Football Manager Stories

**jebus** · 04/12/2007, 10:12 PM

Everyone's got em, everyone's proud of them (pipping Nempton in the League One playoff final FM05, breaking one of SLK's players legs in CM01 are two of my personal highlights), so let's spill 'em....

Took over England (shock horror) for the Euro Championship qualifiers to see if I could top McClaren, I beat Israel 2-0, Russia 3-1, Estonia 2-0, lost to Russia 0-1 and drew with Croatia 1-1 and thus qualified for the tournament because Russia lost to Israel in the second last game of the season. Just the start of my jamminess though.

In the groups I had the Czechs, Romania and Austria, easy peesy I thought. I opened with a shocking 2-0 loss to Romania as the Czechs beat Austria 3-0. In the second group of games I beat Austria 3-1 whilst Romania lost to the Czechs 4-1. So going into my final group game I was second on goal difference ahead of Romania, and 3 points and six goals off the Czechs. I felt confident of pipping Romania to second place, especially as I went 2 goals up on the Czechs after 10 minutes. They pulled one back on the 35th min as I checked the Romania score only to find them 4-1 up on Austria! Just as things looked bleak they got even worse as the Czechs equalised and Romania hit a fifth. So at half time the table looked like this,

Czech Republic w2 d1 l0 p7 gd+6
Romania w2 d0 l1 p6 gd+3
England w1 d1 l1 p4 gd0
Austria w0 d0 l3 gd-9

I thought I was going out, but withing 10minutes of the restart I had gone 4-2 up through goals from Crouch and Owen, I flicked on the Romania score to see they had gone 7-1 up and were out of sight. So I looked at the table and realisied I was only two goals off knocking the Czechs out and putting me through. I threw everything at them and hit a 5th on the 67th minute, and we went into an all out assault on their goal, but we couldn't make the breakthrough for the one goal we needed, as it stood we were out on goals scored. I sent Darren Bent on but he couldn't do it, so I thew Ashley Young on in the 90th minute for his first cap and sent him up front. The ref showed 4 minutes of injury time and on the 93rd minutes, with about 51 seconds showing on the clock Young picked up the ball outside the box, took on his defender and drilled it past Cech for our 6th and qualifying goal! Oh and Romania won 8-1 and topped the group.

In the quarters then we played Spain, and despite being overrun at times managed to sneak a 1-0 win, thanks to a goal from David Beckham, earning his 101st Cap, the goal coming on the 23rd minute. In the semis we found ourselves 2 up on Holland with 15 minutes to go before Van Persie bagged a brace to send it to extra time. We walked all over them in the added minutes though and eventually won 5-3 with goals from Owen, Crouch, Bent, Lampard and Ferdinand. In the final then we met France and soon found ourselves 1-0 down from an Henry freekick. Gerrard equalisied, before Henry put them 2-1 up again. From there we took control with Crouch getting the equaliser and Owen putting us in front. With 5 minutes to go though Trezequet nicked one for France to send it to extra time after a 3-3 draw. It went back and forth in extra time with neither side really coming close to scoring so it went to penalties. Trezequet missed Frances opener, and it looked like we were going to win within the 5 until Ashley Cole had his one saved, so it went to sudden death. Malouda stepped up for France's sixth and hit it tamely at Robinson to leave it on the returning Jaime Carragher's shoulders to win it for England, which he duly did!

Love moments like that in FM!

**harpstilidie** · 05/12/2007, 12:37 PM

Great story. In FM05 i was managing a club team, can't even remember who it was. Think it was crusaders in the irish league and i got mail saying that Colombia had approached me to be their manager and i thought i'd give it a go even though i only knew 2 or 3 of their players. So off i went into the Copa America. Played a few friendlies and i think i played in the Confederations Cup aswell before the tournament started. Got a relatively easy group and found myself playing Argentina in the quarter final and i thought oh no!!
But i managed to squeeze past them and in the semi's i got Brazil. Beat them 3-2 in extra-time with a last minute goal from a player called Falcao i think! Super striker! Found myself playing Uruguay in the final and i beat them easily! I won the Copa America!!! Couldn't believe it! People in Colombia loved me!

Then i went into the World Cup qualifying and qualified easily enough and got to the 2014 World Cup finals. I got out of the group stage and won the last 16 game and then the quarter final (can't remember who they were against) so i got to the semi finals of the World Cup with wee Colombia! Couldn't believe it!
Played england in the semi's and managed to beat them 1-0 after extra time. Don't know how i did it but i was in the World Cup final against...wait for it....Poland!!!
I thought i could stroll the final but ended up losing it 2-0! I couldn't believe it! To get so far with Colombia and then getting beat by Poland in the World Cup final! Was rippin! But loved managing Colombia! I then resigned after that and i took the Ireland job and lets just leave it at that!

**danonion** · 08/12/2007, 6:45 PM

in FM 2007 I was Ireland boss and played Chinese Tapei in a friendly. Terrible team so I brought all new caps and Lee Trundle scored 7 goals.

**SuperDave** · 08/12/2007, 7:36 PM

Loadsa stories. In 06, i took over juve (in serie B) and after 7 years made the champions league final. went 1-0 down, against man united, then had a man sent off. looking terrible, but we equalised. went in 2-1 down at half time, but about five minutes into the second half valeri bojinov equalised again. united scored from a corner in the sixty-somethingth minute, but bojinov scored again with about 10 to go. in the 93rd minute, united got another corner, but we cleared it to the halfway line, where bojinov was standing, who took the ball, ran with it, and cool as you like, slotted it over the keeper for his hattrick and inevitable glory. couple of years later (in same game) united approached me having sacked roy keane, and i proceeded to win four champions leagues in a row.

my ireland acheivements involved taking over after they lost the 2014 world cup final whereupon steve staunton left the job

, and i qualified for the euros only to draw france spain and italy, and lose all three. after failing in the 2018 world cup playoffs, i fell on my sword.

**superfrank** · 08/12/2007, 8:36 PM

My biggest achievement was taking Hungary to Euro 2008 on FM 07. Beat Turkey 3-2 in the 94th minute at home and drew 1-1 in Turkey. Drew 2-2 with Norway at home but lost away. Beat Greece one nil in the last game to qualify but lost the first game. Won every other game except for a 2-2 draw in Bosnia. Won a good few friendlies too.

Hungary were the fourth seeded team in the group after Norway, Turkey, Greece and Bosnia. Took them from 82nd in the world up to 34th, iirc. Imre Szabics (Mainz) was outstanding for me. He scored something like 11 goals in the qualifiers. They had a lot of young talented players.

Went to the Euros and lost all three games to Spain, Ireland and Serbia. Didn't score and conceded about ten goals so I quit.

I remember on CM4 I had a game at Umea FC in Sweden. I signed Ivan Hurtado, Freddy Adu (he was 13), Slavisa Jokanovic and some other free transfers. Got promoted from the Swedish Third Division North winning all but one match which I drew and won the Swedish Cup. The next season though the team was not entered into the UEFA Cup for some reason so I quit.

**nui-harp** · 09/12/2007, 7:00 PM

Won the Euros with Ireland in FM 07 and got them to number 1 in the world rankings!

**Sheridan** · 09/12/2007, 7:34 PM

My greatest moment in FM (from CM4 I think) was leading the Cook Islands (!) to a 1-0 victory away to Australia in the Oceania qualifiers. I can still see Niki Te Miha intercepting that square ball across the box and slotting it into the roof of the net while I roared at him to pass it. We missed out on a place in the World Cup play-off because of a poxy draw with New Zealand in which we wasted about twenty chances.

**Réiteoir** · 12/12/2007, 3:24 PM

I have a load of old screenshots from previous games stored online and at home

Will link them when I get in

**endabob1** · 12/12/2007, 3:40 PM

Greatest Achievement in the old CM Series was getting Athlone Town to a UEFA Cup final where we lost to PSV I Think, it was a long time ago.
I also took Ireland to a world cup Final which was easier than it sounds, we had Japan in the Semi's and the only decent team we met along the way was Argentina who we drew 1-1 with in the group, unfortunately we met Italy in the Final and they spanked us.
In FM I have taken Kettering Town to league 1 which is 3 promotions in 3 years, Conference North Play-Offs, Winning the Conference and a great late run to make 2nd in League 2 now firmly in Mid-Table in League 1 my 3 Namibian Internationals are getting ideas above their station....

**GavinZac** · 12/12/2007, 4:23 PM

football manager 07 -

took control of US Pro Vercelli in Serie C2A (a = north). released a load of old players and signed kids.
came 5th the first year, then signed a quality centre back from columbia in the winter of the 2nd season - went up to Serie C1A.
some of my youngsters started getting very good, and serie A clubs started buying "co-ownerships" on them. the new influx of cash let me sign a few more players and after finishing 14th in the first year in C1A, Pro finished top the 2nd year.
now in our my 5th year, in serie B, a big transfer came in for the columbian centre back and a few million was added to the war chest. hell-bent on success, I momentarily put aside my policy of signing young players, and signed a number of experienced former serie A players - including the previously free-released Totti, and the positively ancient billy costacurta. a combination of this experience and some longford-like tactics plus one of the kids emerging as a world class talent created a bit of a fairy tale and USPV finished top to win promotion to Serie A in their first season

during the summer between serie B and serie A, the milans/romas of the world were offering silly money for the young striker (dejan stojanovic, i think was his name), but I chose to reject those offers and attempt to keep US Pro Vercelli in serie A. after a few months, it turned out that perhaps cashing in may have been the better option, as we couldnt keep the goals out and the better kids started wanting to move up a notch.

the game got tough going so i've put it on ice for a while. i'll pick it up again some day, but I've actually taken up playing Championship Manager 97/87 again as a nice quick fix. AC Milan with George Weah and Denilson up front

**Réiteoir** · 12/12/2007, 4:34 PM

Here we go - this is spread over a couple of versions of the game:

The darkest hour in FM2006: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ngngngngng.jpg

Trophy Madness: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...oir/trophy.jpg

- lightning striking twice?: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...rsOverview.png

TG4 and RTÉ obviously love me: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...ir/tvgames.jpg

Sticking it to the Man: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...oir/fergie.jpg

**jebus** · 12/12/2007, 4:35 PM

Just wondering, but I always read these stories of people winning the Champions League with Kettering after 10 seasons or so, but these people have fiddled with the editor right? Made their club more attractive, got some club to pay €5m for a player worth 10k, that sort of thing. I mean stories like GavinZac's above I can see happening, and I have done similiar myself (bringing Cambridge City to League One for example), but how did you get Athlone to the UEFA Final endabob? I would have thought you would never be able to attract the quality needed to get a team that far to the LoI.

Reminds me of a guy I know who got Limerick into the Champions League after 3 seasons on FM05, I looked at his team and he had David James, Robbie Fowler, Patrick Berger and a few others playing for the club. I mean whats the point in doing that? It's not really the same as getting Limerick into the Champions League after all.

On the other hand, and SLK and Nempton on here can verify this, Stan Collymore joined me at Drogheda in the 1st Division on loan in CM04 (I think). I still can hear the thud of the two lads jaws when he agreed to the deal

**Cymro** · 12/12/2007, 9:09 PM

On FM06 I won the Carling Cup as Swansea, on pens against Everton. We were a Championship team at the time, though I got us promoted that season too. I can't remember his name, but I signed some bloke from non-league Gloucester City who scored 29 goals that season. Cost me £10k, eventually sold for £2.5m.

I also got Inverness into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup on another game, losing 3-2 to Real Betis.

Both of them had a good 3-4 seasons of building a squad though. The transfer market is quite unrealistic in FM I think, you can get players to join you who normally wouldn't touch your club with a 10 ft bargepole in real life.

**tetsujin1979** · 12/12/2007, 11:01 PM

Got Javier Saviola on a free transfer from Lazio to Celtic once.

Was managing Juventus one time in CM 00/01. Got to the final of the Italian Cup, wich clashed with a World Cup qualifier, so half my team was called up and were ineligible. Had to play most of my reserves, went 2-0 down and had a player sent off. Went all out attack and won 4-3! Think I picked up Motta off Barcelona and he scored.

One of my mates won the Champions' League with Shelbourne once, didn't believe him until he showed me the screenshot.

**endabob1** · 13/12/2007, 10:50 AM

Originally Posted by jebus

Just wondering, but I always read these stories of people winning the Champions League with Kettering after 10 seasons or so, but these people have fiddled with the editor right? Made their club more attractive, got some club to pay €5m for a player worth 10k, that sort of thing. I mean stories like GavinZac's above I can see happening, and I have done similiar myself (bringing Cambridge City to League One for example), but how did you get Athlone to the UEFA Final endabob? I would have thought you would never be able to attract the quality needed to get a team that far to the LoI.

No fiddling with editors at all, it was an old version of CM pre-groupd stage UEFA cup. It took (no kidding) About 15+ seasons, I had won the LOI 10 years out of 11 (Damn you Cork City) and was able to pick up good young players cast off from some of the European big boys pretty regularly. I had a core of players who I kept but a lot of the youngsters came in on noddy wages would only stay for 2 years and then would want more than I could afford in wages and so moved on. Occasionally I would be able to sell them for very good money, I had a young Spanish Striker who I got on a free released by Barcelona B, he signed a 3 year deal scored about 30 goals a season and I sold him to Sunderland for £2m, that provided the funding for most of my progress.
The season I got to the UEFA Cup Final was the only time I made it beyond the first round (having dropped out of the CL qualifying) I made the CL group stages a couple of times but always finished bottom of the group.
For some reason the UEFA seemed particularly easy that season, I drew mainly Eastern European & Scandinavian teams en-route to the final.
Incidentally I never got even as far as the last 16 in Europe after that 1 season and started to lose interest.
I've since tried to do the same on later versions of CM & the FM series and have never been able to get to the same level.

**Aberdonian Stu** · 13/12/2007, 5:39 PM

In CM01/02 I got UCD to the Champions League semis a few seasons after reaching the UEFA Cup final, the latter ended in a defeat at the hands of Inter.

I would have played around 24 seasons in total, winning all but one league title. In case you're wondering how that happened, two words: David Ward. He was a complete nobody from Dundalk in real life but was the most utterly awesome goalscorer in the EL early in the game. He was useful with English clubs all the way through to what is now called the Championship, though utterly out of his debt in the Premiership.

**John83** · 13/12/2007, 7:07 PM

I think my favourite individual moment was playing with Oldham, who I'd turned into world beaters. This wasn't an important game, and I don't remember who it was against, but it was remarkable for its finish.

I went 2-0 down and I'd given up by the time the board came - three minutes of injury time.

It ended 3-2.

**jebus** · 14/12/2007, 9:31 AM

Ah 15+ seasons explain it alright, I've only ever played 10 seasons and quit after that, but even at that I had moved to Arsenal after 3 years with Wednesday and 4 with Celtic. I've never come close to getting a smaller team to CL or UEFA glory truth be told, I won the CL with Newcastle after 3 years, but they're hardly a small team now.

In FM05 when I was guiding Wednesday out of League One in my first season I managed to get to the League Cup Final alright, losing to Chelsea 1-0, thanks to a Drogba penalty in the 79th minute. Was sickened because we more than held our own in that game, just didn't have the strikers to take our chances. Even if we had gone to pens I would have been confident, as we had already knocked Colchester and Wets Ham out after shoot outs along the way

**Ireland4ever** · 14/12/2007, 10:40 AM

The best game i played was when i took over at Blackburn when they were in division one (Championship Now) got them promoted the first or second season. First season in the premiership i finished mid table. Then the next two or three seasons i finished second. Just couldnt seem to win the league. Then after about 16/17 games through a season liverpool offered me the managers job. They were 16/17th position in the league. Somehow i managed to qualify for the champions league that season. The next season i did the quadruple. Won the FA Cup, Carling Cup, Premiership & Champions league!!! I resigned after that season, citing that i brought the club as far as i could

!! Plus i felt a little bit dirty being a United fan!

A mate of mine spent 40+ seasons playing the 97/98 game when it ended. First time i heard of that happening. At the time Ian Harte was the england manager!!!

**Aberdonian Stu** · 14/12/2007, 11:41 AM

I've never heard of one actually ending but then ago 40 seasons is unchartered territory for me. I've had games with UCD and Cardiff (not a fan just wanted to start with a Welsh team in England for the laugh) that went over 20 but nothing that came close.

After that the longest I played was around 11/12 seasons with Benfica and I'd have likely quit that earlier but for the circumstances. I won the league every year, no shock there, and in my first season in the CL I won it and then lost the final the next year when a Luke Chadwick goal for Man U beat me. I was determined to win it again but it's very hard to build a squad of superstars with Benfica as even though the club was loaded and players were willing to come due to my past success but the club insisted on setting a very low transfer budget so when bidding wars over Crespo etc began I could be beaten. Eventually got the squad I wanted and won it again in my 10th or 11th season, hung around to win the world cup the next year and also bagged a third CL title before quitting the game after losing the Portuguese Super Cup for the first time since I started playing.