FM 2008: Manchester United - Home of the Red Devils

[Barnetboyz]

Originally posted by Adiee:

I'm in a ruck as to whether to apply for the England post. no doubt I will get offered it. They have just won Euro 2012 and have got a young squad.

Should I?

yes, by that time they should have some quality players and i'm sure you can rule the world with them

[crazy gra]

And it means you can the see the stats of any English player without having to scout them.

Think I'll need to replace Neville for the start of the 2nd season as he's started to decline. Might not be a major problem as Brown is very good and there's also Simmo, but I'll get Alves if possible.

Think I'll go for Amauri too as I lacked an aerial threat last season.

[Danger1039]

Been trapsing through pages and pages of peoples United team only to notice a ditinct lack of Home grown talent!

Do you not feel Simpson, Lee, Martin, Brady can rule the world?

Ive been playing FM since 97/98 and always try and get rid of as many foreigners as possible...anyone else tried this with united with success?

[JawKam]

Originally posted by Danger1039:

Been trapsing through pages and pages of peoples United team only to notice a ditinct lack of Home grown talent!

Do you not feel Simpson, Lee, Martin, Brady can rule the world?

Ive been playing FM since 97/98 and always try and get rid of as many foreigners as possible...anyone else tried this with united with success?

The youngsters are good enough to play first team, but won't be as successful as the becks, scholes, etc

[Barnetboyz]

World Cup dream is over

bloody italians beat my poor Holland side 4-3 in semis, bastards (all except Barzagli ofc)

[jonahno6]

GK.Foster

DL.Sakho

DC.Evans

DC.Cathcart

DR.Samba

ML.Fleck

MC.Banega

MR.Ronaldo

AMC.Anderson

FC.Brandy

FC.Rooney

SB1. Bounzanis ?

SB2. Lee

SB3. Gibson

SB4. Tevez

SB5. O'Shea

Well thats the team i plan to use Danger1039, i'm trying to use as much HG talent as possible

[Evon]

Originally posted by Danger1039:

Been trapsing through pages and pages of peoples United team only to notice a ditinct lack of Home grown talent!

Do you not feel Simpson, Lee, Martin, Brady can rule the world?

Ive been playing FM since 97/98 and always try and get rid of as many foreigners as possible...anyone else tried this with united with success?

You've missed out pretty much all the good ones. Simpson is the only one with any really chance of breaking into the first team tbh. Brandy has a good chance too but he's a striker which is a tough position to fill especially at Man Utd. It's all about Evans, Cathcart, Gibson, Eagles, Welbeck and Campbell.

[alcatel]

is walcott worth signing

[xx11]

Originally posted by diontheace:

Sorry about the long post it's just been a pretty good season, any suggestions about my squad (bare in mind it wont have Park, Kuskczak or Carrick, but will have Van Der Vaart and Ochoa) and how to improve it would be helpful, I've got £35m to spend.

Me personally, I would look for another forward, ship out Saha (though looks like he does ok for you I dont like him).

Also possibly look for a left back to cover Evra as Silvestre wont be up to the job much longer

[Dave Liddle]

christian pander - free at end of season, good back up for evra (even tho i sold evra )

[danodamano]

I managed to get Armand Traore for £8.5m + 20% sell on at the start of the first season as Evras long term backup, he's fantastic!!

[Dave Liddle]

i offered 10mill for armand traore - which arsenal rejected and wanted 37mill - ha! hes not that good

[crazy gra]

crazy gra's Start of Game Guide - Updated

I thought it would be worthwhile to do a guide to starting a new Man Utd game. This will give everyone an idea of how to go about a new game and the main things to get sorted before the season gets underway. Let's begin with the current team and see how that shapes up:

Initial Squad

If you want to have at least one season with just the current squad, which is probably a decent challenge and saves you some time in the transfer market, then what team should you be using?

Well, the Man Utd squad at the start has a very good depth to it and plenty of cover for every position except for strikers. That said, the best team to choose based on a 4-4-2 for simplicity is probably:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

Van der Sar

Neville Vidic Ferdinand Evra

Ronaldo Hargreaves Anderson Giggs

Rooney Tevez

</pre>

I personally use a 4-4-1-1 (or 4-2-3-1 in attacking versions) as the lone ST exploits space well and with Rooney and Tevez you can use them both and have them swapping positions.

In my opinion the rest of the squad is more than capable to fill in in times of injury, poor form or rotation. Kuszczak, Brown, O'Shea, Pique, Silvestre, Nani, Carrick, Fletcher, Scholes, Martin and Saha are good players too. The youth players such as Jonny Evans, Danny Simpson, Richie Jones, Darron Gibson, Chris Eagles, Dong Fangzhuo and Fraizer Campbell are also good enough to fill in if needed.

Transfers

The initial squad is full of quality and easily capable of winning the league at least as well as being able to progress far in the cups. However, we get around £10m to spend at the start and we might as well use it. Mainly the squad needs another striker, but what players are expendable that we can ship out? The following players can be sold (some with approximate prices over 24 month installments):

- Tomasz Kuszczak, £7.5m

- Phillip Bardsley, £3m

- John O'Shea, £5m

- Darren Fletcher, £10m

- Chris Eagles

- Louis Saha, £10m

- Park, £7.5m (more likely in January)

Selling Saha is not really advised unless you're using a formation with a single ST. Likewise with Kuszczak - his stats are only average but does a good job as a backup. You can sell him if you can buy a decent young keeper on the cheap. Foster is a good keeper but is injured until March, so it's probably best to keep Kuszczak for the first season. I use a 4-4-1-1 and kept Saha but the AMC is more of a forward than a midfielder. Fletcher is another good player, so only sell him if you buy a midfielder. So who to buy? (A lot of these will depend on unsettling)

Keepers: Lloris, Ochoa, Ustari, Riou, Grohe.

Defenders: Cassani, Sakho (free), Breno (£7m), Barzagli (£7m), De Silvestri, Alves (£15m), Cahais (£1m)

Midfielders: Banega (£3m), Van der Vaart (£13m), Matias Fernandez (£10m), Carvalho (£3m when his contract expires), Piatti (£200k)

Forwards: Amauri (£10m), Aguero, Owen (£10m), Pandev (£15m), Ashton (£11m), Vela (£5m), Adriano (loan), Bojan (loan).

Obviously, you're not going to be able to afford all of them unless you sold Ronaldo and Rooney. Some of those players you might be able to get very cheap or on a free, which is fine, but save your money for a striker, so more on them:

What type of striker do you want? If you're after a target man then Amauri seems a very good option as he's also got the abilities to play as a quick ST. Dean Ashton has good qualities and isn't expensive as well as keeping the team more English. For quick strikers, then unsettling the likes of Aguero or Owen will be well worth it. If you use money elsewhere, then loaning Adriano or Bojan is also worthwhile.

As for me, I signed Matias Fernandez as he has the versatility to play on both wings, in centre midfield and also upfront, although he'll need to be retrained on the right wing and at FC. At £10m he is an absolute bargain and I cannot recommend him enough. He was the only senior player I signed at the start and has been one of my best players. He is a must to sign in my opinion and doesn't even need unsettling to get the price down to £10m

Other Youth players to buy for the future:

Saivet, Stancu, Kroos, Torje, Wijinaldum, Fraga, Rybka

Coaches

You always need to sort out the coaches at the start of the game, so here's which initial coaches should do what training:

- Queiroz: Defending, 7 stars

- Dempsey (promote from youth coach): Ball Control, 7 stars

- Meulensteen: Shooting, 7 stars

- Coton, Hartis: Goalkeeping, 7 stars

- Harrison: Set Pieces, 6 stars (Cannot find any 7 star set piece coach in the game!)

So you need to buy other coaches to fill the rest of the training. There are usually some very good regen coaches at the start which should provide you with a cheap 7 star trainer if you're lucky and one is my 7 star tactics coach, but I've also found:

- Aroso, Duverne: Fitness, 7 stars.

- Steve Burns: Attacking, 7 stars.

I think that's all. If there's anything glaring that anyone wants to add, then shout up. Please refer new people to this when they start a new game and ask for "who to sign/sell etc".

[trundle]

Ok, I was looking at Klaas Jan Huntelaar, he seems to be the type of striker to replace Saha, since he is getting on. I need to buy players who wont complain though, because my rotation policy is out of necessity. I don't think spending £15m on Amauri would be worth it to have him moan. Pazzini looks, good, but again, is he worth it?

Huntelaar: should accept rotation role; good striker (better than his jumping stat suggests; not sure about cost, he left ajax for 14m in my game.

Pazzini: will accept rotation role; good striker (not brilliant but is young and has nice versatility, playing TM or QS); left Fiorentina for 15m in my game but they were doing very well.

John O'Shea and Fletcher are happy to sit on the bench, and they cover leftback and CM, but not as well as I'd have hoped. Would it be worth selling both and buying backups?

I think this is just down to personal opinion so here's what I did:

Have kept O'Shea, playing him around 20 times a season and naming him on the bench for almost every game. However, I think that Evans could easily replace him in a back-up DLC/DMC role. I'm not sure of players outside of the club.

Sold Fletcher first season for £9m + 30% sell-on fee (which amounted to £5m). He's a good squad player who I like a lot, but he wouldn't have had the chance to develop under me, and I feel that Gibson can take his place in the squad.

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

I'm having an absolutely terrible third season. I'm yet to lose a league game, but I'm close to going out of the CL group stages and every game is becoming a struggle.

I decided to compile some statistics, and while it feels like the AI is easily picking up cheap goals each game, it appears that this is incorrect.

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

After 20 games:

Me

Shots per game: 18.8

Shots on target per game: 11.1

Goals per game: 1.5

AI

Shots per game: 7.55

Shots on target per game: 4

Goals per game: 0.55

Me

% of SOT: 59%

Amount of shots per goal: 12.1

Amount of SOT per goal: 7.16

AI

% of SOT: 53%

Amount of shots per goal: 13.73

Amount of SOT per goal: 7.27

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

Nothing of particular interest there, just thought I'd share what I found anyway. I've fallen to under 10 shots per game for the last few outings so I'm going to have to do some tactical changes. I blame some of the statistics on the match engine, but I obviously need to find a way to be more clinical. De Sanctis has been very solid, he only seems to have trouble with one-on-one situations with no angle - his high rushing out stat combined with his low pace means that he gets rounded quite often. I think I'm going to take the team to pieces over the summer and go all out for Ibrahimovic. I'm close to sealing a 7m deal for Giovinco (currently in November) who will become my first choice AML, and will try and pick up the transfer listed and contract expiring Pirlo for under 5m in January.

[deadmanwalking11]

anyone managed to resign ferguson?

[necrokiller]

found a good regen. avail at man utd from 08/09 season. name: tim cahill RB 17 yrs old. anyone got exp with him?

[Barnetboyz]

Originally posted by necrokiller:

found a good regen. avail at man utd from 08/09 season. name: tim cahill RB 17 yrs old. anyone got exp with him?

hes a regen so i very much doubt he is in anyone elses games

[Evon]

Originally posted by diontheace:

Oh yeah, had anyone found that Derby sign a 30 yr old striker with 20 Finnishing who scores about 30 goals and walks the to mid table, cant remember his name off hand, I'll post it later.

I've found that they're bloody overachievers. I only beat them 2-0 Their bloody players are so ****ing overrated it's amazing. Who's the researcher responsible for this travesty?

[crazy gra]

Probably the Derby researcher

[crazy gra]

Originally posted by trundle:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Ok, I was looking at Klaas Jan Huntelaar, he seems to be the type of striker to replace Saha, since he is getting on. I need to buy players who wont complain though, because my rotation policy is out of necessity. I don't think spending £15m on Amauri would be worth it to have him moan. Pazzini looks, good, but again, is he worth it?

Huntelaar: should accept rotation role; good striker (better than his jumping stat suggests; not sure about cost, he left ajax for 14m in my game.

Pazzini: will accept rotation role; good striker (not brilliant but is young and has nice versatility, playing TM or QS); left Fiorentina for 15m in my game but they were doing very well. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Go for Amauri. The other two lack some stats whereas you can't really fault Amarui.

I'm going to try to play Fletch more in my 8.0.2 game because he is actually a good player. Probably going to keep using my 4-4-1-1 and sell Saha and give Fletcher more games as he's better.

And probably most people are having problems scoring. The "shoots straight at keeper" bug should hopefully be sorted for 8.0.2 so we can see how that changes things. I'm going to try using a lower mentality so players don't try difficult efforts as much.

[dukedevil0]

barnetboyz can you please put up some details about your tactics? it seems your players are outperforming mine by at least 50%

[Dave Liddle]

lol wolves av just signed damien duff for 450k on mine cud of been a nice backup!

[Evon]

Originally posted by crazy gra:

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

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Ok, I was looking at Klaas Jan Huntelaar, he seems to be the type of striker to replace Saha, since he is getting on. I need to buy players who wont complain though, because my rotation policy is out of necessity. I don't think spending £15m on Amauri would be worth it to have him moan. Pazzini looks, good, but again, is he worth it?

Huntelaar: should accept rotation role; good striker (better than his jumping stat suggests; not sure about cost, he left ajax for 14m in my game.

Pazzini: will accept rotation role; good striker (not brilliant but is young and has nice versatility, playing TM or QS); left Fiorentina for 15m in my game but they were doing very well. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Go for Amauri. The other two lack some stats whereas you can't really fault Amarui.

I'm going to try to play Fletch more in my 8.0.2 game because he is actually a good player. Probably going to keep using my 4-4-1-1 and sell Saha and give Fletcher more games as he's better.

And probably most people are having problems scoring. The "shoots straight at keeper" bug should hopefully be sorted for 8.0.2 so we can see how that changes things. I'm going to try using a lower mentality so players don't try difficult efforts as much. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Amauri isn't particularly brilliant at anything, so he's similar to Huntelaar in that respect. I always go for one type of striker or the other. TM-Toni, FS-Aguero, FC-Rooney or a new one I've created especially for Owen: PS or poacher.

[adonis]

Becks reborn?

Just found this regen in my Barcelona game, scouted him but not worthwhile a signing.

[crazy gra]

Quite obviously not a worthwhile signing, but great find mate

[Barnetboyz]

Charity Shield \o/

bit **** taking that i had to make 2 subs for 2 injured players in the first 15 mins

peopel keeping bidding for Torje which is annoying and have had bids in the range of 15M-17M which i've rejected but thankfully the interest in world class centre back Sakho has ended \o/

[Phenomenon]

Just finished my first season with united, about to start my second. Will post a season review in a bit, but was wondering if I should sell Evra to Barca for 23 million? I have pander as back up, by the way.

[Hitchy]

Originally posted by Phenomenon:

Just finished my first season with united, about to start my second. Will post a season review in a bit, but was wondering if I should sell Evra to Barca for 23 million? I have pander as back up, by the way.

I wouldn't sell Evra in the second season as I think he is the best LB in the game.

If you do sell I would go for Marcelo (5.5) or bale to replace him.

[xx11]

Originally posted by Phenomenon:

Just finished my first season with united, about to start my second. Will post a season review in a bit, but was wondering if I should sell Evra to Barca for 23 million? I have pander as back up, by the way.

I wouldnt.. into the 12/13 season and he still is a class act. I wouldnt sell him for less then 30million at that stage and would want close to 20million as is even at this stage if I was to think of selling him.

[Sheps.]

Heyup guys,

I'm back, so I thought I'd give ya'll an update as to how my Utd team is looking/doing going into my 2nd season now.

Last season was 'great success' I won the minor treble (EPL, FA Cup + League Cup), but missed out on Europe by being beaten 3-1 by Barca in the final. The scoreline flattered them to say the least. Anyway, I came into the new season with £35M to spend, and I straight went hunting for a striker who could become Rooney's strike partner (as both Tevez and Martins are too inconsistant). After I had got my striker, my focus turned towards finding a new winger because of Giggs becoming older and therefore, worse, which would leave me with just Nani and Ronaldo for the wings (Eagles left in January 08). Another priority was a LB, and I got my main target after a while, mostly through luck really. Then I went for the youth that my scouts were yearning for me to buy.

Anyway, now to reveal who I signed and answer all your guesses:

- Giusseppe Rossi - £25.5M - Yep, I brought back the would-be legend. I just couldnt let him go to Milan or Chelsea, it had to be my club.

- Giles Barnes - £12.5M - Derby somehow survived relegation on my game (probably all down to this man tbh) so made me pay a hefty price. However I'm not that bothered, because he's been so good that Nani will have a hard time of grabbing his place back when he returns from injury.

- Gareth Bale - P/ex - Immense-ness Id been bidding for him all summer but Spurs kept rejecting, then out of the blue they offered him + £13M in package which would ensure Michael Carrick goes back to the London club.

- Ever Banega - £5.75 - Quite cheap and I needed backup for Hargreaves since Carrick has gone. I think I'm going to retrain him as a AMC though coz he has all the stats neccesary really.

+ Fabio, Rafael and some regens/youth.

I sold:

Philips Bardsley - £1.9M

Tomasz Kuszczak - £5.5M

PJS - £4.7M

John O'Shea - £10M

Obafemi Martins - £22M

Dong Fangzhuo - £2M

Michael Carrick - £13M + P/ex

+ A load of unwanted reserves went on frees or to small clubs for small cash.

So, my squad looks something like:

What do you think? Feel free to post comments

[Sheps.]

Sorry, didnt mean to post that link, I havent used Imageshack in ages. Anyway, I'll try again:

[dukedevil0]

Originally posted by dukedevil0:

barnetboyz can you please put up some details about your tactics? it seems your players are outperforming mine by at least 50%

.

[Barnetboyz]

Originally posted by dukedevil0:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by dukedevil0:

barnetboyz can you please put up some details about your tactics? it seems your players are outperforming mine by at least 50%

. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

fine fine fine

its a fast tempo, attacking tactic which relies on its Wingers mainly and has one of the strikers holding up the ball while the rest of the attack joins in

anything else?

[Evon]

Originally posted by Sheps.:

Heyup guys,

I'm back, so I thought I'd give ya'll an update as to how my Utd team is looking/doing going into my 2nd season now.

Last season was 'great success' I won the minor treble (EPL, FA Cup + League Cup), but missed out on Europe by being beaten 3-1 by Barca in the final. The scoreline flattered them to say the least. Anyway, I came into the new season with £35M to spend, and I straight went hunting for a striker who could become Rooney's strike partner (as both Tevez and Martins are too inconsistant). After I had got my striker, my focus turned towards finding a new winger because of Giggs becoming older and therefore, worse, which would leave me with just Nani and Ronaldo for the wings (Eagles left in January 08). Another priority was a LB, and I got my main target after a while, mostly through luck really. Then I went for the youth that my scouts were yearning for me to buy.

Anyway, now to reveal who I signed and answer all your guesses:

- Giusseppe Rossi - £25.5M - Yep, I brought back the would-be legend. I just couldnt let him go to Milan or Chelsea, it had to be my club.

- Giles Barnes - £12.5M - Derby somehow survived relegation on my game (probably all down to this man tbh) so made me pay a hefty price. However I'm not that bothered, because he's been so good that Nani will have a hard time of grabbing his place back when he returns from injury.

- Gareth Bale - P/ex - Immense-ness Id been bidding for him all summer but Spurs kept rejecting, then out of the blue they offered him + £13M in package which would ensure Michael Carrick goes back to the London club.

- Ever Banega - £5.75 - Quite cheap and I needed backup for Hargreaves since Carrick has gone. I think I'm going to retrain him as a AMC though coz he has all the stats neccesary really.

+ Fabio, Rafael and some regens/youth.

I sold:

Philips Bardsley - £1.9M

Tomasz Kuszczak - £5.5M

PJS - £4.7M

John O'Shea - £10M

Obafemi Martins - £22M

Dong Fangzhuo - £2M

Michael Carrick - £13M + P/ex

+ A load of unwanted reserves went on frees or to small clubs for small cash.

So, my squad looks something like:

What do you think? Feel free to post comments

Way too much for Rossi considering how little he went for irl and his skill. Barnes is pretty unimpressive and again too much for him. Great deal for Bale and Banega is alright. Not a DM at all though. Nice prices for Kuszczak, O'Shea, Martins and Carrick but you could have got more for the others. And all of your links suck.

[xx11]

Originally posted by Evon:

Way too much for Rossi considering how little he went for irl and his skill. Barnes is pretty unimpressive and again too much for him. Great deal for Bale and Banega is alright. Not a DM at all though. Nice prices for Kuszczak, O'Shea, Martins and Carrick but you could have got more for the others. And all of your links suck.

I wouldnt say it is too much, just because we let ourself be screwed up when letting him go. He is more then worth the money in my mind.

In my game he has been basically the top scorer for my team every season. Though the front 3 (2amc, 1fc) rotate throughout the match he starts each game he plays as the front man. stats since i had him are:

Season Played Goals Assist

08/09 41(10) 25 15

09/10 53(2) 36 22

10/11 37(5) 34 10

11/12 34 22 10

12/13 33 28 10

To me that is a really good tally considering since 10/11 season he only plays in league matches due to my squad policy. Even in the 13/14 season he has played 9, scored 6, assists 3. Only person that scored more is Ronaldo who is certainly on form and appears to like my new team layout which now is up to 6 British,including 5 England players (Foster, Simpson, Rooney, Baxter and the surprise... Banega). I think what has helped Ronaldo really though is the fact Anderson now is in the same team as him as opposed to the second lineup. Really seemed to make Ronaldo flurish.

I think that Sheps will enjoy having Rossi back in a United shirt.

[crazy gra]

Rossi's clearly overrated in the game, but looks immense because of that. £25m is quite a lot to pay in only the 2nd season but he should be worth it.

Some great prices like Carrick, O'Shea and Martins, but you could have got more for Bardsley and Park.

Did you get £35m as a budget, did you alter the ambition to get it that high, or did you ask for more?

You really need an MCd/b now, although you could use Fletcher or Gibson there if you still have either of them. For an MCb - unsettle Lucas

[Sheps.]

Firstly, I just realised how bad my links are I didnt save them in PNG format

Next, Rossi is awesome, his general play is amazing to watch and his stats so far:

Apps - 3(1)

Goals - 3

Assists - 1

MoM - 1

Av Rat. - 7.50

And if you ever doubt Barnes again I will build enough strength up in CN so I can declare on you

*HUGE SAFETY WINK*

[Sheps.]

Originally posted by Sheps.:

Firstly, I just realised how bad my links are I didnt save them in PNG format

Next, Rossi is awesome, his general play is amazing to watch and his stats so far:

Apps - 3(1)

Goals - 3

Assists - 1

MoM - 1

Av Rat. - 7.50

And if you ever doubt Barnes again I will build enough strength up in CN so I can declare on you

*HUGE SAFETY WINK*

To Evon obv.

[xx11]

Originally posted by crazy gra:

Rossi's clearly overrated in the game, but looks immense because of that. £25m is quite a lot to pay in only the 2nd season but he should be worth it.

Wouldnt necessarily say over-rated. Stats for villareal this season so far:

18 appearances (including 4 as sub), 9 goals. So a goal every 2 games which is a pretty nice strike rate. It 8 goals in 10starts, 3 sub appearances in the league so not like they all came against a crap team in a cup match

[Evon]

He looks very similar to Owen. But he ain't got nothing on Owen. When Owen started out he had double the amount of goals than games played. £10m for Owen. £25m for Rossi. Hmmmmm. He may be younger but I'd find it pretty annoying to buy back a player who should be ours anyway

And if you dared declare on me I'd finish you in a day. I'm rich

[crazy gra]

If Rossi was really that good then I don't think we'd have sold him IRL. Don't we have a buy back clause on him IRL anyway?

[xx11]

Originally posted by crazy gra:

If Rossi was really that good then I don't think we'd have sold him IRL. Don't we have a buy back clause on him IRL anyway?

The reason we let him go was because he insisted on wanting first team football on a regular bases, with Tevez coming in and Saha being ahead of him in the peckin order that made him 4th choice hence they let him go.

As for a buy back clause.. there much confusion on that. Rossi and Fergi have stated there is a clause that will allow him to return to united, however they have not said if it buy back, first choice etc... however villareal denied there was such a clause so it would be one for a legal team i think

[God18]

Thought i would give a little(ish) update on how my 2nd season is going. Following barton's 1st season, in which the premier league was regained and an fa cup runners up medal was added, if not what they wanted. Semi finalist in the champs league was barton's biggest disappiontment and the summer started with transfer speculation. It was a very busy summer for Barton with players coming and going and alot of speculation.

Transfers out-

Darron Gibson 3.5 Mill New.Utd

Gibby felt there was too much competition and new.utd offered him more first team opportunities. 3.5 mill seemed good money for a fringe player.

Tomasz Kuszczak 9.5 Mill Pompey

Again wanted 1st team football, with VDS and Benny now fit Tommy was 3rd choice at best. Pompey enquired and 9.5 mill over 24months was a good deal.

Let some youngsters go on a free while the youngsters who i feel could have a future have been sent out on year loans.

Transfers IN

Maxi Rodriguez free Athletico Madrid

A great signing in my eyes. He can play up front, on the right or in the middle and will prove to be very key during the busy months. Has already shown he can step in with 5 goals

and 6 assists in 11(4)

Sergio Aguero 31 Mill Athletico Madrid

Spent serveral months and many talks to come to an agreement with Madrid for this amazing player. He is amazing and has got a great future at OT ahead of him. His start was delayed due to injury but has so far got 11 goals 7 assists ad 5 MOM in 13(5). Looks to be a great aquisition.

Klass-Jan Huntelaar 11.5 Mill Ajax

I spent many months after and out and out striker. Berby, anelka, owen were amoung the players that interested me but it was Klass-Jan Huntelaar who was finally brought in just 3 days before the window closed. Has also been slowly brought into the team and by Jan 10th 2009 has the following stats 10 goals 1 assist 2 MOM 12(4). Another who looks great for the future at 25 years old.

Rafa and fabio were also brought in for 1.2 Mill each and how so far shone for the reserves and under 18's.

Community Shield

Won the community shield beating Newcastle United on pens. Some type of revenge for the FA Cup final last May. Dominated the game which finished 0-0. Campbell converting the winning penalty.

Premiership

The champs started with a home game v West Ham and what a start we made. 7-0 winners and the scoreline didn't flatter us at all. Completely dominated. The midweek game v Bolton again we dominated. 4-1 up at half time in the 2nd half we were 5-3 up with 10 mins remaining. Bolton made it 5-4 with 8 to go and then a pen and a further goal both deep in injury time meant we somehow lost the game 6-5. By the end of October we had lost 4 times, away to Bolton(5-6) Arsenal(0-1) Chelsea (0-2) and Man.City (0-2). The most difficult thing to take from the last 3 was the fact we didn't score. For the first time we seemed to be in a mini crisis. 9th in the league(despite games in hand) and players losing trust in me. A meeting was called with club captain Gary Neville and the results of that meeting seemed to have a positive effect. 9 Games without defeat and 9 wins since. Wins against Spurs at home (2-1) and Villa away (2-1) showed how much more together we were as they were games that could have gone against us. Wins against Boro,Palace,Reading,Wigan,Leicester,Everton and Sunderland have all shown at times the type of football we played last season and are more then capable of. 3rd in the League as we go into 2009 and 2 points behind Arsenal with a game in hand and 7 points behind leaders Chelsea(same games) if we are to regain our title it will be a great acheivment with everything thats happened and will take charecter. It is time for us to stand up and be counted.

Champions League

Following last seasons campaign and how it ended, United had unfinished business to attend to this season with Barton very much wanting the Champs League as much as regaining the league. United were drawn into group E and a tricky group that consisted of Roma Schalke and Feyenoord. Away to Schalke kicked off this campaign. A goal on 28 mins gave United a much deserved 1-0 lead. Fernandez beauty. 5 mins into the second half and after being told to keep it tight for 15 mins United lost Altintop and it was 1-1. Schalke finished the last 20 with 10 but held out United. Roma at home was taken care of by a Tevez double (2-0). And then came the double header at Feyenoord. Knowing 2 wins could secure qualification United went into this double header wanting 6 out of 6. At Old Trafford Feyenoord were blown away. Just 2 mins in Huntelaar had broken the deadlock. That lead wasn't doubled untill Aguero caught the defence napping on 53 mins. Ronny got his 1st of the season on 82 with Sergio finishing the scoring on 87. Bisewar got one back on 85.

Away and qualification guarenteed with a win. Again a very early goal, Aguero 4mins, put United ahead. Makaay got things level on 20 but it only took 3 mins to regain the lead. Huntelaar on 23 with Rio 31 and Rooney 42 put the game beyound doubt it seemed. 4-1 up but again a slow second half and Yakin made it 4-2 after 47mins. Klass-Jan Huntelaar added a 5th and made things safe on 66 mins. Pique was dismissed late on but it didn't have any affect at all. My game of the season so far was the game at home to Schalke. It showed how good, and how bad, we had played during the premier season. At half time goals from Tevez Maxi Anderson and Nani made it 4-1. Completly dominating and playing sexy football. But by the 59th minute Schalke had scored 3 goals and it was 4-4. Changes were made and Tevez added his 2nd with Aguero sealing the win 6-4. The last game was at Roma and with top spot sealed a young, fringe mixed team went to italy. Another expolsive start saw Aguero get an opener after 2 mins. We dominated the first half but couldnt add to the tally. Yet again we concedded early in the 2nd half. on the 52 minute and 59th minute and we were behind,without really looking in trouble. Then on 67 mins disaster for O'Shea struck. a pass back to Foster seemed harmless then all of a sudden the ball rolled past Foster, who came to meet the pass, and into the emptey net. Looked alot like Gary Nev and Robinson for England.

We have been drawn against Lyon in the 1st knockout stage. Looking at the teams the quallified this season from the group stages it doesnt look like there are any weak teams this season and it will be a much harder 2nd half of the season. A challenge i am very much looking forward to.

League Cup

The third round saw a mouth watering tie against Spurs at Old Trafford. Following the 0-2 defeat at Chelsea, United were in no mood for a london double. Tevez got United going in 7 mins and at HT it was 2-0 with Maxi adding one on 22 mins. What followed in the second half was a football lesson. 7 goals in twenty seven mintues on 51 54 (Ferdandez) 58 (Maxi) 69 (Pique) 72 78 (Ferdandez) with Berby getting one back on 63. 8-1 to a United 2nd string. This game also gave me much delight with Pique and Evens partnering at the back. Evens kept Berby quiet all game and the goal came after a counter attack from a United corner. Fletch and Nani also had good games.

The 4th round was United at Sunderland and again they went in following a 0-2 loss in the league, this time at City. United dominated the 90 mins but it remained 0-0. 30 odd seconds into extra time Saha scored but it was cancalled out 6 mins later by Stokes. United and Sunderland both had chances but penalties would be needed to separate them. Both Scholes and Anderson missed as united lost 2-4 on pens. Aguero and Saha scoring thiers. Young Jonny Evens again done himself no harm with a solid performance

FA Cup

3rd Round has just been played with a mixed team of experience and youth travelling to Forest. Forest kept United at bay and looked to have done enough to get a money spinning replay at OT but Tevez got the winner on 83 mins.

United will host Pompey in the 4th round.

We are in Jan and Tevez is unhappy with not playing every week. A transfer request has been accepted. What type of money have people been gettin for Carlos? I am also looking to bring in Oscar Usteri, what is a reasonable price for him?

Thanks guys

[xx11]

Thought I give an update on the continual push for domination

Well 12/13 season was decent again but not perfect.

Competitions Won: Community Shield, Super Cup, Club World Champ, League Cup, Champions league. Premiership

Competitions Lost: FA Cup (6th round to Sunderland )

My great league form continues, another unbeaten season however there was 5 draws this time around so not the clean sweep.

Unfortunately I am still awaiting a clean season where I win every competition. The domestic cups seem to cause a problem for me. Heh.

Top Scorer was Rossi again with 28 in 33 appearances, with Bojan just behind with 26 in 25(1) appearances, Rooney and Tevez performed well but once more due to primary starting in the AMC role each game seems to affect their ability to be top scorer

There was action this season in the transfer market. Some players were doing really well out on loan and ready to become a part of the team, unfortunately not enough space for them all to do so.

I deemed it was time to make some changes and get some people out of the team. Due to this there was a flurry of people out. Barcelona nabbed a few however Newcastle were interested in a lot as well, however guess Barcelona reputation helped them most the time.

The transfer activity made me sell some people that generally I wouldn’t have done but with my young players coming through it was time to let slightly older ones go… this meant Tevez had to leave the club, but this was fine as Barcelona been chasing him and with a £39 million offer my board didn’t actually give me a choice in the matter.

The other main transfer was me finally deciding to let Gibson go. He had been doing a good job but I felt I had better options, as such he went for £8million to Fulham.

Some other players that had just been constantly on loan but worth a few quid were also shipped out. This meant a total of 13 players sold off, and a further 20 or so of on loan to various teams.

The most frustrating thing was losing a member of staff….. Gary Neville was offered the Newcastle job and accepted the position. It was most annoying to be honest, but he got them in a respectable position of 9th currently in the 2013/14 season after 11 games, not bad considering they came 17th last season

Still, I am thoroughly enjoying my career so far and the game. Hopefully this season I will get a clean sweep, but already dropping points in Europe but remain unbeaten this season. Lets hope for the clean sweep of competitions

[artest]

In my third season now, first two season has its ups and downs.

First season

Started baaaadly in the league, was about mid table after about 15 matches.

Had a quick browse in this forums and brought in some players. In my 5-7 years of playing CM/FM I really never used the scouting thing to search for players.

Players in; Esparza (was brilliant for my team in FM07, just had to get him) £3m, had to send him to Antwerp tho for at least 3 season as he due to wp issues. Toni Kroos £2.5m, Pandev £13, 12 goals in 27 games . Vanden Borre £7.5, solid replacement for Neville.

Players out; Evra £16 to Milan . Was reluctant to let him go but he just wouldn't want to stay.

Anyhow, had a decent run towards the end of the season in the league and managed to win it by +16(goals, not points ) ahead of Chelsea. Also won was the LC and FAC.

What a boring season review.

[Emperior]

Just started my third season, got some cash laying around and was wondering what I should be looking for when the transfer window opens in january, any suggestions?

This is my team:

GK: Foster, Amos

DL: Bale, O'Shea

DR: Richards, Silvestri

DC: Ferdinand, Brown

DC: Evans, Sakho

ML: Nani, Fernández

MR: Ronaldo, Eagles

MC: Hargreaves, Lulinha

MC: Martínez, Anderson

ST: Rooney, Giovinco

ST: Agüero, Vaughan

Got Breno too, but he didn't get the wp.

[crazy gra]

Get a new keeper. Amos can be a 3rd choice but I don;t see him being good enough for 2nd.

[xx11]

I agree with Crazy Gra, a keeper has to be your main priority. Should be plenty about that can do. And if you got plenty of money you could always go for Cech as certain people here seem to love doing (i have not and will not sign him for united )

If not cech you got the usual list of keepers such as Ochoa, Ustari etc whom should be cheaper.

Other then that I would maybe look for another backup left back.. .not a big fan of Oshea as never seem to get a good performance from him.

[xx11]

While on here... has anyone ever got the stadium expanded beyond 100k capacity? Been stuck at that for some years now and nearly sellout every game appart from early stage of league cup

[Liam-Shannon]

Get a few more english players lads