The Football Manager thread

Made it through to the FA Trophy semis with Brentwood.

Gateshead just defeated Chester in the other Semi 4 - 0. Nothing odd there apart from the fact:

Gateshead 4 - 0 Chester
M Pattison (pen 6, pen 22, pen 47, pen 49)

Seemed a little bizarre to me.

 

Made it through the other semi against Wrexham on Penalties (2 - 1 home leg, 1 - 0 away leg).

The penalties scoreline was 23 - 22. Now that's what I call a shootout!

 

Parma

 

Taken over Arsenal in my game (its now 2022). They'd signed Origi for £60m after he'd had a couple of good seasons at QPR, played him mainly as a sub first year, barely that 2nd, then sold him to Southampton for £8m just before I took over. He's scored 15 in 20 for Soton, and I'm left with one striker (Lukaku), 2 promising youngsters not ready for the first team, and a transfer budget of £6m as they spunked £100m in the summer on shit not good enough for the first team

 

Built such a strong squad at Utd that I had to quit in 2020 and move on. Got a bit ridiculous when I signed Ronaldo for £15m and Messi for £100m in 2018 - shame he damaged his cruciate in pre-season after I left and retired before Pep could use him. Add to that Pogba and Lucas Romero in midfield and I was nigh on unbeatable (never managed it in a league campaign, but Pep did it in 21/22, twat)

Ended up taking a season out, guided Forest to 8th and the FA Cup final in 21/22 (was running 5th until the cup run killed my players), not bad considering they'd finished 17th the year before. Now taken over Arsenal and hope to end Utd's 8 year title streak (won't do it this year, too far back when I took over, but next...)

 

I've got Brentwood Town up to League Two. Mainly on the strength of a number of NZ internationals available on frees (Rory Fallon scored 40 goals in Conference South and 30 in the Conference).

Tony Lochhead just retired though and Fallon's ability has fallen off a cliff. Struggling in the league thus far (no wins after 4 games, though 3 away draws is useful) but beat Bristol City in the League Cup on penalties. Interesting to see how some teams fare. Bristol Rovers have been relegated twice in a row and are now in some regional league. Eastleigh got promoted from the Conference in the season before I did, but got relegated again straight away.

 

Its now Jan 2023 and he's still banging them in for Utd, nearing Charlton's old record (I got Rooney upto about 255), which aint bad considering he hit 250 for Madrid in between spells

Notlob had a great nosedive in mine, went bankrupt and just avoided relegation to the Conference, have got themselves up to league 1. Blackpools nosedive has left them down the bottom of L2. Morecambe are at the bottom of Conference North, Macclesfield have fallen out of the arse of the Unibond league and into the NW Counties (I've got the full pyramid addition). Preston are in the Prem, but going down, which is great as Joey Bartons the manager. Loughborough Uni are probably getting into L2 this year.....