Life in Football Manager

Just to start off, let me thank Rob for allowing us to move in to the Football Manager Portal I have already got my slippers on. The move has allowed me to grab a nice new template making things look a little better, but also to expand the site in to different ways I have had a few ideas I hope to bring to the site I think the best thing that the FM Portal has offered is a place im the centre of the community. Blogspot was great for convenience and when the site was launched it was basically I had the idea and ran with it. Blogspot allowed me to get going in the matter of minutes.

Back to my current FM game; The second half of the season began well, the team averaging 4 goals per game in January, against teams like Newcastle, Bolton and Manchester United. At first 4 goals against United would have been an achievement if only 4 goals was enough. In the first two minutes we struck quickly scoring two goals. The first came in the opening minute as we closed down United quickly to stop them passing forcing a mistake which Dos Santos picked up on quickly putting a through ball into the path of Aguero whose shot was saved from Foster’s glove but it wasn’t enough and it placed it straight into the path of Torres who under pressure slotted it home. The second goal came from Torres’ strike partner Aguero, again due to a blundered parry from Foster. Gerrard struck it from wide, there was no way he would have scored from the angle, but it came out to Aguero who effortlessly put his foot in the way of the ball to lead it into the net. From that point on United piled on the pressure and it was inevitable that I was going to concede. Tevez and Ronaldo linked up well crossing it into the middle and with an expert lob from way out he made sure United went in for the break on a high. Tevez scored again to equaliser from a Park Ji-Sung Corner, their fight back had begun, I watched chances as they went begging, which United capitalised upon, Rooney gaining his 100th league goal with an unstoppable strike from a Fletcher through ball. Fletcher and Rooney combined again completing United’s 4 Fletcher hit the onion bag this time. But in the 70th minute it looked like we were sunk in Anfield. A few tinkering on the bench and Liverpool’s never say die attitude gave us belief that this could still be our day. The thing I knew Foster completed his hat-trick of blunders and handed it to Torres on a plate again for 4-3 rumours that this guy had been taken lessons from Bruce Grobbelaar. With 30 seconds to go Riise floated the ball into the box and found Zarate in some space, who then put it away and sealed his place in the hearts of the fans forever, he now features in the official supporters club bar with the caption ‘God the Third Coming’. The draw kept our title hopes alive, in a game that produced 23 shots for the home side and 20 for the away side it had to look more like a rugby score not a good day for the defenders.

The success I had against Arsenal in the first half wasn’t emulated as we met again twice, first dumping me out of the FA cup, two goals in the last 5 minutes ended any hopes of a domestic trophy. Sandwiched between the two fixtures between Arsenal was the quarter final 2nd leg against Real Madrid, another miserable display by the lads saw Real Madrid secure a 2-1 aggregated victory but this would let me concentrate on the final few games of the season. ‘Arsenal part 3: This time it’s personal’ was a more important game, the title race was hotting up and Chelsea hit a bad run of form losing to Bolton and a draw to United gave me a chance to capitalise. It was all going well at The Emirates, Aguero’s strike separating the teams for 93 minutes, the fourth officials came up board showed 3 minutes, so why was it the 94th minute when Walcott broke lose with his blistering pace to save the game for The Gunners. I was understandably angry and it was only due to a pen being near that saved the monitor crushing through the computer. I have now spoken to Sir Alex’s watch maker to send me a time piece that will help the fourth official in our next game. But the referee spore the players on as they vowed not to let him ruin our season, a win over title rival Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Aguero again sealing the important goal against a big team. Chelsea’s bad run continued at Spurs handed me the title alot easier then expected. The final game gave me a chance to play the youth team, which again ended in disaster against Derby where they were totally out played, not even my tactics were able to save grace.

This is my first league title win since the release of FM 2008 and I got to say it has been a fun experience and the most satisfying league win since the days of FM06. Because it challenged me, it took time, hardwork patience and a whole rebuild of my beloved team. I had to learn how to the play the game all over again and actually develop some tactical nous, taking me three seasons of playing before the work pulled off. I also believe that SI Games have managed to develop a game that captures how hard it is to win the Premiership even if you have all the money in the world. Four points separated top from third, Chelsea and Manchester United taking it to the wire. Reading One FM and their ‘Don Fabio’ adventures it seems that the Italian leagues are just not as challenging when you are one of the Milan teams which I think again show the realism Football Manager has adopted, maybe I am just making myself feel better as it had taken me so long to win the Premiership.