• Welcome to the Cricket Web forums, one of the biggest forums in the world dedicated to cricket.

    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join the Cricket Web community today!

    If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

How Are You Doing On CM?

Cabinet96

Hall of Fame Member
Yeah my point was more that I've had Welbeck score 20 odd goals a season but I don't know whether someone else would do much better than that.
 

Pothas

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
It might be something I am doing wrong but in the last couple of versions they have just tended not to play that well, certainly in comparison to previous years. It is not really a problem because paying with no strikers has worked really well. Not tried it with a lower league club yet though, was going to give it a go in the Championship this year but important players got injured.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
I find most versions of FM tend to have certain positions where players do not often excel. Usually defensive midfielders in my experience. Not had many good strikers on the most recent FM, but Richairo Zivkovic seems to be pretty unstoppable.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
Anyone know anything about Geronimo Rulli? Really handy on FM but I have not seen much of him in real life. A quick trawl of videos of his "best saves" on YouTube (not a real indicator of anything substantive, I know) is not suggestive of him being anything particularly special. And it seems he wears trousers a lot rather than shorts, which is often a tell tale sign of a dodgy keeper.
 

cpr

International Coach
Anyone know anything about Geronimo Rulli? Really handy on FM but I have not seen much of him in real life. A quick trawl of videos of his "best saves" on YouTube (not a real indicator of anything substantive, I know) is not suggestive of him being anything particularly special. And it seems he wears trousers a lot rather than shorts, which is often a tell tale sign of a dodgy keeper.

Don't be calling other keepers attire when yours wears a ****ing bonnet
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
Deadline day in January. Bought in Mateo Kovacic for £7m which is an absolute bargain, then sold Coquelin to RM for £32m and replaced him with William Carvalho which I think is an excellent swap, then if you add in the signing of Jonathan Silva and Balanta joining the squad it's been a very productive transfer window. Starting XI now:

-----------------Cech----------------
-----Koscielny-------Balanta------
-Bellerin------Carvalho-------Silva---
--------Bender-------Ozil----------------
---Sanchez-------------------Cazorla--
-----------------Higuain-------------------

With a couple more additions, maybe Marco Reus and John Stones in the summer we'll be well placed to make a major challenge for the title next season.
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
He got sent off in his first game for them too. Quality signing.

2nd half of the season going much better. Only 5 points behind Chelsea, a gap that was 10 and now only 1 behind Liverpool. Title chase isn't over yet. One thing though, Gonzalo Higuain is rubbish. Constantly injured, played 11 games in all competitions and only scored 3 times. £50m well spent!
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
This game is a joke. Beat Chelsea away penultimate game of the season to be 2 points clear of Liverpool in 5th. Last game at home to Watford, go on to lose 1-0. Liverpool are drawing 2-2 with Swansea going into the final minute of the game and ****ing Sakho scores in the 93rd minute to knock us down to 5th. Actually gutted, 7 points behind the leader, 5 points behind 2nd. To make it worse, I won Manager of the Year. WTF? £145m well spent.

#WengerForeverMeNever
 

cpr

International Coach
Was riding as high as 4th with Forest, before a collapse at the end of the season saw us finish 8th (still, they'd finished 16th the year before). Made the FA Cup final too but lost to Chelsea 1-0. Still, gave European football. My old Utd team under Pep went the season unbeaten, though I stand by the fact the fans preferred the days of 130 goals scored and 50-60 against than his defensive 75/15 ratio....


Had a dodgy start to 22/23, not as dodgy as Simeone at Arsenal though, so Octobers seen me managing them for the first time in my life. Sitting 10th after 10 games. Given me a £6m transfer kitty (Simeone had managed to spend £126m this summer mind!)

Quite impressed with myself, I've managed to Out-Wenger Wenger. A huge winning streak one taking over (only lost one of my 1st 23 matches, against Palace in the league cup) saw me in 2nd. Managed to conspire to lose a few soft games around the game 32 mark, then against Preston at home on game 36, a draw at Stoke next up meant I needed results to go my way just to grab 4th..... I didn't...

Then lost the FA cup final a week later with a mediocre performance against City. Also knocked out of CL with 2 poor games (and 2 superkeeper performances) against PSG...

Bravely the board have just given me a £194m transfer budget for next year - who says Arsenal don't have a warchest!

Alas I've also applied for the Barca job, because I can, so I might not be about to spend it (probably not get the job then get sacked anyway!)
 

Cabinet96

Hall of Fame Member
I think what makes managing Arsenal hard on this is that United and Liverpool tend to usually be really good from what I've noticed, which doesn't really mirror real life.
 

cpr

International Coach
Well Utd are really good because I left them **** hot after 6 seasons, Guardiola has barely had to sign a player (though he just bought Martial in Jan 2023 for £27.5m, proving we've overpaid now :ph34r:)

Liverpool had a decent spell when Solskjaer was boss, and snatched 2nd this year, mainly because of my implosion.

What made it hard was Simeone spunking £125m on dross over the summer (only one of them, a £20m RB, actually started for me, sent the rest out on loan or to the reserves), and letting go a striker for £8m just 2 years after spending £60m on him. Of course the board have been giving me grief for not signing high profile players.....
 

cpr

International Coach
194mil :blink:

Sign Messi, obvs.
Retired in 2020 after doing his cruciate ligament in pre season - I spent £110m getting him to Utd 2 years before, and Pep never got a chance to play him. Not one to laugh at the misfortune of others mind....
 

Dan

Hall of Fame Member
Ahh, didn't realise it was the same save.

In that case, spend £5 on someone from Tranmere and donate the rest to poor African children :ph34r:
 

King Pietersen

International Captain
What a difference a few transfers and a change of system makes. Switched a more attacking 4-2-3-1 formation, allowing me to make use of Ozil/Cazorla in their natural position, a move that stemmed from bringing in Milan AML Stephan El Shaarawry. The change in formation has not only improved our performance going forward, but surprisingly has improved the defence too. In 17 League games we've scored 38 and conceded just 6, a vast improvement on our performance in the previous campaign where we managed 74 goals in 38 games and conceded 30. The possessional play has been particularly impressive, even against top sides we dominate position getting upwards of 60%. In one game against Sunderland we had 70% possession and it took them until the 65th minute to manage a shot. So, a run down of my transfers:

In:

Stephan El Shaarawy: £16m signing from Milan. Fantastic value for such a talented player. At just 23 years of age he has tremendous potential. The combination of his electric pace, excellent finishing and sound work-rate and off-the-ball attributes works superbly, and makes him the perfect player for the AML position. He's started excellently too. In 16 league games he has 8 goals, 5 assists and an average rating of 7.45, an excellent addition to the side.

Enner Valencia: £22m signing from West 'Am. A curious one. Not overly impressive stats for a striker, especially compared to the likes of Higuain, but a player that I liked the look of when playing against West Ham, and a player that I thought would fit in well. Unlike Higuain his work rate is excellent, he's quick and has a knack for scoring goals. Since joining he has kept Higuain out of the team (hell, even Giroud is keeping Higuain out of the team) and has scored heaps of goals already. In 18 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal he has 21 goals, that's one heck of a scoring record. In 15 appearances for Arsenal, Higuain has 2 goals. Valencia is a beast.

John Stones: £35m signing from Everton. Wanted to boost the defence, and with Kos hitting 30 I'm looking long-term. With Balanta already in the squad, I wanted someone to play foil to him and be a long-term defensive partner for him, and there's no-one better than John Stones. He's young, English and has bucket-loads of potential. He also plays on the right side of the defence, which means he slots in alongside Balanta perfectly. A big outlay, but at 21 he should easily prove his worth.

Mayke: £12m signing from Cruzeiro. A little known Brazilian wing-back very similar in style to Hector Bellerin. Mayke is quick, agile, has a mean cross and again, heaps of potential. I also wanted to move Debuchy on, so bringing in Mayke made perfect sense. I tried to bring him in in January of the first season but didn't have the funds, so made sense to make the move in the summer. In Bellerin and Mayke we have 2 of the best young right backs on the game.

Out:

Danny Welbeck: 16m to Southampton. Surplus to requirements. I like Welbeck, but with Valencia, Giroud, Walcott and Higuain he was never going to get a look-in, so thought I'd cash in. To be fair to him he's been excellent for Soton, scoring 14 in 15 league games.

Per Mertesacker: 6m to Lazio. With Stones joining someone had to go, and it wasn't going to be Balanta, so it had to be Mertesacker, as he is ageing, slow and had a relatively poor season.

Joel Campbell: £14.75m to Dortmund. Again, too many players in that position and he was unhappy not getting any game time. Feel I did bloody well to get that much for him, and Dortmund don't seem to happy with the transfer as he's already back on the transfer list before making his debut. Ouch.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: £13m to Everton. I like Oxlade, but just couldn't seem to find him enough time to play. I wasn't going to sell, but Everton came in with a bid and I decided I may as well sell. Not had a particularly good start with Everton.

Mikel Arteta: £500k to Lokomotiv Moscow. On too high wages, not worth the money. Sold on for as much as I could.

January Ins/Outs

3 Regens - £14m: Agreed the signings of 3 very talented Regens. A 17 year old Goalkeeper from PSV who's already got excellent stats, planning to use Cech as a tutor and boost them stats. A quick, technically gifted Argentinan winger called Luis Garcia. Left my D.O.F. to negotiate the contract and quickly removed his responsibility when I saw he offered a 17 year old over £100k a week. Moron. Finally, a Brazilian centre-half who will fill the gap left by Koscielny when he eventually moves on.

Gonzalo Higuain: £35m to Man Utd. Rubbish. Spent £50m on him and all he did was get injured, moan and never score. Worst. Signing. Ever.

Mathieu Debuchy: £4m to Fenerbache. As mentioned earlier, replaced by Mayke. Took until after window to get anyone to agree to buy him.

Callum Chambers: £6.5m to Watford. Poor man's John Stones. Was never going to get a game, moved him on. Should really have organised a buy-back just incase he gets good, but oh well. He's gone.

So with all that done, I line up:



Been an awesome start to the 2nd season. Unbeaten in 17 league games, sat top of the league 4 points clear of Chelsea, 8 points clear of last-years winners Citeh, won my Europa League Group and in the Quarters of the League Cup. Icing on the cake being a 4-0 hammering of Chelski at Stamford Bridge in the League. Enner Valencia scored all 4. WAG. Have that Jose!

TL;DR

Bought some people. Sold some people. Beat Chelsea 4-0. Top of league.
 

Top