[Archived] Football Manager 2008

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Bought:

Lulinha, joining at end of season.

Altidore

Marvin Angulo

Marin

Salmonesson (sp)

And some others like the Isreali defender.

Total spent - 8 million.

Sold Peter for 4 million, and Reid for 9.7 million plus some Japanese sounding fella who is worth 6.9 million. I snapped their hands off because I hardly ever play him.

Unhappies:

Mokoena, too much competition.

Henchoz, seems to think he should be starting.

Rigters, sold for 2.5 million, he was only in my reserves.

Dunn, can't get into the team.

Jason Brown, have Brad plus 3 younger better keepers.

I've got about 10 or so youngsters at Cercle Brugge and about 5 waiting until the new season so I'll have a great season in 08-09. Provided I stay up. 17th with 5 games left against top 6 opposition - squeaky bum time.

[Hughesy]

Hopefully. I've signed too many really, and am still looking at some kids and the possibility of Asamoah Gyan or Michael Johnson (both 20.5 million each). But i'll need a sale to fund that.

Anyways...I see you've not got Lulinha then. Sign him. He is capable of becoming THE BEST PLAYER in the game, that's reason enough, whatever he now costs.

I'm confused why everybody seems to still have Santa Cruz. He was crap for me, injured half the time, has poor stats, and can be sold for a cool 6m plus.

Yeah but like I said before - I have mega money available because I dont pay over £7.5m on players - well not until i can sort the stadium out and keep it one size - DOWNLOADED NOW and its worked!! Thank god!

Santa Cruz is in my squad for 1 reason and that is because nobody has offered me his value or higher. He is now valued at £7.5m yet nobody is even willing to pay me £7m.

Checked and it is the same guy from norway. Signed some cracking kids too - got that israel melft winger fella - asyulin or whatever from barca. Got Sergio Motta (I think its called - left winger!?) from Madrid coming in January for £4.4m even though he is already worth a lot more!

[American]

Decided to start a new game after reading suggestions on here. Not doing great, but not terrible either. Started with the new patch. My best signings have been Sidwell and Lubos Kalouda. Don't remember if I found Kalouda through a scout or on here, think it was a scout, but bought him for 750k to replace Bentley. Just sold him to Juve for 12 million plus a 20% sell-on clause so I could replace him with Lulinha (definitely found on here!). Other decent purchases have been Michael Bradley, Sinama-Pongolle (had to see what might have been!) and Leroy Lita.

Oh, and bought Moussa Delembe and he is ace, even though I paid a pretty good amount for him.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Is it possible to get Banega (sp) in the first season? I tried in January and had my offer accepted, but he wouldn't accept the highest wages with a massive fee, he didn't want to leave. Should I have bought him straight away or can I buy him later in the game? (Summer 08 is next window)

[Hughesy]

Yes its possible - i got him in the 1st summer in my game. Some players are like that - you have to get them straight away. Im in the 3rd season and he is now worth £8m for me - although i could probably get £15m for him.

At the moment im quadrouple winners after winning league, cup, fa cup & champs league yet players all over still wont join me yet. Im also currently 13 pts clear with 9 games to go in the 3rd season and iv already won the league cup again too.

[Bazzanotsogreat]

Is it possible to get Banega (sp) in the first season? I tried in January and had my offer accepted, but he wouldn't accept the highest wages with a massive fee, he didn't want to leave. Should I have bought him straight away or can I buy him later in the game? (Summer 08 is next window)

Leave Banega at Boca for a sesaon or two, let him develop a little and then sign him. In anycase if your playing in Britain you will struggle to get a permit unless your willing to loan him. Best DM in the game come sesaon 2012

There are plenty of DM' in france to sign in your first season, who are equal to banega at the start of the game and who will do well for you:

Bodmer

Kallstrom

Lorik Cana

Alou Diarra

Jean Makoun II

Etiene Didot

Jeremy Mathieu

[RoversSG]

Hi all, i noticed that a lot of the players you guys mentioned here are those that i cannot get a work permit for eg lulinha, marvin angulo. How did you get WP for them? Btw, what version are you guys playing? I'm using 8.02

[bluebruce]

Yeah but like I said before - I have mega money available because I dont pay over £7.5m on players - well not until i can sort the stadium out and keep it one size - DOWNLOADED NOW and its worked!! Thank god!

Santa Cruz is in my squad for 1 reason and that is because nobody has offered me his value or higher. He is now valued at £7.5m yet nobody is even willing to pay me £7m.

Checked and it is the same guy from norway. Signed some cracking kids too - got that israel melft winger fella - asyulin or whatever from barca. Got Sergio Motta (I think its called - left winger!?) from Madrid coming in January for £4.4m even though he is already worth a lot more!

I got Sergio Mota in the summer after my first season for 4m, classy player. He was a product of my relentless (and pointlessly time consuming) fervour to ensure I found all the best Brazilians by telling my scouts to scout every player at the top Brazilian clubs on a player-by-player basis. He doesn't play as well for me as his stats suggest, probably because he isn't a natural on the left wing, which is my favourite place for him. I bought Danilo Rios at the same time for something like 700k, he's a similar player to Mota but not quite as good...but not far off, and a free kick specialist. I'm training them both up to be naturals on the left wing, as they're only naturals at attacking mid roles. Anyway that was all agggges ago!

Third season just finished, won the league by quite a distance, 13 pts I think, semi final of the Champs League and won the League Cup (which strangely doesn't appear to register as even a minor trophy in the hall of fame stats, unless it will appear at the end of the season). I have Giovani Dos Santos, Thiago (one of the many Thiagos), and Iago coming in July on FREES from Barcelona! I'm gutted I couldn't get Bojan though, his contract was running out too, but even after two English titles and a League Cup I don't have the lure of Barca, and they've finally signed him on a 3 yr deal (they kept signing all these kids on one year deals, I was hoping they'd sign him on another 1 yr so I might snap him next summer). Really gutted, he's a god. I've signed tons of kids too, and if what I'm about to type is anything to go by, I'm soon going to be absolutely rolling in it.

In my first season, I signed John Jairo Mosquera, a Colombian, for 4k, Marcone, a Brazilian, for something like 75k, and Moraes, the next Ronaldo, for about 300k. I think I mentioned these guys in the past. I sent them to Cercle and they came back at the start of my third season with permits (thanks to that bug), but not good enough for my team really (except maybe Moraes). I managed to sell Mosquera for 13 million, and Marcone for 20 million. They're only 1 star players. Moraes I quite like so I loaned him to Sheff Utd, but he's definitely not good enough now so I think I'll sell him too. I also took on Fabio at the start of my 3rd season, a Brazilian full back that United paid 1.7 million for but whose contract they had terminated just one season later. So I took him on for free, and within a couple of months and only reserve appearances, someone paid me 18 million for him! I couldn't believe my luck. He's ok, and has 3 star potential, but he's nothing I can't easily do without. And all these players have sell-ons too, in case I underestimated their ability. The thing is, I currently have about 20 players out on loan at Cercle trying to get work permits. I can't wait for the cash to start rolling in. And that's forgetting all the European players I got on frees at the end of last season and am now willing to sell since it shouldn't reduce my loyalty. I think someone said you can't have more than 100 mill in the bank though, and I may have to use the save game data editor a few times to get around that stupid, unrealistic rule by keeping track of my surplus.

I also have Pablo Aimar coming in, who is excellent, but gives me a bit of a problem. I now have Lulinha, Mota, Rios, Aimar, Miralem Pjanic (I highly recommend this kid by the way- very fast, excellent long shots, great passer, the works for an attacking midfielder), Dos Santos and Iago competing for what generally is only one attacking mid role. And that's ignoring the periphery players for that position, like Dunn and Shao Jiayi. I want to sell Jiayi though, but nobody will buy him (strangely, since he's fairly good), and I'm keeping Dunn until my youth policy pays dividends in floods of amazing homegrown players for Europe. A few of these players can kinda operate on the left wing (I've brought in Iago mainly to finally displace Pedersen, who despite his stats just seems to outperform all of my theoretically superior left wingers, and is now worth about 11m). I've got surprisingly few players coming in this july compared to last year, and a lot will be leaving...but that's good since I've way over a hundred players on the books.

Hint for other players- there is an excellent Turkish striker called Tevfki (Or possibly Tefvki, I can never remember...think I may have found him by Tugay's recommendation) Kose. He seems to have changed hands early in my game for about 500k, but I've just gladly paid over 10 million for him. I recommend nailing him straight away. I dunno how his stats are at the beginning, but he now has finishing 19, heading 19, composure 18, off the ball 19...every essential striker's stat is good, with great technique, first touch etc. He isn't as fast as my usual striking targets (pace and acceleration 15 though), but a hell of a player, and he is going to get a bit better yet.

I think someone else mentioned Salomensen or however it's spelt, I've got him. Four star potential, cheap as chips at just a few k, good buy. I can't remember the spelling though, so just scout scandinavia with a scout that has 20 for judging potential. He should be about 17 at the start of the game. Although I think I'm getting him free. I can't remember the spelling though, so just scout scandinavia with a scout that has 20 for judging potential. He should be about 17 at the start of the game. My youth players are going to be gods...I must have about six players with 180 or over for potential ability (Ie, about five stars or more), and that's just the kids I got for peanuts. After my Barca targets come in I'm going to have about 8 wonderkids on the books I think it is.

Hi all, i noticed that a lot of the players you guys mentioned here are those that i cannot get a work permit for eg lulinha, marvin angulo. How did you get WP for them? Btw, what version are you guys playing? I'm using 8.02

RoversSG- I'm just playing the original version with no patches. I signed Lulinha for 9 mill after one and a half seasons I think, and he got a work permit (possibly on appeal) because he was just so good. If there's a problem early on you might want to use Cercle to loan him out, or you could wait. As for Angulo, I suggest you definitely just buy him and loan him out, since he was going for about 500k apparently at the start of the game, but I nearly paid out 13.5 million for him (I let him go to Liverpool instead ultimately, and grudgingly...incidentally Pool just finished something like 15th, which amused me highly- and lost the FA Cup Final to Watford! It's poaching time...they also wanted me as their boss though, but I told them to shove it...apparently AC, United, and Chelsea are all about to target me too, but all can shove it).

Bazza- I don't really play Banega as a DM. His tackling isn't too hot, but his technical and creative ability is outrageous, so I've been training him to play natural in CM, where I think he'll excel.

Hughesy- you're wasting your time with Roque. And money. Like I said, I got 6m for him early on, spread over 24 months as I often do to wrangle about twice as much cash. So if you'd sold him like that, you'd have got him off your wage bill and made well over the 7m you want for him by now.

American- Sinama-Pongolle is actually ace on this game. Overrated, I'd say.

Anyone who doesn't have (and slightly abuse, I confess- I just made Kevin Davies weigh 78 stone to amuse me, but he seems to shed it very quickly) the save game data editor- get as many scouts with judging player potential 19 or 20 as you can (an advisable policy in any case), and always double or triple check a player's potential by having all your scouts assess him. Jose Fererreinha, or however it's spelt, is my best scout with absolutely perfect judging player potential, and he just told me a player was 4-star. My others looked at him and said 1 star. I checked the save game editor and Jose was the one who was wrong.

[frosty]

Aye it's Tevfik Kose bluebruce, at 2012 in my game he is at Sevilla. Has great stats like you say!

[American]

American- Sinama-Pongolle is actually ace on this game. Overrated, I'd say.

Just sold him for 10 mil - a 5 mil profit, and of course he scored 2 goals against me a month later.

Only like to have 3 good strikers at a time and a couple of younger ones who don't mind sitting on the bench and getting opportunities due to injury. Right now Dembele was runner up for Golden Boot and is on a roll this season, 3rd highest, but the top 5 are all bunched up, and Lita has only about 2 or 3 less than him. Altidore is the late match replacement and just bought a youngster from West Brom as backup (the next Owen, they say).

The big problem now is holding onto the players I have. Lulinha, Dembele, Altidore, Dawson are all highly wanted and it's hard to hold onto them. Keep asking for too much, with big (30-40%) sell-on clauses for anyone under 23. Luckily, the 2 good bids I've accepted for Dembele haven't been able to agree with him on contract terms.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Is Derbyshire worth keeping? He must have a high potential because I am getting offers of 11-15 million for him when he has:

Started 7 games.

Been a substitute in 12 games.

Scored 8 goals.

Do I keep him or bite their hands off?

[Eddie]

If you know the game well then for that amount of money you could buy someone several times better. He's pretty good, but certainly not worth that amount of money, I generally sell him for around 5, though I would accept less.

[Hughesy]

Not been playing Football manager for the last 2 weeks – iv been busy with broadband on my laptop and fifa on the PS3 online network. Il get back to it soon though.

Bbruce – Im 2/3 way through my 3rd season, around 16 pts clear with 9 games left I think. Won the league cup, out of the fa cup (early shock) and in the quarter of champs league. After winning the quadruple the season before also you would think my club is a big lure, but I also couldn’t sign Bojan, even though he is out of contract in 3 months. Lago also chose Juve over me – despite offering both of them 70k+ a week.

As for money rules, im not sure about that – iv currently got about £70m to spend on players – due to sales but still not found anything worth spending over £8m for.

Iv also got Barca’s Thiago joining on a free, along with 5 other players in summer – il list them later. Kose is good – I signed Ekra (French lad) for free in the summer – he is now worth £5m without even playing.

RoversSG – Work permits are a pain – just keep trying and keep appealing and eventually it will happen. If not make sure you have a work permit feeder club and send him there.

Anti-Dingle - As for Derbyshire, you can sell him very early for £5m ish or hold on, try to develop him and then get closer to £12m+ for him, so the offers your getting, snap their hands off. Like Eddie says for that money – if you have a good network of scouts then that is a lot of better players for that cash.

[RoversSG]

Is Derbyshire worth keeping? He must have a high potential because I am getting offers of 11-15 million for him when he has:

Started 7 games.

Been a substitute in 12 games.

Scored 8 goals.

Do I keep him or bite their hands off?

I would say sell, he has never been good in my games, but that might be i never really give him an extended run; he always play badly whenever i field him. I always sell him whenever i start the game for around 7m - A host of championship teams will be interested but usually only QPR will meet my price. But then, if you have no need for money, could choose to keep him since his wages are very low.

[Hughesy]

I tried selling him after 6 months in my game and there were no sensible offers so I kept him, he's been in ressies for 12 months and now He gets toplay in cup games and easier prem games and he has improved in mine and now has decent clubs looking at him for £7.5m

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

I currently have:

GK -

Friedel - Still there.

Fielding - Promoted to sr.

Bram Verbist - Bought 10k, sold 700k. Never used.

Szczesny - Bought 35k, worth 500k. Back up

Wanted: Bouzanis.

Defence -

Samba - Wants to leave, worth 10 mill +

Warnock - Happy, worth 6 mill +

Nelsen - Interested in leaving, worth 9 mill+

Emerton - Interested in leaving, 11 mill +

Khiza - Wants to leave, transfer arranged. 5 million.

Aturo Vidal - Bought for 6 million. Getting WP at CB.

Dor Malul - Bought 55k, worth 1 mill. Loan at CB for WP.

David Rochela - Worst signing. Cost 240k, worth 600k. Need to offload.

Jose San Roman - Bought 24k, worth 200k, at CB for WP.

Marvin Angulo - Bought 80k worth 2.5 mill. At CB for WP.

Midfield -

Pedersen - Still there, worth 7 mill.

Bentley - Worth 12 mill, wants to leave.

Pereya - Bought 2 mill, worth 2 mill. Back up.

Ghaly - Back up, about 1.9 mill worth 2.6 mill.

Denilson - Bought 3.5 mill worth 4.7 mill.

Savage - Offloading.

Salomonsson - Bought 20k, worth 1.6 mill.

Cesar Villaluz - Bought 900k worth 2.5 mill. At CB getting WP.

Alex (Not the 31 year old, but might get him too) Bought 1.9 worth 2.6 million.

Diogo - Getting WP, bought 2 mill worth 3.6.

Dunn - getting rid.

Sergio Mota - getting wp. bought and worth 3.5.

Mauricio getting wp, bought 220k, woth 1.7 mill.

Lulinha - bought 1 mill worth 3 mill.

Marko Marin - bought 425k worth 3.2 mill.

Pablo Piatti - bought 100k worth 3.7 mill.

Miralem Pjanic - bought 4.4 worth 4.4

AM/FC: Jose Baxter, Ewout Denys, James Keene, Santa Cruz, Altidore, Derbyshire, McCarthy.

Will update later.

[revolutionrock!]

Doh, havent not played for 6 months, ive decided to install it again.

Oh dear!!

Revision will be tough now..

Gonna make Harwood town and put them in Conf North, last time i did it on 07 i got up to league 2 in 5 years.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

Banega left to join PSG for 3.5 million and was "happy to leave". Why wouldn't he come to me.

Which of the actual Rovers team should I keep? I currently have them all with the exception of Reid who never got a game and Jason Brown who kept moaning, and Roberts who rejoined Wigan and scored a hat trick against me.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Installed the latest patch and going to start a new game.

[RoversSG]

Almost finished the first season on ver 8.02. Think rovers is much more consistent in this patch. I'm currently 7 but 6 points off 6 with 2 matches to go, reached the FA cup final and got knocked out of the UEFA cup by Bayern Munich in the 2nd knock-out phase. Brought Sinama Pongolle in Jan and he already have 21 goals including a hattrick in the FA cup semi against liverpool!!! Marin is now a contender for young player of the year and i managed to beat chelsea, aresnal and man u at home! Main reason why i'm 7th is because i drew too many games eg derby (twice!!!).

Anyone here have any good recommendations for keepers? I using both big brad and the romanian lobont but both are not consistent enough for my liking.

[Hughesy]

Bouzanis

[bluebruce]

On Derbyshire...he was actually my player of the season in the first year. Top scorer and fan's player of the year. Since then he's faded from use (he has little potential for improvement), but is still worth something like 4-5 million. So basically there's no hurry to sell him, though you may well never get 11 mill for him. Personally I would caution anybody against selling Derbyshire, Dunn, or Peter early on. You will need them to fill your club homegrown quota in Europe, and their wages are all small. I'm probably going to wait til the end of the season (2010-2011) to finally sell Derbs, as I should have some new players counting as having come through the ranks. Wish I'd cottoned onto that quicker though.

ADB- you seem to have poor keeping options (this said, Friedel is still my number 1- it's your backup that worries me...I'll have young Carlos coming back from loan at Sheff U better than him though). You've got a few gems in that team though. Ghaly- nevermind backup, he's a top player. Still one of my best CMs, despite what my coaching staff and scouts insist. Probably my favourite in my side in that position after Michael Johnson and Ever Banega. He has an excellent average rating, never lets me down. His set pieces really contribute to the side. Miralem Pjanic is also the new star of my team- he's actually displaced Lulinha! The main reason seems to be his passing and long shots are better than Lulinha's (and Lulinha is very close to his full potential now- a bit of a disappointing end product stats-wise actually), so he creates and scores more. I'm also retraining him as a striker because he will be dangerous there if I need it, with his finishing and composure. He's limited Lulinha to about 6 appearances by Jan. You got a great deal in Angulo, I don't want to pay the prices I'd have to now, but he's very good. Mota is good...Diogo looks great doesn't he? Young, nice stats...but he's not going to get much better unfortunately, and if you can attract 5 mill for him it wouldn't be an awful idea to sell (I did just get 11 mill for him on mine though- 1 up front, 10 mill over 24 months despite having never played him).

I took a good look at Altidore, but he just isn't good enough for me. Still tracking him in case he comes up for free then I can see what the fuss is about. I'm quite happy with Kose and Floro Flores, with Goitom and Benni as backups. I only play one up front usually now- 4-1-3-1-1. The attacking mid scores enough goals to make up for a forward, and links up play for a passing game beautifully. I sold Helder Barbosa...I got him for 3.1 million due to a release clause, and after one season with about 4 appearances, I've managed to sell him to Spurs for 10 mill up front and 40 mill over 2 yrs.

Hughesy, I struggle to believe you can't find anyone to buy with 70 million. Alves? Cech? On mine, Bojan has a 42 mill release clause, so I'll be going for him as soon as he is interested in coming. But a keeper is what I really need to complete the jigsaw. And Cech is amazing, trust me. I'm Czech Republic manager, and he's been absolutely immense for me. His contract runs out at the end of 2012 and he isn't happy, so I'm just hoping I can fend off the other vultures and get him. Then my five or so future-top-class-keepers ought to provide more than adequate cover. I'll be keeping Friedel at the club til he drops though.

I'm gonna have a lot of money in the summer...I'm raking in about 8.5 million a month from player sales due to always using the 24 month payment scheme. I estimate I'm gonna have about 80 million or more by the summer.

[Anti-Dingle-Brigade]

I managed to get a 8 million bid for Bojan accepted but he won't come no matter what I offer him, the same goes for Banega. I have around 20 million to spend (season 2 and not sold many) and I'm trying to capture Van Der Vaart. There is also a keeper who is better than Brad and young ish but is 9 million, I might get him. I'll edit with the name.

I need a way to convince Banega/Bojan to join.

EDIT: I also took a chance on Arouna Kone for 6 million, he might upset the camp but in 2 games he has scored 5 goals and is forging a great partnership with Benni. Also have Kose coming on the 1st July.

[RibbleValleyRover]

Well i've started my new game on the 8.02 patch, and so far i've played through the preseason and the Euro vase (intertoto) matches.

I haven't brought in many players, want to save my money for the summer and i reckon i've got a good enough team to perhaps achieve what i want to achieve in my first season.

I sold Bentley for 11 million plus a 25% sell on clause to Newcastle, Man city were interested as well and put in the same offer but Bents decided to go Newcastle instead.

With that money and the 3 million i was given at the start, so far i've brought in:

Lubos Kalouda from Brno- Young Czech Winger to replace Bentley. I had to pay close to 3 million for him.

Marko Marin- Young AMC with potential. £3 million plus a few clauses.

Artur Kotenko- Young keeper who i've heard can turn out well.

Arthur Sorin- young right wing back.

Giannis Papadopoulos- A young MC

Alex Fernandez- Free transfer young striker.

Sold Jason Brown for £1 million to C. Palace.

In contract negotiations with Matt Hill to bring in as cover for Warnock.

I've got £ 4.7 Million left, i want to bring in a DMC and maybe a forward. Lazar the romanian DMC i might go for. Tried to get Banega on loan, but wouldn't come. Muamba is an option, though he has a few stats i dont like the look of, though he is young. Anyone else recommended a cheapish DMC i can bring in during the first season?

Quite a few of my players are wanted, Mokoena, Benni, Nelsen, Olsson, Samba, Emerton.

I've been playing a 442 system, using a DMC and MC/or AMC.

Results so far:

1-0 win Over Besiktas- Friendly

2-1 win over Racing- Friendly

1-0 win over Locarno- Friendly

3-0 win Cherno More- Intertoto 1st leg

0-0 Neuchatel- Used some younger players

2-1 win Cherno More - Intertoto 2nd leg

3-0 win over Accrington

First premier league game was a 2-2 draw with Wigan. Disapointed as i had a 2-0 lead and they pegged it back, they didn't change formation to a 424 or anything. Heskey ran behind my defense twice and got through, though 1 goal was def offside and the FA were quiet after i was furious over it!

Eventually i will do what i always do on these games, focus on a all british or English side as its a challenge, especially as english players cost more. Going to need to buy some cheap foreign stars then sell them for profit in order to do this.

[Hughesy]

Sign Ekra - he will be very young yet on your game (French Striker) and Kose (Turkish striker), then sign Bouzanis from Liverpool and Breno (Brazlilian defender) as soon as you can.

They should help you improve your finances within a year or two