FM 2008: Manchester United - Home of the Red Devils

[ww7]

Originally posted by Adiee:

Started a new game last night. Signed Dani Alves and Frederic Kanoute from Sevilla. Also brought in Govan Pandev from Lazio. Sevilla made a bid for Saha on transfer deadline day of around £12/13m which I accepted. With a deal to bring Bojan in from Barcelona signed and sealed (arrivs at the end of the season), I wasn't that bothered about losing Saha as he'd probably be injured for the majority of the season anyway. Amazingly, Rooney got injured on THAT day and subsequently left me with Tevez and Pandev. I made a bid of £15.7m for Kanoute, and now I've got him on board. Breno is coming is coming in January, Giovanni Dos Santos, Banega, Alex, Lulinha and Mezenga (returning from Antwerp) are all arriving in the summer of 2008.

With regards to the season, Anderson has been the one my brightest players so far. I lost 2-0 in the Community Shield, Amauri scoring twice. In the Premier League, I'm a couple of points clear of Chelsea. Played Already played Arsenal (away) and Liverpool at home. Drew 2-2 with Arsenal, beating Liverpool quite comfortably 3-0 at Old Trafford. Battered copenhagen 5-2 away in the first game of the Champions League.

I have opted to assign the captaincy to Owen Hargeaves and keep Giggs as the vice-captain. Not players, I think it was only Scholes, said they were unhappy that Neville is longer captain. Ferdinand and Rooney are have also been given the armband during games. Pandev is my top scorer so far, with 7 goals.

Ronaldo (Arsenal), Ferdinand (Barcelona & Real), Vidic (Inter and Milan) and Carrick (Real and Milan) have all been subject to enquiries, which were immediately thrown out!

How did you get cash for dani alves, pandev, kanoute, dos santos all in one one season?

And how did you persaude bojan to sign up. This lad seldom leaves Barca in the first season.

[ww7]

Approaching the end of the first season:

-> League cup in the bag.

-> FA cup semi-final with Liverpool

-> CL semi-final with Arsenal

-> 8 games to go, 11 points ahead

Team:

First XI --> Reserves

(GK) Van Der Saar --> Kuzsack (Unhappy, he's leaving so Ben Foster will deputise)

(RB) John O'Shea --> Wes Brown

(CB) Vidic --> Evans/Pique

(CB) Ferdinand --> Ignasevich/G.Neville

(LB) Evra --> Silvestre

(DM) Pique --> O. Hargreaves

(MC) Giggs --> Scholes/Arshavin/Anderson

(MC) Carrick --> O.Hargreaves/Arshavin/Scholes

(FL) Rooney --> Giggs

(FC) Tevez --> Saha

(FR) Ronaldo --> Nani

Tactics:

--------GK--------

RB --- CB--CB---LB

--- CM-DM-CM------

FL -- FC --FR-----

Up and coming:

Lee Martins, John Evans

Changes for new season:

-> Preparing to get rid of Ferdinand and get in a new center back. No disrespect, Ferdinand is one of the best center backs on his day, but he has more off-days and I am sick of dropping points becuase Ferdinand dozed off in the last few minutes

-> Preparing to get a new CM to replace an aging giggs. R.Giggs is doing fine, but I don't expect him to be actively invovled in 40+ games next season, it's too much for a man his age

-> Has brought in Wagner Love on a free transfer (expired contract). Will back up along with Saha (Saha is another classic Ferdinand. On his day, he can destroy any team. Knocked 4 past liverpool in the league)

-> -> Anderson might have been my best player. I can see the potential in the preseasons. But he broke a leg and he's only just getting back with nearly the whole season gone.

[MD-Ronaldo]

I bought Anelka in my 2nd season for 18 mil and he's doing fantastic, I'm in January 2008 and he's scored 23 goals and got 18 assists in 28 appearences with an average rating of 7.52. He also won Footballer of the year and Striker of the year. I know he's getting on but he has a few peak years in him and he's absolute class!

[JawKam]

Originally posted by walshy2307:

hAS ANYONE BOUGHT RIQUELME FROM THE START AND IF SO HOW CHEAP CAN YOU GET HIM FOR???

cut the caps. anyways, you can get him on a free after a season, so why bother?

[JawKam]

Hello people , so I'm approaching the second season:

* Won English Premier League

* Won FA Cup

* Lost to Plymouth in Carling Cup \o/

* Lost to Arsenal Quarter Finals in Champions League but goal difference

Squad:

GK: Van der Sar, Kuzsczak (probably leaving), Foster

RB: Neville, Simpson, De Silvrestri

LB: Evra, Simpson

CB: Ferdinand, Vidic, Evans

RM: C ronaldo, Nani

LM: Giggs, Nani, Anderson

CM: Hargreaves, Michael Johnson, Anderson, Gibson

FW: Rooney, Tevez, Saha

Transfers In 2008/09:

Michael Johnson- 24m

De Silvrestri- Free

Transfers Out 2008/09:

Fletcher- 10m

Carrick- 14m

O'Shea- 5m

I still want to sign Kevin Doyle as he's unhappy. He had a brilliant season scoring 22goals. Also, he looks like a good TM which I'm looking for. Centre Back is also somewhere I'm looking at. I've checked out Breno from Sao Paulo but would like to sign someone young from British or even English. Does anyone know someone good?

Any new comments welcome!

Thanks

[DominicForza]

I tend to agree with Upnorf's post. I believe it is a mistake to sell and buy so much. Man Utd has a squad more than capable of winning the Premiership from the get go. I suspect much of the problems people are having (morale, finance and players disliking each other) come from disrupting the squad. I am always very reluctant to sell prior to my first season before I really know what I have. I certainly don't want to sell players who are other players "favorites." If you don't want to sell Vidic (why would you?), and don't want him upset (again why would you want that?) offer him a new contract as soon as you see that Milan is interested in him BEFORE they put in a bid! I don't want to sell any of my defenders in season one, but the only one I'd listen to a big offer for is Rio and only if I had serious finacial problems because of his huge contract.

I'm not buying anything but inexpensive youngster (a whole bunch of 'em) and bargains (Aaritalo, Ignasevich, Piatti and Ronaldo on a free in January!). I did spend some cash on getting the best coaches I could...never go cheap on coaches and physios.

The last point is team talks. Do NOT leave them to your assistant. Always ask for the assistant's team talk advice, but don't stick with it. In the overwhelming majority of cases I find it best to be positive. The is not always the ideal option, but it is the safest. Being positive (have faith, we can win, one more goal, etc) will rarely have a negative effect...be sure to keep track of how it impacts players and the situations. Experiment with Expect a performance and see more from you and pick up where you left of with an individual but don't take a chance with a whole team. This should be a player who you suspect is strong willed, mentally tough and rises to the occasion.

Also make sure you don't leave first team players out in the cold...their morale, fitness and form will plumit and when you do try to play them they will be awful...making it less likely for you to play them, making them more ostricized and making their form worse and it becomes a vicious cycle. I am not in favour of "squad rotation." I do look to try and include players as much as I can and pay attention to morale in team selection...I do not want players who I expect to need at some point to drop into low morale...if they get into okay or low then it is time for them to start playing even if it is at the expense of an in form player. It is just too important to keep the WHOLE squad's morale and form up. Look to include a few of these players against lesser opponents or in Champions Leagues Group Matches that you have already secures advancement. I place getting games for Sr squad players at a higher premium than blooding youth.

[Adiee]

How did you get cash for dani alves, pandev, kanoute, dos santos all in one one season?

And how did you persaude bojan to sign up. This lad seldom leaves Barca in the first season.

I started with £10m, but adjusted it to, iirc, £12m. I made a bid for Dani Alves of £4.5m with £13.75m to be paid over 24 months, Sevilla accepted and he was on board. Pandev's deal is worth £9.8m over 24 months. He requested a transfer which made the deal a lot cheaper than i expected. £4m is what I paid upfront for him. The purchase of Kanoute (who is doing very well i must add) was sanctioned with the money i received for Saha. Bojan accepted around £37k a week and lastly, I bid £0m for Dos Santos, with £10m over 14 months, included a buy-back clause of £53m and a friendly offer. Done.

For some reason, Pandev dislikes Nani. I've been told to keep a closer eye on Tevez as he isn't performing well on the pitch. Champions League group is a tight one. Played 5, won 3 and drawn 2. 11 points in total and only 3 points separate myself and 3rd place!

Top of the league, just entering December. I have 2 games in hand over Chelsea and am level on points with them. van der Sar and Giggs are slightly concerned by the lack of discipline, which I am a little confused about - if anyone can help me out on that one, that would be great.

[Manxie_Ash]

Hi all,

Only made one signing this season after I offloaded Evra to Milan for £15 Million, that was Marcelo from Real for £5.5 Million. He is a remarkable player and is only 19 years old. Got him on the last game from Fluminiese for cheap.

Rooney and Tevez seem to be working well together 18 goals between them in the first 4 matches.

[JawKam]

Originally posted by Manxie_Ash:

Hi all,

Only made one signing this season after I offloaded Evra to Milan for £15 Million, that was Marcelo from Real for £5.5 Million. He is a remarkable player and is only 19 years old. Got him on the last game from Fluminiese for cheap.

Rooney and Tevez seem to be working well together 18 goals between them in the first 4 matches.

18 goals in 4 matches?! whoa

[Ricardo Kaka\']

Jonny Evans is fantastic. At the start of the season he had 15's in heading marking and tackling now he is up in the 17's and i'm only in april.

Seems that in this game, the more playing time youngsters get, the faster their stats rise.

[JawKam]

I've been playing Danny Simpsons on the left too and he's getting above 7's for me. Evans, Gibson, Simpson are definitely manutd's future

[Got_Talent?]

Originally posted by b101:

Right, finally done with first season. A 31-match unbeaten streak carried me to the Premiership title, seven points clear of Arsenal. I had to win my players' confidences back after a poor start but once you get the tactics sorted it's alright....then beat Chelsea in an absolutely EPIC Champions League Final:

And a few more screenies:

Squad -

Transfers -

Thinking of getting rid of Saha (he's been terrible for me) and possibly bringing in Vaughan from Everton...couple of others I'm keeping tabs on but feel free to suggest

I lost to Chelsea in Champs league final 2-3 but i had Tevez, Rooney, Scholes, Ronaldo, Fernandez, Vidic all out!

[Got_Talent?]

A 24 game winning streak and 36 unbeaten run sent me to a beautiful Treble though beat Chelsea in FA cup final muhahahahah. thrashed Everton 3-0 in league cup. 14 pts clear end of prem.

[Rydo L]

Right, just finished my 1st season finishing 1st in the league in the closest title race i have ever been involved in in FM.

I won the league with 1 goal with arsenal finishing 2nd and chelsea 3rd. We all finished with 77 points. What a season!!!

I'm now starting my 2nd season with the transfer window now closed.

Transfers In:

Marcelo - £5.5m

Baines - £8m

Aguero - £37m

Guardado - £35m Total = £88m

Transfers Out:

Cathcart - 500K

Evra - £40m

O'Shea - £10m

Saha - £10m

Brandy - £5m

Park JS - £8m

Nani - £20m

Gibson - £8.5m Total = £102m

Sorry i don't know how to post screenshots so i will post my squad here:

Kuszczak

Van der saar

Neville

Brown

Pique

Vidic

Ferdinand

Baines

Silvestre

Hargreaves

Carrick

Scholes

Van der Vaart

Anderson

Guardado

Marcelo

Ronaldo

Giggs

Aaritallo

Tevez

Rooney

Aguero

Hoping to win the league again this year and maybe the Champs league tho it is'nt going well at the moment as i am 9th in the league 11 points behind chelsea.

I will keep you updated!

[Guest bhoy1980]

Gutted to lose the EPL to Chelsea on the final day - 1 point the difference. My only really big signing was Riquelme - not been brilliant to be honest. I'll apologise in advance but I sold Ronaldo to Arsenal as I wanted to see how I could fare without him. Nihat has been a reasonable replacement as I've won the league cup, Fa Cup and Champs League.

Anyone got any suggestions for a target man for next season?

[davehanson]

Originally posted by bhoy1980:

Gutted to lose the EPL to Chelsea on the final day - 1 point the difference. My only really big signing was Riquelme - not been brilliant to be honest. I'll apologise in advance but I sold Ronaldo to Arsenal as I wanted to see how I could fare without him. Nihat has been a reasonable replacement as I've won the league cup, Fa Cup and Champs League.

Anyone got any suggestions for a target man for next season?

Depends on how much you have to spend really. I got Berbatov from Spurs for 12 million, he is doing well. Or Kanoute from Sevilla or perhaps Dean Ashton from West Ham?

[cristianoronaldo]

Hey guys, not posted on here for aggesss. just in march of my first season, unbeaten in all competitions, only game i lost was the charity shield.

bought in miguel veloso, and gonzalo rodiguez from villareal. neither have had that many games to the vidic and rio being awesome. hopefully ill be able to afford a few yougsters this summer, bojan, gio dos santos and aguero are my favourites. any other recomendations? cheers

[b101]

Originally posted by cristianoronaldo:

Hey guys, not posted on here for aggesss. just in march of my first season, unbeaten in all competitions, only game i lost was the charity shield.

bought in miguel veloso, and gonzalo rodiguez from villareal. neither have had that many games to the vidic and rio being awesome. hopefully ill be able to afford a few yougsters this summer, bojan, gio dos santos and aguero are my favourites. any other recomendations? cheers

Look at Giovinco (Juventus) - expensive, but looks like he'll be amazing in the near future!

Originally posted by bhoy1980:

Gutted to lose the EPL to Chelsea on the final day - 1 point the difference. My only really big signing was Riquelme - not been brilliant to be honest. I'll apologise in advance but I sold Ronaldo to Arsenal as I wanted to see how I could fare without him. Nihat has been a reasonable replacement as I've won the league cup, Fa Cup and Champs League.

Anyone got any suggestions for a target man for next season?

Again, depends how much you have, look at:

Cavani (Palermo - £30Mish)

Benzema (Lyon - £30Mish)

Zigic (Valencia - £25Mish) - 6ft8!!!

Llorente (Bilbao - £20Mish)

Elmander (£10Mish)

basically just search for a target man (e.g. Carew) right click and choose create filter from - the most useful function ever in FM!

[Pigface]

WTF is with Iceland? I can't seem to get any other feeder club recommendations... positively annoying!

[genx]

Originally posted by b101:

Originally posted by cristianoronaldo:

basically just search for a target man (e.g. Carew) right click and choose create filter from - the most useful function ever in FM!

hmm i cant seem to find the filter can you tell me where issit ? thanks

[seongchow]

Originally posted by Pigface:

WTF is with Iceland? I can't seem to get any other feeder club recommendations... positively annoying!

If you reputation in the club is good enough you can request for different kind of feeder club, the option can be found on the bottom right of the affiliation screen. If you did not choose specific feeders club, you would only get icelanic clubs. It happened to me before.

[davidbowie]

Originally posted by genx:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by b101:

Originally posted by cristianoronaldo:

basically just search for a target man (e.g. Carew) right click and choose create filter from - the most useful function ever in FM!

hmm i cant seem to find the filter can you tell me where issit ? thanks </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Right click on a players name, go to MISC and then Create Player Search Filter.

It comes up with a filter of their main position, and somewhere between 2/3 and 10 of their main attributes at 15, so you only get players who are similar enough to the first one.

[Cris7Ronaldo]

i'm very angry with the game..

every match i play, one goal at least got to be cancelled..

is it a bug in the game and is it fixed in the beta patch??

if so ,, anyone have the crack of the beta patch..

thanks

[Adiee]

Cris7Ronaldo - I find that happening to me all the time mate.

Guarantee every game a have at least one goal ruled out for offside!

It is annoying!

[op1]

Hey guys,

Though I support Man utd, I reckon some players are overrated such as Fletcher, O'Shea and Wes Brown.

Wes Brown starts with a value of 7.75 mil I think which is... well i don't know what to think except that's way to high.

As fellow red devils (mostly) what do you think?

[genx]

Originally posted by davidbowie:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by genx:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by b101:

Originally posted by cristianoronaldo:

basically just search for a target man (e.g. Carew) right click and choose create filter from - the most useful function ever in FM!

hmm i cant seem to find the filter can you tell me where issit ? thanks </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Right click on a players name, go to MISC and then Create Player Search Filter.

It comes up with a filter of their main position, and somewhere between 2/3 and 10 of their main attributes at 15, so you only get players who are similar enough to the first one. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

ahh found thanks alot thats very useful to me now

[PhilJay]

Regarding strikers, there are two playing for Palmero, Amuari (Uncapped Brazilain I got for 12mill, scored 6 in 3, good, but 27) and also Edison Cavani, who is/was/becomes a wonderkid in my game. Looks very promising.

[Dudley01]

After deleting my last game by accident (won league and champ league double first season) I have started as United again.

Only outs have been Dong Fangzhou, Kieron Lee and Tom Heaton.

Only ins are Saivet, Wijnaldum and Adriano on a season loan from Inter.

Piatti chose to join Arsenal and Aaritalo went to City!!!

I'm almost at January in first season so 2008 and have £20 mil to spend - increased transfer budget by lowering wage budget... I love the budget adjustment on this version.

I'm playing a modified attacking 4-4-2 with Nani cutting in from the left and Ronaldo staying by the right byline.

I had Rooney with high creativity and a barrow but he wasn't scoring so I have removed the barrow and lowered his creativity and it seems to have done the trick as he is now scoring regularly.

Tevez is on fire with 17 goals already plus Adriano is proving to be a good back-up. Saha isn't playing and is unhappy so I will try to offload in the transfer window.

Any suggestions for a striker with my £20 mil?

I'm really trying for Cavani (Palermo) and Benzema (Lyon) as both have PA's of 180 but the clubs want more than £30 mil for each so who should I buy?

Usual suspects like Pandev have already gone.

Has anyone has Quagliarella and if so, how does he do?

I'm into the semi's of the league cup, have qualified from CL group with one game to go and am 4th in the league (but my one game in hand will put me top) and the board are unhappy with my league position!

Thanks,

Duds

[Guest]

Has anyone managed to get Messi? If so, how much did you have to pay, and when did you manage to get him? I have a lot of cash (in third season) but struggling to get bid accepted and he is not interested when i try to unsettle him

[U\'s Fan]

I need some good advice!

The board have just accepted a bid of £36.75Mil from Inter for Evra, and I wanted to keep him.

Silly me for negotiating £6.75Mil + £30Mil over 24mths!

Can someone recommend a good Left wingback to replace him. Similar quality down the flank to link with Nani. Otherwise I might be stuffed, as he is pure quality at the moment.

I am disappointed but life must go on...

[U\'s Fan]

Another update...Vidic sold for £10mil + £20mil over 24mths to Barca.

That gets me out of the financial pooh...at least I have Pique to step in.

I am a little concerned now that two defensive stallwarts have been sold by Gill! and we are only in January.

The league sees me 2nd to the Arse by two points, with Chelsea three points back from me and 20 games gone.

Just be Arsenal at the Emirates 2-0 in the LC Semi 1st League...woohoo!

[Crabby3]

Great left back Marcelo from real mandrid 5.5 mil release cause

[Crabby3]

Originally posted by genx:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by davidbowie:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by genx:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by b101:

Originally posted by cristianoronaldo:

basically just search for a target man (e.g. Carew) right click and choose create filter from - the most useful function ever in FM!

hmm i cant seem to find the filter can you tell me where issit ? thanks </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Right click on a players name, go to MISC and then Create Player Search Filter.

It comes up with a filter of their main position, and somewhere between 2/3 and 10 of their main attributes at 15, so you only get players who are similar enough to the first one. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

ahh found thanks alot thats very useful to me now </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

What does this do?

[XbeastMx]

Pre-season update

2008/2009 (about to start 2009/2010)

Transfers In

Helder Barbosa from Porto for $180K

Henri Saivet from Girondins Bordeaux for $8M (AMAZING player)

Robert Hauger from Viking for $425K

Oscar Ustari from Getafe for $15.75M (replaces Van Der Sar)

Fabio and Rafael from Fluminense for a total of $4.8M (Fabio has great potential)

Christian Nazarith from America for $400K (GREAT future)

John Arne Riise from Liverpool for $23.5M

Mikel Arteta from Everton for $27M

Daniel Alves from Sevilla for $34M (was transfer listed)

Eric Stevens from Germinal Beerschot on a free transfer

Ivan Kovacik from Naftex for $30K

Yessu Cabrera from La Enquidad for $700K (GREAT player)

Romeo Horvat from Hajduk on a free transfer

Matias Fernandez from Villarreal for 34M

Total $149M

Transfers Out

David Gray to Drogheda Utd on a free transfer

Gerard Pique to Inter for $22.5M

Michael Barnes to Kilmarnock on a free transfer

Ryan Shawcross on a free transfer

Michael Lea on a free transfer

Sean Evans on a free transfer

Robert-Ron Zieler on a free transfer

Tomasz Kuszczak to Newcastle for $7.5M

Charles N'Zogbia to Everton for $24.5M

James Derbyshire on a free transfer

Antonio Bryan on a free transfer

Daniel Drinkwater on a free transfer

Magnus Eikrem to Scunthorpe for $725K

Adam Eckersley to Watford for $2.2M

Martin Lee to Derby for $5.25M

Kieran Lee to Wigan for $2.5M

Richard Eckersley to Southend for $875K

Christopher Fagan to Southend for $875K

Formation

Home 4-4-2 with AM L/R attacking

Away 4-1-1-3-1

Squad

At end of 2008/2009 season the line-up as follows

GK Ustari/Foster

RB Alves

RB Wes Brown

RB Danny Simpson (potential)

CB Vidic

CB Ferdinand

CB Jonathan Evans (amazing)

CB Craig Cathcart (potential)

LB Evra

CM Hargreaves

CM Carrick

AML Ronaldo/Barbosa

AMR Nani/Saivet

AMC Rafael Van Der Vaart/Tevez/Anderson/Fernandez/Cabrera

ST Rooney/Pazzini/Nazarith

Tevez is backup ST

Fernandez is backup AML

End of season update

Community Shield vs. Arsenal at a loss 3-1

Euro. Super Cup vs. Chelsea at a win 3-1

Club World Champ. Final vs. River at a loss 2-1

League Cup Final vs. Middlesbrough at a win 3-0

FA Cup Final vs. Chelsea at a win 3-0

Champions Cup Final vs. Inter at a win 4-4 (penalties 4-3)(Vidic gamewinning penalty)

Premier Division winners (check out screenshot)

End of season league table

</A>">

Manager’s thoughts on the season

Too many high end funds transfer in/out, made sure for season 2009/2010 that it would stop and try to focus on English targets. My scouts found tons of potential, some I recruited for U18/reserves. The following players will start for 2009/2010 season as backup/rotation; barbosa, saivet, nazarith and cabrera. Jonathan Evans, Craig Cathcart and Danny Simpson are staying with the first team since Jonathan Evans made the Manchester United 11 of the season 2008/2009 instead of Vidic. Cathcart and Simpson did well the few times they played during the season. Scholes, Giggs, Neville and Van Der Sar have been moved to the reserves but will not be sold, they will be offered a role in the training staff team. Former key players that are in the reserves labeled for transfer is Chris Eagles and Park Ji-Sung.

The season was tough, had a lot of fallbacks towards the end of the season and if Chelsea had not played 3-3 vs. Portsmouth and United won vs. Stoke with 2-1, then we would not have won the League. I lost Carlos which was a huge blow for me and the team; however his replacement, Ricardo Moniz from Empoli was a good addition which loads of potential. The formations I have chosen work, but I must make sure I am positive towards the lads during our pre-, during and post talks for games. I did some staff changes between the years 2007-2009;

In 2007 I brought in Francisco Seirul.lo as a fitness coach from Barcelona. Robert Roelofsen joined us from Wolfsburg as a coach.

In 2007 we lost one of our scouts, Gilles Rouillon.

In 2008 I brought in Stefano Rapetti from Inter as a youth coach, Ed Nagtegaal from AZ as a coach, Paco Herrera from Espanyol as a coach, Nicky Hammond from Reading as a scout, Robert Duverne from Olympique Lyonnais as a fitness coach, Sarge Recordier from OGC Nice as a scout and Daniel Rolland from Aj Auxerre as a scout.

In 2008 we lost the following scouts due to lack of skill needed for the future of the team; Jimmy Ryan, Martin Ferguson, Derek Langley, Vernon Lee, Jim Lawlor and Eric Harrison. The following training and medical staff were also let go due to advancement needed within the player staff; Mike Phelan, Tony Whelan and Garry Armer.

In 2008 I promoted Rene Meulensteen to First Team Coach.

Very few staff changes will be made for upcoming season 2009/2010, since it flows perfectly with our new custom targeted positional training. Our scouting staff is also working intensively on future blood for United instead of the current hot blooded players on the market.

Transfer targets 2009/2010

Leighton Baines from Everton for a rotation role with Evra.

David Bayarri who is a U18 player with great potential.

Ashley Young from Aston Villa who has already signed a backup contract for the first team.

The last signing will be a Key Star Striker, where the current targets lay on; Torres (will cost a fortune because he is not interested), David Villa (wants to be transfer listed) and Sergio Aguero (currently a bid war has started).

If possible due to Evra’s age I have to start looking for a replacement. Baines has the future of backup/rotation play, but I don’t think he can fill Evra’s shoes.

I have the intention of keeping season 2009/2010 VERY low on transfer targets and purchases of transfer targets. The first team is at 100% coverage if Baines and (torres, villa or aguero) joins. The only first team transfer out for season 2009/2010 will be Giampaolo Pazzini plus free transfers from reserves and a few low key reserve players.

[XbeastMx]

Sorry, End of season league table;

[seongchow]

08/09

Season Summary

EPL Champion, Chelsea 2nd, Arsenal 3rd

FA winner - 4-1 Chelsea

League winner - 6-3e Liverpool

ECC runners-up - 0-3 Real Madrid

Super Cup winners - 2-1 Tottenham

World club cham winners - 3-0 Saitama utd

Community Shield winners - 1-4 Chelsea

Squad

GK - Akinfeev/Foster/VDS

DR - Alves/Brown/Neville

DL - Evra/Silvestre/Oshea

DC - Ferdinand/Pique

DC - Vidic/Pique

MC - Hargreaves/Carrick/Fletcher

AMR - Ronaldo/Nani

AML - Giggs/Quaresma

ST - Rooney/Saivet

ST - Aguero/Tevez

Transfer in

July

Akinfeev - £9.25m + £5.25 after 40 league, replacement for VDS

D.Alves - £18.75m, replacement for Neville

R.Quaresma - £12.5m + £2.5m after 40 league, replacement for Giggs

Johannes Beer - £350k (scouted)

Rafael + Fabio

Jan

Van der Vaart - £14.5m

S.Aguero - £18.5m + 8.5 after 40 league

Transfer Out

July

Kuszczak - £4m Portsmouth

Saha - £2m Villa

M.Eikrem - £220k Wes Brom

B.Amos - £110k Portsmouth

Jan

M.Owen - £20m Arsenal!!!! (£11m profit)

Basically completed the pre-season transfer targets to replace some of the old players. Next seas

Notable Player

C.Ronaldo - 34 goals, 17 assists, 7.45 avr rate

Rooney - 22 goals, 14 assists, 7.13 avr rate

Anderson - 10 goals, 17 assists, 7 avr rate

Tevez - 27 goals, 10 assists , 6.94 avr rate

Evra - 1 goals, 6 assists, 5.96 tackle, 7.32 avr rate

Jan. transfer player

Quaresma - 12 goals, 11 assists, 7.20 avr rate

VDV - 10 goals, 6 assists, 7.32 avr rate

Aguero - 11 goals, 4 assists, 7.16 avr rate

Awards

Ronaldo - English footballer of the year, World Player of the year runner-up, EPL top scorer runner-up, ECC Best player runner-up. European Midfielder 3rd place.

Rooney - English Footballer of the year 3rd place.

Anderson - English Player's young player runner-up.

Quaresma - ECC best player.

Ferdinand - European Defender runner-up.

Vidic - European Defender 3rd place.

Six players in EPL Division Select

Six plyers in ECC Dream Team

Me - Manager of the year

Major injuries

Alves - 5 months

Rooney - 2 months

Quaresma - 2 months

Anderson - 1 months

Evra 2 months , 1 month

Not much to say about except the 3-0 lost to Real Madrid in ECC final. I was well beaten and outclass by the tactic. Other than that, the injuries from Alves was frustrating as he is on course to have a great season, his rating before injured was 7.20. Rooney injuries also did not help as he should be scoring much more than 22 goals.

Next season would be a low spending season for me. Will get rid some of the reserve players like ignasevich and park ji sung. Futhermore, i will give a chance to Cathcart and Evans as they show good signs.

Maybe will try to look for another wide player as Giggs is leaving plus a DR for backup. Other than that, the squad will stay the same as the one i am having.

[davidbowie]

@ U's Fan:

New Left Back = Baines. Young, bought him in the second year for 8 million, he has an AvR of 7.17 over 4 seasons, pops up with a few goals and usually 6-10 assists every season

@ OP1:

Brown = He is really over-rated compared to his RL stuff in 08. Don't sell him. Good backup for the DC's, and can play right back (not wing or full back though). Will last 3-4 seasons, his contract is cheap (26k or so), loyal. You can probably sell him around the age of 32 for half mil.

Fletcher = Useless. Not good enough for an attacking midfielder or attacking right winger (even as backup imo), not good enough to displace either carrick or hargreaves in a holding/playmaker defensive midfield role. Sell. You should be able to get at least 8 million. try over 24 months to see what you can get.

O'Shea = Nice backup/sub for the back four and defensive midfield. Cheap, loyal, you can play him in half a dozen matches a year and he won't get annoyed. Not a brilliant player, but a useful squad player. He should last 4-5 seasons.

@ nickhugh

I bought Messi for 44 million, after he signed a new contract with the 44 million release clause. Costs 125k plus 13k in app bonus.

For me:

09/10 - 32 apps - 7 goals - 17 assists - 7.06

10/11 - 32 apps - 7 goals - 15 assists - 7.19

11/12 - 7 apss - 1 goal - 3 assists - 6.86. (torn hamstring, out for 3 months, it's novemeber he has 1 month to go)

His rating is lowered in my formation because he is always taking long shots. It's lucky he is pretty good at them, because he often gets 6's even if we win because he shoots every shot wide or over the bar from 20 yards out.

[takaishi1]

fletcher is surprisingly good in my team =/

[nix_nax0102]

How do i make Tevez want to stay? Barcelona offered 35mil for him and i rejected, and now he says he's instructed his agent to find him a new club.

Help please thanks!

[NozEE]

Originally posted by nix_nax0102:

How do i make Tevez want to stay? Barcelona offered 35mil for him and i rejected, and now he says he's instructed his agent to find him a new club.

Help please thanks!

Sell then and buy Aguero or Pato!

[nch]

Started a new game of Man Utd - determined to improve finances and create a talented squad ...

Got in super talents with PA -10

Banega + Saivet and

Lulinha + Aaron (Next year)

with Anderson

Managed to snatch Akinfeev

and sold Saha+Fletcher+Silvestre + a lot of reserves

All these lowered my wage budget although I improved the training and scouting ...

Sacked plenty of coaches and scouts and physios

[davidbowie]

One more tip:

You can often get players to sign contract extensions with the sign on bonus removed, and often for the same money as their last contract.

If you have a good player, you should be aiming to keep them on a contract of a length of 4 years. Especially for players who get unhappy when you reject other teams.

A player unhappy can usually be placated with extended first team duties. Of course, if they are a rotation/backup then it's likely you will have to sell if they remain unhappy.

If you have an unhappy player and a short contract remaining (under 2 years, with under 1 year being an immediate situation to resolve), you really need to make a choice, do you try to play them in the team enough to make them happy again and as soon as they are happy, you sign a new contract, or do you attempt to cash in (remember the 24 month "negotiable" tip)?

[paulsgruff]

I've decided to start a game up with Man Utd, I do most seasons but have been pre-occupied with dafuge's challenge. I've gone off playing that a bit at the moment though incase I get stung by the contract renewal bug, so a nice Man Utd game should fill in the time well until the patch is released.

1st of September now, no signings, no sales, sticking with the squad I've got to see how they do. Champions League group just been drawn and is very similar to real life, with Roma, Sporting and Fenerbahce - fancy my chances of qualifying.

Results so far:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">Friendly A Dunfermline 2:0 (Rooney 2)

Friendly A Hearts 8:1 (Rooney, Fletcher, Ferdinand, Tevez, Carrick, Ronaldo, Gibson, Eagles

Friendly A Rangers 3:3 (Fletcher, Rooney 2)

Friendly A Antwerp 2:0 (Giggs, Campbell)

Community Shield N Chelsea 2:1 (Rooney 2)

Premier League A Man City 1:1 (Ronaldo)

Premier League H Sunderland 4:0 (Rooney 3, Tevez)

Premier League A Portsmouth 2:1 (Tevez, Nani) - Ronaldo Sent Off

Premier League H West Ham 3:0 (Tevez, Rooney, Carrick)</pre>

So a good start to the season so far, sitting top of the league, though Arsenal will leapfrog us if they win their game in hand. Rooney has started really well, scoring goals for fun. I'm also getting news items calling me a tinkerman because I haven't played the same formation twice yet, the team is so versatile this year

I'm hoping to play the whole season without making any new signings, but we will see how it is going in January - if I'm off the pace I might need to add a few players.

[Evon]

Ronaldo sent off at Pompey

[Fred_the_Red]

Originally posted by Rydo L:

Right, just finished my 1st season finishing 1st in the league in the closest title race i have ever been involved in in FM.

I won the league with 1 goal with arsenal finishing 2nd and chelsea 3rd. We all finished with 77 points. What a season!!!

I'm now starting my 2nd season with the transfer window now closed.

Transfers In:

Marcelo - £5.5m

Baines - £8m

Aguero - £37m

Guardado - £35m Total = £88m

Transfers Out:

Cathcart - 500K

Evra - £40m

O'Shea - £10m

Saha - £10m

Brandy - £5m

Park JS - £8m

Nani - £20m

Gibson - £8.5m Total = £102m

How on Earth did you sell Joh Oshea for 10mill? Evra for 40??

[paulsgruff]

Originally posted by Evon:

Ronaldo sent off at Pompey

Haha, yup. It was just as pathetic as the real life one too.

Ronaldo wants to swap shirts early with Kanu! - and off you go. Totally useless area of the field to be doing anything like that, 10 men behind the ball including Ronaldo and he still couldn't help himself

[paulsgruff]

Originally posted by Fred_the_Red:

How on Earth did you sell Joh Oshea for 10mill? Evra for 40??

I imagine this was probably over 24months. Then again, United got £5.5million for Richardson in real life, so that probably does put O'Shea around the £10million zone to be fair.

[Evon]

Originally posted by paulsgruff:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Evon:

Ronaldo sent off at Pompey

Haha, yup. It was just as pathetic as the real life one too.

Ronaldo wants to swap shirts early with Kanu! - and off you go. Totally useless area of the field to be doing anything like that, 10 men behind the ball including Ronaldo and he still couldn't help himself </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

What was Kanu even doing back there?

How on Earth did you sell Joh Oshea for 10mill? Evra for 40??

£10m for O'Shea I can just about swallow but £40m for Evra? Madness. Even using the trick of offering him around for nothing and then negotiating a high price over 24 months it's impossible. randy and Gibson for that price is is...tbf though he did over pay massively for Aguero and Guardado.

[davehanson]

Hi all.

First season as United, doing well, will post a season report at the end of the season. Anyway, end of December and Sevilla made an enquiry for Evra. Told them I wanted 5m up front plus 30m over 24 months. They came back with it, and Gill accepted, too good to turn down. Evra's been playing really well, average so far of 7.21, my 5th best player.

Who do I get to replace him. Have already sold O'Shea and Silvestre at the start of the season. Bought in a young French guy, Mamadou Sakho, but he is for the future not for now. Need a good defensive full back, with some ability to get forward. Marcelo has already gone to Milan, he is too weak defensively for my liking anyway.

Suggestions? Really want to keep it to 10m or less please.

Thanks, Dave.

[seongchow]

Originally posted by davehanson:

Hi all.

First season as United, doing well, will post a season report at the end of the season. Anyway, end of December and Sevilla made an enquiry for Evra. Told them I wanted 5m up front plus 30m over 24 months. They came back with it, and Gill accepted, too good to turn down. Evra's been playing really well, average so far of 7.21, my 5th best player.

Who do I get to replace him. Have already sold O'Shea and Silvestre at the start of the season. Bought in a young French guy, Mamadou Sakho, but he is for the future not for now. Need a good defensive full back, with some ability to get forward. Marcelo has already gone to Milan, he is too weak defensively for my liking anyway.

Suggestions? Really want to keep it to 10m or less please.

Thanks, Dave.

Baines, Bale or Chealini(spelling) perhaps?