***The Official Football Manager 13 Thread***

[laudrupno1 3,932]

[MasterD 7,457]

Going into pre-season with 16 players and losing out on signings to League 1 and 2 teams. Max wage I can offer is £4.5k a week but I'm close to the wage budget.

Newcastle, Southampton, Everton were relegated into the Championship so my few years plan to get to the EPL is probably way off with teams like this being relegated and still having loads of money and massive wages while I have neither.

The coming season I'm hoping just to be safe again and make a profit.

[skinnymate1690 782]

half way through the season with southampton 14th W-4 D-9 L-6

so many draws ! at least 5 of them i should have won with the chances i had . hopefully a better 2nd half of the season

[skinnymate1690 782]

Signed gallas on loan to shore up my defence and mccarthy from wigan . Sold jose fonte for 5 million

[skinnymate1690 782]

Signed gallas on loan to shore up my defence and mccarthy from wigan . Sold jose fonte for 5 million

[laudrupno1 3,932]

If bored use should try some other countries/leagues as seems most just do England,I've been all over the shot MLS,Asia and currently Nuremberg in Germany as I get bored of English leagues quite quickly now as over played them.

[laudrupno1 3,932]

Has anyone been in the Brazilian leagues? Qualify for Brazilian Cup every season but never seem to be included? Must be a bug.

Was manager of Flamengo for afew seasons but Im still playing on FM12 mate

[aird 3,950]

http://www.fm-view.net/buy-football-manager-2013

£8.99 if anyones late to the party.

[skinnymate1690 782]

1st season finished with southampton, finished 11th W-10 D-15 L-13

Overall not too bad given that i was meant to finish 19th but it should have been higher, struggled to keep hold of a a lead hence so many draws

New seasin budget 18 million so will look to bring a quality CB in .

Hooper tog goalscorer with 20 in 30(4)

[andy500 463]

Got back to playing my Morcambe season today when I had some time. My team have ridiculous form when it gets to the end of a season. We snuck into 2nd place in league one after a 12 game run where we only dropped 8 points (four draws). Such a poor goal difference as well, but were level on points with the league winners in the end. Managed to sign Scott Allan from West Brom who was outstanding for me, and a few others. In my League One squad I would say I had two, maybe three Championship level players.

I had a feeling this is where the fun might stop - league one and two are easy to get some free transfers to build up your team, but Championship is a higher level. But I've managed some good signings so far (still in the summer window)

Managed to sign Odemwingie on a free (at a ridiculously low wage, too) plus a few other good looking signings so far - but my team is still pretty weak in certain areas. Mostly defence.

The shame of signing Odemwingie is that my highest performing (younger) players are mostly strikers. Makomba-Eboma apparently has the potential to be a Premier League striker, and came onto his game for me last season.

Feel like I might change my formation this year, but not sure what to. I want two strikers (Ideally Makomba-Eboma and Odemwingie) but not sure of a solid formation in which I can incorporate them both. Had been playing 4-2-2-2/4-4-2 until now. I might just stick with the 4-4-2.

Have practically no transfer budget, and about 12k left to spend on wages so I'll be hard pressed to put together a top team.

Turned down a few jobs to stay at Morcambe, but I definitely don't think I'll see a third straight promotion.

[skinnymate1690 782]

halfway through my 2nd season with Southampton , sitting 4th with Liverpool in 3rd only on goal difference . was expected to finish 15th

1st jan and the board gave me £25 million. want to sign a brilliant keeper with it but with southampton thats pretty difficult . got ospina who has done fairly well but i want someone really good.

tried curtious (sp) because he was transfer listed , stegen (sp) from gladbach and some keeper from leverkusen but none of them want to come.

any suggestions would be great ?

[andy500 463]

Just realised how tough a job I have here at Morcambe in staying up in the Championship.

We are the lowest spending team in the Division by almost half of what the second lowest spend.

Our net salary per annum is £2.37m - and I'm overbudget by about 2-3k pw.

Barnsley in 23rd spend £5.05m per annum, most teams are around the £10-13m mark and QPR at the top are spending over £32m! They have four players on their books who earn more than my entire team put together.

I've took the option of small squad, quality players - and it's paying off to an extent just now.

We're sitting mid-table, having won 3, drawn 1 and lost 5 of our games. Best result is drawing with a good Blackpool team away from home, but aside from that we've pretty much won to poorer teams at home and lost to better teams away.

Every game has been close though, and the decision to switch to 4-5-1 for the step up in division is one I think will pay off.

[andy500 463]

Morcambe mid-season update. 23 games played in the Championship and I'm sitting in 14th. 9 wins, 4 draws, 10 losses.

Some big wins, including one over West Ham away and Birmingham at home, but we're pretty inconsistent. Most games end 1-0, 0-0 etc. so we're basically defending for our lives and getting lucky wins, but we're playing pretty well. Currently lost two in a row, but not too worried about our chances.

We currently have 31 points, and having looked back at the previous two seasons - it's taken 46 and 48 points respectively to avoid relegation - so I'm aiming for 50+ points, and think that's pretty doable.

Out of the Capital One Cup to Premiership Stoke, and have drawn Arsenal in the FA Cup - so will have plenty of time to focus on the league probably. Enjoying this season.

Some of the players I've signed that will be familiar to you will be Salihi, Odemwingie and Ricky Foster. Chris Hegarty has been with me since League One and is still one of my top players.

We probably don't have enough money to make any singings in January. Already way over my wage budget, but we'll see. Having a better season than I expected so far.

[MasterD 7,457]

My Pompy team is more or less ex SPL players.

Frazer Mullin.

Rory McKeown

Ross Perry

Luca Gasparotto

Mark Millar

Lewis MacLeod

Barrie McKay

Fran Sandaza (Had him on loan and he done well for most of it, was losing out on signings to league 1 and 2 teams so panic signed him when he was out of contract and he's been shite)

David Goodwillie on loan

Picked up a couple of them free and all the rest cost me probably just under £1m all in. Managed to sign most of them in League 1 when I had just been taken over.

Signed some other frees at the start of the season that have been performing well and changed my formation from 4-1-2-3 to 4-1-2-1-2 and halfway through the season I'm currently in the play-off positions. Scoring quite a lot of goals but conceding is a problem. Last 3 games have been 5-2, 3-2, 5-4.

The teams that are spending the most on wages and that have recently been relegated from the Premiership seem to be struggling which is helping my position. Sunderland 4th, Newcastle are 10th, Southampton 12th, Everton doing the best in 2nd place.

Done well up to about halfway the season before then fell apart so probably the same will happen again, no money to freshen things up a bit so hopefully be able to get a decent loan or 2 when the window opens.

[skinnymate1690 782]

Got to the 2nd last game of the 2nd seasin in my southampton game sitting 4th but could have still finished anywhere between 2nd and 6th because its that tight . Playing birmigham winning 2-1 , bring hooper on and the game freezes! I blame that dirty wee rat !!

Back to the start of feb

[andy500 463]

Managed to stay in the Championship with Morcambe! Quite comfortably, really. Had a poor spell at one point in the season, but turned it around and marched on to finish in 13th place, with 65 points - more wins than losses and I'm very very happy with that. We had our usual march to the end of the season, picking up 23 points in our last 10 games - where I was delighted with my team.

We made a £3m profit in the season and that's took us straight out of debt and £2m in the black. Delighted, because it means we can spend a bit more next season. Also our sponsorship deals are coming up at the end of this season - and they've been in place since I took over in league one - so I'm imagining we'll get a bit more in through that.

I have 67k wage budget next year (£17k more than I was spending this year, after begging the board for more when I was at £40k) Plus £625k transfer budget (About £600k more than I got last season). That's insane for me so far. Looking forward to seeing what I can do with it.

Really enjoying this save.

[laudrupno1 3,932]

Just been offered Dortmund job so think my time at Nuremberg is up

[skinnymate1690 782]

After the disaster of the game crashing i ended up winning the league with southampton on goal difference !!

Hooper scored 32 and finished top goalscorer , i want rid of him now though

Gaston ramirez is going to man utd for £25 million.

Signing breno from leverkusen for £20 million , he didnt really want to come so had to give him 90k a week , highest paid player .

Offered liverpool and arsenal jobs but liverpool on offered a 3 million transfer budget and arsenal 10 million . Getting 27 at southampton abd want to see how far i can take them in the CL. Doubt i'll even finish top 4 next season , team really over achieved and got some real jammy results like 4-0 away to man utd , only had 5 shots 4 on target and they had about 20

[laudrupno1 3,932]

Just scraped the league on goal difference top 3 all on same points not had that before,got fucked 4-0 off Leverkusen in the German cup final though.

[Mor3los_1 3,672]

Sitting 16th in the League after 26 games and my problem is i have scored only 20 goals. I cannot put away chances. I have Andy Carroll (who is my main goalscorer) and Jutkiewiscz (used to play with Motherwell, looks good but has scored 3 goals in over 20 games ). My attacking midfielder was doing well until he broke his leg. Looks like i can survive hopefully but will need a decent cash injection to overhaul my team to stay in this league, i am the lowest spenders by an absolute mile in the Championship.

[Mor3los_1 3,672]

Also just been linked with the Real Madrid job and i have no idea why. I am sitting 14th in the Championship with Woking?

[andy500 463]

Sitting 16th in the League after 26 games and my problem is i have scored only 20 goals. I cannot put away chances. I have Andy Carroll (who is my main goalscorer) and Jutkiewiscz (used to play with Motherwell, looks good but has scored 3 goals in over 20 games ). My attacking midfielder was doing well until he broke his leg. Looks like i can survive hopefully but will need a decent cash injection to overhaul my team to stay in this league, i am the lowest spenders by an absolute mile in the Championship.

Had the same problem with Morcambe, had no cash at all in my first season but soldiered through it and with low scoring games, draws and 1 goal wins - I had a decent season. I was in £1m of debt by the time I got to the end of the Championship season (Was around £200k in debt from League 2 up to League 1) and then I got two payments of around £2m which wiped my debt out and put us in a good position. (Think it was a solidarity payment and something else) If you can hold out until the end of the season you'll be in a much better financial position hopefully.

I had such a small squad in my first season that I spent most of my budget in the 2nd Championship season on fleshing out the squad with similar/lower quality players so I had good back up options - and we've had a decent start to the season again, sitting in 10th right now with 19 game played.

My problem now is a lot of my better players want insane wage hikes for new deals and I just won't be able to afford it. Three of my key players are going to be unaffordable for me, but I don't want to offload them in January because our team works pretty well together just now. It's a tough balance. The key players I have managed to sign up, I've made sure it's on at least 2 year deals, in some cases three or four.

[Mor3los_1 3,672]

What did you put as your experience?

Sunday League Footballer

[Mor3los_1 3,672]

Had the same problem with Morcambe, had no cash at all in my first season but soldiered through it and with low scoring games, draws and 1 goal wins - I had a decent season. I was in £1m of debt by the time I got to the end of the Championship season (Was around £200k in debt from League 2 up to League 1) and then I got two payments of around £2m which wiped my debt out and put us in a good position. (Think it was a solidarity payment and something else) If you can hold out until the end of the season you'll be in a much better financial position hopefully.

I had such a small squad in my first season that I spent most of my budget in the 2nd Championship season on fleshing out the squad with similar/lower quality players so I had good back up options - and we've had a decent start to the season again, sitting in 10th right now with 19 game played.

My problem now is a lot of my better players want insane wage hikes for new deals and I just won't be able to afford it. Three of my key players are going to be unaffordable for me, but I don't want to offload them in January because our team works pretty well together just now. It's a tough balance. The key players I have managed to sign up, I've made sure it's on at least 2 year deals, in some cases three or four.

I have a small squad aswell and i cannot bring in anymore frees to shore it up as i have hit the wage limit. Brought in 3 loanees in January which has given me more options. Made it to the League Cup Quarters where Man Utd beat me 1-0 so chuffed with that. Just hoping i can survive relegation as i am 10 points clear and the media think i will finish bottom. Reason i am in debt is a director bought the club last season with a 800k loan secured against the club, just my luck!

[andy500 463]

I have a small squad aswell and i cannot bring in anymore frees to shore it up as i have hit the wage limit. Brought in 3 loanees in January which has given me more options. Made it to the League Cup Quarters where Man Utd beat me 1-0 so chuffed with that. Just hoping i can survive relegation as i am 10 points clear and the media think i will finish bottom. Reason i am in debt is a director bought the club last season with a 800k loan secured against the club, just my luck!

Ouch -, I feel like every season I survive in the Championship will allow me to build the squad further as we are making profit every year. Hopefully the same happens for you if you survive. I really need to get into a bigger stadium as my upper limit is 6,000 fans through the door - which completely rapes me of competing with anyone in the Championship in gate money.

I think our stadium is smaller than the second smallest average attendance, but our average attendance is like 95% of the size of the stadium, and we've sold out the majority of our games.

23rd game of the season, so mid season report is that I'm on 35 points, which should (by average) be about 11-13 points from guaranteeing safety. Sitting 11th and only 5 points off the play-off places, so a good run could catapult us into that mix - but I'm not getting greedy because we would get utterly raped in the Premiership. Sadly I decided to sell my top scorer, Salihi, for £250k because we won't be able to meet his wage demands for a new contract - and I don't want to lose out on that kind of money for him. I also will be looking to sell one of my best centre backs who is worth £1.5m, but have already brought in a bosman replacement for him (Who is much older, but is more of a stop-gap until I can find a proper one in the summer). Only problem is I am struggling to find a buyer for anything more than £800k. I'll keep trying though.

Confident enough in my squad that we can do what we need to without them.