retired_zaidee

Just started as Aberdeen.

Basically taken Manchester Utd's reserve team out on loan:

Fraizer Campbell
Adam Eckersley
Dong Fangzhuo
Jonny Evans
Lee Martin

all on season long loans, plus Aaritalo for 35k. I was pretty surprised that Aaritalo came, I guess I just got in early.

I'm currenty working on flogging some players, as the board have reduced my wage budget to £100 a week. I've sold Lee Mair for 80k, and I'm looking to get rid of Nicholson and Miller. I was close to selling Chris Maguire, but the offers were laughable.

Still looking for a decent keeper, but I guess it'll have to wait until my wages are down a bit.

retired_cakara

A long time between updates, but I've been engrossed (to the point where a 2,500 word assignment due yesterday hasn't been finished yet).

I've just started my second season, having won the treble of the League Cup, Scottish Cup and SPL. Quite an achievement if I say so myself.

Firstly the transfer update. The January window went thusly:

Players In:

Nigel Quashie - Free Transfer
Brian Ching - Free Transfer
Chris Smith - £275k - St. Mirren
Charles-André Doudin - £5k - La Chaux-de-Fonds
Stephen Husband - £16k - Hearts

Players Out:

Michael Hart - £675k - Hull City
Lee Mair - £200k - Hearts
Tomasz Frankowski - Free Transfer - Gretna
Seyfo Soley - £150k - Hearts
Ricky Foster - £200k - Cardiff
Jonathan Kurrant - £22k - Darlington
Derek Soutar - £20k - Chivas USA
Martin Skinner - released

We racked up a rather impressive 80 points, losing just 4 times, twice after we'd already won the league (our last two games) and beat Dundee United to win the League Cup and Hibs in the Scottish Cup final.

Pre-season in 2008 saw me handed a £4.4m transfer budget after I said we'd win the league again. Here's what happened:

Players In:

David McNamee - £375k - Coventry City
Branimir Kostadinov - £28k - Hearts
Daniel Galbraith - Free Transfer
Ian Black - £475k - Inverness CT
Chris Eagles - Bosman - Manchester United
Peter Gulácsi - MTK - £28k
Cristian Sarghi - £1.6m - Steaua
David Marshall - £2.6m - Norwich City
Calin Cristea - £500k - Steaua

Players Out:

Jackie McNamara - £6k - Falkirk
Adam Eckersley - £75k - Bradford
Barry Nicholson - £475k - Motherwell
Dan Smith - £275k - Wigan
Rob van Boekel - £75k - Hearts
Ruben Yttegard Jenssen - £5.5m - Napoli

I reiterate from my last update that Jenssen is a must buy. Bought for £70k and sold a season later for £5.5m! And Calin Cristea who was brought in to replace him is according to my scouts every bit as good, yet he cost a fraction of the price. Romania has become my latest bargain hunting ground and Steaua have some very good players and the good thing is that they don't need WPs anymore.

Best XI:

GK: David Marshall
DR: Phillip Bardsley
DL: Luca Santonocito
DC: Cristian Sarghi
DC: Brian McLean
MR: Chris Eagles
ML: Calin Cristea
MC: Scott Severin
MC: Rene Mihelic
FC: Brian Ching
FC: Chris Maguire

Second XI:

GK: Jamie Langfield
DR: David McNamee
DL: Quinton Fortune
DC: Zander Diamond
DC: Andrew Considine
MR: Ronnie O'Brien
ML: Chris Clark
MC: Ian Black
MC: Nigel Quashie
FC: Steve Lovell
FC: Lee Miller

We're in the group stages of the Champions' League thanks to a stunning 4-1 aggregate win over Roma in the third round of qualifying, but we're only 6th in the league after four games, with only 5 points. Still, plenty of time to turn it around. Onward!

retired_M.R.S

Just got my copy of FM2008 in Baku and made a start as Aberdeen. I'm only 2 games into the season so far, but seem to be struggling a bit with the tactics. I used a base 4-4-2 tactic from FM2007 which had seen me win the SPL on many occasions. But in FM08, although I only lost 1 game in pre-season (0-1 to Birmingham) I am struggling to score goals, and only managed to scrape by a few non-league teams by 1 goal. The season started with a 2-1 loss away to Dundee utd, followed by a 1-0 win over Hearts at home. Celtic next!!
Any fellow dandies got any tactical suggestions for use with the dons?

retired_skiny13

WOW Alwo very impressive mate, what formation/tactics are you using as i'm mid table and non consistant. Any tips greatly appreciated.

retired_cakara

My formation is a constant 4-4-2, but I change the midfield around depending on the opposition's formation and the ground dimensions I'm playing on.

I tend to primarily use a flat midfield with the wingers set to run forward along with my attacking midfielder (usually Rene Mihelic - buy him!) also set to make runs forward. But I sometimes modify it and bring the two wingers into central midfield with outward runs to the left/right and push a player into attacking midfield behind the front two. That works particularly well when I play Chris Eagles in the attacking mid position. He tends to grab quite a few goals from there.

Primarily though I'd say the success is more on the players I've brought in. Mihelic was cheap as was Jenssen and both are/were consistent and great at scoring and assisting. The defence is pretty solid too though, we went 7 league games without conceding just after January. That I put down to Bardsley and Fortune playing as opposed to Hart and Byrne, but maybe that's just me.

retired_juliejime

nice post! :thup:

Harry_121

Has anyone got any tips on how to sell players? I've tried transfer listing and offering to clubs but that doesn't seem to work. Thanks in advance....

Zeal

Can't believe you sold Byrne - he has been my first choice left back, and Touzani my top centre half......

Where did you get all the money from? I only had £80k to spend in my first season.

I signed/sold the following - now in July 2008:

IN:

Malcolm Christie - Free
Seth Johnson - Free
Kily Gonzalez - Free
Johan Micoud - Bosman from Bordeaux
Mark Burchill - £150k from Dunfermline
Liam Craig - £110k from Falkirk

OUT:

Chris Clark - £300k - Hull
Steve Lovell - £400k

First team:

Langfield; Byrne, Diamond, Touzani, Hart, Micoud/Gonzalez, Severin (C), Nicolson, Smith, Mackie, Burchill.

Seth Johnson does not bad as a rotational midfielder, and Young and De Visscher look okay but get injured a lot. Striker wise Miller has now gone 24 games without a goal and Christie and Gonzalezs have looked pretty ding.....

Any tips? Christie and Miller have had poor/very poor morale for months now and I just dont know how to increase it, are there any other threads based on morale or anything (I never played previous FM06/07) - is Miller worth keeping, he aint scored for me in months!

Zeal

Also got Lee MArtin on loan from Man Utd.

I did toy with the idea of signing Christian Vieri, but I have enough old timers with gonzalez, Micould and Mcnamara.

Does nobody here play Considine or Smith?