez (24 apps, 5 goals, avg 6.86)

[goosey3131]

So free players then.

I wouldn't say solely free players, but just a case of needing to buy and sell wisely. The lowest expectation (mid-table) will give you 100k in transfer kitty and 145k for wages and you are not likely to get many young first team player at Championship level for that kind of money. As in real life, due to FFP, Marcus Evans has not allowed the manager to spend as much as we did in the Keane/Jewell era (which can only be a good thing if we use them as an example).

[goosey3131]

2018/2019

Pre-season of the 2018/2019 season saw me sign my usual regen youngsters plus Moi Gomez (6.75m) and Rafael Dias on a free transfer. It was also a sad transfer window as both Creswell and Hyam were sold as they could no longer compete at the level I wanted and were 'down the pecking order' to use a footballing cliche. This has left me with only Hewitt and Smith from the team that started, both of which are now icons.

This led me to play the 4231evolved tactics I mentioned previously and I was competing with 1st place up until the January transfer window where I had to make some tough decisions.

Mario Pugliese, my best midfielder (screen shot can be seen in previous post), was regrettably sold to Barcelona for 28million.

To make matters worse my best defender, Luke Shaw, was sold to PSG for 31million 10 days later.

I just couldn't refuse these offers.

With money to spend and a weaker squad I had to buy to keep my hopes of finishing first alive. So I bought four regens in Carlos Alexandre for 5.5m (who I later didn't fancy and sold for 9m come the summer) John Nwachukwu a MC for 5.5m and Gaston Trejo for 3m. Trejo is not quite at Luke Shaw's standard but he does the job and was the best of a bad bunch. It all felt a bit like putting square pegs in round holes (football cliche number two). Whilst excellent players both Nwachukwu and Alexandre were centre midfielders who couldn't play at DMC and so therefore did not fit into my tactic. This ultimately led to my slight decline and ended up finishing 3rd. It was good to finish in a Champions League spot again but if I a) didn't sell Shaw and Pugliese and b) won more than 2 out of the 5 last games, I would have won the league.

I still have not won a cup as I play my youngsters in the domestic cups. It all feels very Arsenal at the moment - Excellent young players, profitable club, philosophy of 'playing the right way' (cliche number three), playing young players in the cups and ultimately finishing 3rd or 4th in the league. So now I just need to spend 40 odd million on Mesut Ozil, right?

(Looking forward to the thread going on to page two now...)

[fairsy]

Season 2

After automatic promotion I decided to risk playing the same players who had got me up in the Premiership - at least until January anyway. I signed a few youngsters but my only real main signing was Niko Krancjar on loan for the season. I just didn't have a particularly big transfer kitty and with the wage budget was a little hamstrung in the market.

I had another excellent season and ended up finishing 10th - Frank Nouble was again excellent and ended up winning the Premier League Golden Boot with 20 league goals. Niko Krancjar won the Footballer of the Year award and my other key performers were Tommy Smith, Luke Hyam and Luke Chambers.

Again it was 442 with my normal team looking like this: Loach; Hewitt, Chambers, Smith, Cresswell; Anderson, Hyam, Skuse, Krancjar; Murphy, Nouble.

Satisfyingly I beat Norwich at the end of the season to finish one place above them!

In Season 3 at the middle of November I am currently 7th in the league, Frank Nouble has won his first England cap and has scored 20 goals in 15 appearances. The purse strings were loosened and I have now signed Will Hughes, Korey Smith, Chris Wood, Jonathan Walters, Rob Hall, Nouha Dicko and William Keane on loan - this has left me very good going forward and with the solid defence that has grown together over the last few years I hope to be challenging for a UEFA Cup place...

[goosey3131]

Season 2

After automatic promotion I decided to risk playing the same players who had got me up in the Premiership - at least until January anyway. I signed a few youngsters but my only real main signing was Niko Krancjar on loan for the season. I just didn't have a particularly big transfer kitty and with the wage budget was a little hamstrung in the market.

I had another excellent season and ended up finishing 10th - Frank Nouble was again excellent and ended up winning the Premier League Golden Boot with 20 league goals. Niko Krancjar won the Footballer of the Year award and my other key performers were Tommy Smith, Luke Hyam and Luke Chambers.

Again it was 442 with my normal team looking like this: Loach; Hewitt, Chambers, Smith, Cresswell; Anderson, Hyam, Skuse, Krancjar; Murphy, Nouble.

Satisfyingly I beat Norwich at the end of the season to finish one place above them!

In Season 3 at the middle of November I am currently 7th in the league, Frank Nouble has won his first England cap and has scored 20 goals in 15 appearances. The purse strings were loosened and I have now signed Will Hughes, Korey Smith, Chris Wood, Jonathan Walters, Rob Hall, Nouha Dicko and William Keane on loan - this has left me very good going forward and with the solid defence that has grown together over the last few years I hope to be challenging for a UEFA Cup place...

I'm really enjoying the sound of your save, completely different to the way I play the game. Would it be possible to send a screen shot of Nouble's attributes? have they changed at all?

Will Hughes is an excellent signing.

[fairsy]

What's the best way to do a screenshot? Haven't done one before on here.

Nouble's attributes aren't brilliant, but by being quick, strong and with a high work rate he seems to just score a lot of goals!

[goosey3131]

ipswichjon2 - Whilst it's great to see ex-legends in there and it's a great sentiment - are they any good at coaching?

[goosey3131]

How do you play him?

I'm at work but from memory to take a screen shot you press alt+f9 and this saves the image in my documents > sports interactive > football manager 2014 > screenshots and then I use imageshack to upload the photo.

I'd prefer to use Prongsie's way of putting up photos by clicking on a hyperlink and that takes you to a page on his steam library but have yet to work out how to do that *hint hint Prongsie!*.

[ipswichjon2]

ipswichjon2 - Whilst it's great to see ex-legends in there and it's a great sentiment - are they any good at coaching?

Well Frans and Marcus Stewart have pretty good coaching stats, not world beating but I'm happy to have them coaching my U18 team. Muhren's stats are certainly not as cultured as his left foot but I couldn't help but reunite the classic Dutch pairing!

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[fairsy]

How do you play him?

I'm at work but from memory to take a screen shot you press alt+f9 and this saves the image in my documents > sports interactive > football manager 2014 > screenshots and then I use imageshack to upload the photo.

I'd prefer to use Prongsie's way of putting up photos by clicking on a hyperlink and that takes you to a page on his steam library but have yet to work out how to do that *hint hint Prongsie!*.

Hopefully this works....

[ipswichjon2]

Great stats! 21 goals in 17! What role and do you play him in and which formation? I reluctantly sold Nouble as I had no money and he was one of the few saleable assets when I started the game.

[Hurricanez]

A save with Ipswich looks interesting, might start one today.

[mrdanbartlett]

Hi all,

Can I ask what everyone's situation is regarding the stadium? I notice we don't own it, and even if we did I guess expansion will be max 40k like previous FM's. For me the long term goal is to make town a bigger club and we need a new stadium, I just can't see how we can finance it?

The finances are much tighter/realistic in this FM, I'm entering season 4 (3rd in prem) and have 25m in the bank, mostly from shrewd signings and keeping the wage budget at 500-600k.

I'm finished 8th last season, Cresswell and Hewit and still regulars and very good, Tommy Smith has only just been sold - didn't want to do it but got a better replacement for free and sold Smith for 7m, shame as he was player of the year EVERY season. Vydra has been a good free for me, just sold him for 7m though as he wanted 60k a week now (1 year left) and I've put a self imposed salary cap of 40k. Basically I seem to be signing all these amazing youngsters from BOCA, I now have 3 with FIVE star (world class) potential.

I signed Liam Trotter for £2m, (come back to town), Joe Ledley was a good £3m buy, and Fredrico Macheda was a sniff at 6k! Matt Phillips was £3m and pretty decent too.

Anyway please let me know how your finances are doing and what you think about the stadium situation for the future.

[goosey3131]

Hi all,

Can I ask what everyone's situation is regarding the stadium? I notice we don't own it, and even if we did I guess expansion will be max 40k like previous FM's. For me the long term goal is to make town a bigger club and we need a new stadium, I just can't see how we can finance it?

The finances are much tighter/realistic in this FM, I'm entering season 4 (3rd in prem) and have 25m in the bank, mostly from shrewd signings and keeping the wage budget at 500-600k.

I'm finished 8th last season, Cresswell and Hewit and still regulars and very good, Tommy Smith has only just been sold - didn't want to do it but got a better replacement for free and sold Smith for 7m, shame as he was player of the year EVERY season. Vydra has been a good free for me, just sold him for 7m though as he wanted 60k a week now (1 year left) and I've put a self imposed salary cap of 40k. Basically I seem to be signing all these amazing youngsters from BOCA, I now have 3 with FIVE star (world class) potential.

I signed Liam Trotter for £2m, (come back to town), Joe Ledley was a good £3m buy, and Fredrico Macheda was a sniff at 6k! Matt Phillips was £3m and pretty decent too.

Anyway please let me know how your finances are doing and what you think about the stadium situation for the future.

Hi Dan,

I'm in the year 2020 and you will be unable to expand the stadium until you purchase it. I'm in 2020 and purchased the stadium last year.

I suspect If you get European football for a few years and win some silverware you will eventually get a new stadium. In FM13 I had the stadium named after me in 2025, but won things much sooner than I have in FM14.

In the bank I have 73million, 40 of which to spend on.

All good signings, I usually like to have a fire sale and get my own players in but in FM14 Creswell, Smith and Hewitt stayed with me for years. Hewitt is the only player I have left, been looking for a world class right back to replace him but can't find any and he is a solid performer so I am in no rush.

Hewitt, Adrian Rabiot and Sanchez Mino are the only non-regen players I have in my squad now. A VERY young squad.

I'm now at the stage where I need to stop selling my best young players for 30odd million to the teams who are now competing alongside me. I really am playing like Arsene Wenger IRL over recent years.

Glad you are enjoying it, keep us updated!