fm2005

beforethirty.co.uk

win the european cup on Football Manager

why?

Ahh, the ultimate goal. I am obsessed with this game but never won the ultimate prize in club football. I did get to the final once with Rushden and Diamonds (honestly) but lost 5-4 to ajax (heartbreaking).

done?

24 March 2007

In early March I received a lovely e-mail from a Mr David Kempshall:

What a nice man. And after a couple of e-mails he was true to his word and a copy of the new game came through my letterbox the very next day. I have no idea what a Sports Community Manager for Sega actually does but I imagine it's a right blast if it mainly entails visiting poorly built websites such as this and sending out free games. If you are reading this Mr Kempshall I'm happy to send you my CV (the real one) if you have any jobs going...

On receiving the game I had to decide which team to be. I usually like building up a team on FM, taking them through the leagues, developing my youth side and scouting the minor countries of Eastern Europe for unknown talent (Maxin Tszilago for example - 150 goals in 280 appearances for Rushden and Diamonds. Bought for 500k, sold for 28 million. Ace.). Unfortunately I now have a job and a wife. The missus simply doesn't seem to understand the importance of running a team full time and likes to day "It isn't real you know" repeatedly as I play. Women...

So not having the 18 hours a day spare that I would like to have, I had to chose a team that I could realistically achieve this goal with. And as tempting as it was, I can't be Chelsea. I just can't. So I went with Barcelona. They only have a budget of around 9 million quid, but they have a great squad and I should be in with a chance. I've played the first half of the season and this is my progress so far...

Transfers

I've bought in a few players, mainly as cover. Magno is an 18 year old striker from Brazil (I prefer to play with a couple of young strikers on the bench), as is Dani. Eduardo Ratinho is a 18 year old right-back with good potential.

Costinha is a quality defensive minded midfielder as we were a bit lacking in that department and Fabio Aurelio was brought in from Liverpool as cover for Zambrotta at left-back. However, an injury to Balletti (our right back) forced me to play Zambrotta at right-back and bring in Aurelio and he's been one of our best players of the season so far:

Season so far

A new season on FM wouldn't be right without a friendly against Nuneaton Borough. Sunny Nunny were a bit reluctant to come over to the Nou Camp (couldn't afford the airfare?) so we went to the hallowed turf at Manor Park for a pre-season friendly:

Sunny Nunny seemed slightly overawed by the occassion in all honestly. Only conceded two in the secon half though, which is impressive. Slightly worrying that the ground wasn't completely sold out, but they were probably charging quite a bit to get in...

The Champions League groups were drawn with Barcelona in Group A with Galatasaray, Sporting Lisbon and Bayern Munich. A potentially difficult group this, with all three teams strong at home.

Our opening fixture at home to Galatasaray finished in a 3-1 victory followed by a 2-1 defeat away at Lisbon. Bayern at home was next and we demolished them 3-0. A 0-0 draw at Bayern came next meaning that the top three teams were all on 7 points going in to the last three games. Our next fixture was a tricky away game at Galatasaray and I feared the worse. However:

A fantastic result away from home! We fully deserved the victory and needed only a point away at Sporting Lisbon to make sure of qualification. A nervy 0-0 draw was the result and we topped the group with 11 points:

League-wise we are in pretty good shape, topping the table at Christmas:

The draw for the first knockout stage of the Champions League has seen us pitted against Dinamo Kiev where we have to be strong favourites.

I have my eye on a few signings to bring in in January, funded by the sales of Lopez, Mhotta and Iniesta. Our defence could do with some strengthening and I am looking at either Micah Richards or Dani Alves. I have already signed a 15-year old youngster called Nicolas Millan on a free from Chilean side Colo-Colo (although he does have a 50% sell on clause on ths contract) who looks very promising:

Will update further as the matches are played!