I've made a great start to the season, 6 games in the league and currently top, winning 5 and drawing 1. Also, i've yet to concede a goal. Also, drew my first Champions League match. My results so far:

Portsmouth 0 - 1 Man United
Man United 3 - 0 West Ham
Hull 0 - 4 Man United
Burnley 3 - 0 Man United
Arsenal 0 - 0 Man United
Sporting 0 - 0 Man United (Champions League)
Man United 4 - 0 Bolton.

Yet to play the big teams though, apart from Arsenal and i dominated that game, but couldn't score. So far so good. Berbatov has been on fire for me, well in fact all my forwards have been very good so far.

Occasionally happens, sometimes sides like Arsenal and Liverpool can smoke me on the counter. Other times I dominate so much, teams rarely get a sniff.

Talk about walking a tightrope. My job security has been 'very insecure for the last 13 games, yet I've lost 1 of those last 13! In all fairness though, I promised the L1 title and was sat on 10 points after 10 games. Now 6 points off the top though so hopefully they'll get off my back soon. Must admit I feared for my job at 3-1 down away to Norwich with 10 men, but a 3-3 draw had me clinging on by a thread!

I finished 4th in my first season, may change to a 4-2-3-1 formation next season. Job security is still "insecure" though.

My formation is possibly a little odd. It's sort of 4-4-2 Diamond. But the diamond is a very tight one with a dmc, 2 mcs and an amc. my full backs double up as wingers when we're attacking. Yes, I am playing as Man City, but come on, we all are or have given it a go.

Won the premiership in my first season. Though that was touch and go until the last couple of weeks.
Just coming up to Xmas in my 2nd season. My CL group was me, Barca, Juventus and Trabzonspor. Not quite a group of death, but certainly one of the hardest groups of the competition. Managed to qualify 2nd in the group with 10 pts behind juve on 11 and got AC Milan in the next round. Currently top of the prem on goal difference (giving Sheffield Utd a 10-0 kicking helped that along

) and I've got Newcastle in the semis of the league cup and the 3rd round of the fa cup. So it looks like I'm breaking some geordie hearts before the season is out



Btw my squad is

GK: Hugo Lloris - £24m
DR: Micah Richards/Kolo Toure
DL: Wayne Bridge/Joleon Lescott
DC: Phillipe Mexes - £32.5m
DC: Naldo
DMC: Nigel de Jong
MC: Shaun Wright-Phillips
MC: Gareth Barry
AMC: Franck Ribery - £30m
FC: Carlos Tevez
FC: Cato Solstad -£12.5 (seems alot for a 20 year old, but you need to see his stats cos the boy is impressive. I signed him from Shakhtar but he starts at Fredristad and has already broken into the Norwegian first team and has bagged 10 goals in 15 club appearances this season)

My 2010/2011 Man City team :

1. Shay Given
13. Joe Hart
35. Igor Akinfeev (£27m from CSKA)

2. Micah Richards
3. Giorgio Chiellini
4. Nedum Onouha
5. Philippe Mexes
11. Darijo Srna
19. Joleon Lescott
28. Kolo Toure

6. Cesc Fabregas
7. Stephen Ireland
8. Shaun Wright-Phillips
10. Robinho
16. Danielle De Rossi (£55m from Roma)
17. Rafael van der Vaart
18. Gareth Barry
34. Nigel de Jong

9. Edin Dzeko
14. David Villa (£80m from Valencia)
25. Emmanuel Adebayor
32. Carlos Tevez

Just won my first trophy on my Liverpool season (The Carling Cup) on penalties against Chelsea 13-12!

Only 1 person missed a penalty throughout the shoutout, and that has happened in every shootout I've had, does anybody else have the same problem?

Yup. Beat Cruzeiro 13-12 on penalties in a WCC final and I was beaten by Chelsea in a Community shield final 13-12.

Last night, I saved my season 'as' and used my save as season to leave City and go on holiday for a couple of years. Went away and Guardiola took charge, sold loads of players, spent £49m on Jesus Navas and has played him 6 times in a season and a half. Anyway, he took my team right downhill, he sold all of the full backs bar Criscito and Richards because he played 3-4-3 in his first season, only to play 4-3-3 in his next year.

I only done it to see re-gen development and my younger player's development, Vaclev Kadlec turned world class and so did a few of my re-gens. I think there's an unhealthy amount of top drawer re-gens coming through every season on the game, they need to sort that out.

Started a game as Wigan, and I'm currently working my way through pre-season. Got decent squad and aiming for a top 10 finish.

In : Kris Boyd (£8m, Pricey but the goalscorer I needed), Gary Caldwell (£4m, Solid, strong and good in the air), Victor Moses (£3.1m, Has great potential, fought off interest from Chelsea for him.)

Out : Daniel de Riddeer (£1.5m), Rachid Bouzuouan (£2m), Cho-Won-Hee (Loan).

Also made a few staff replacements, and tied up Scharner, Koumas and Melchiot for a further 2 or 3 years each.

Anyone see Jason Manfords take on FM on Live at the Apollo? Thought it was hillarious



(After City lost)..."I haven't even saved it yet" Haha, we've all done that

I'm looking to start a game where I will have a challenge.

Any suggestons ?

Chester City?

So, who are the hidden gems on FM10? Anyone managed to find any?

What patch are you playing on?

Finished 2010/2011 season as Liverpool managing to sneak 4th, but I missed out on Champions league because City (finishing 8th) won it...

Been given £26m and looking to sign Van Der Vaart on a permanent deal for £5.75m after he rejected his new deal for Real.

Need a centre back I think, any suggestions?

The latest patch. I get my game updated automatically.

Neven Subotic is cheap and is dominant on my current game as Arsenal.

Well, there are loads of gems. If you want a full list of all the high PA players under 21, there's a thread on the SI forums I can direct you to if you like?

If not, well, it's always hard on FM because of the introduction of the negative PA thing. Now not all players have fixed PA's, their ability can range from game to game, I've had games where Lauri Dalla Valle has been nothing better than a league 2 player, but others where Liverpool have played him over Torres he's developed so well. He's a -9, which means his PA ranges from something like 140-170 or 150-180, but, even then, some players start with really low CA so a lot of work is needed for them to fully reach their PA. Usually, the best way to get a player to reach his max potential is to get him tutored as early as possible by a good tutor (determination is usually a good indication of a good tutor, anything 18+ is perfect), after he adopts the determination, get him in the senior squad and get him playing regularly, if not, loan him out for regular football. IMO, competitive football is the best way to develop players on it bar none, I've tried training schedules, 7 star coaches and everything, but the best way to get them to improve is to play them IMO.

Apologies if you knew all this and you found that a little patronizing, but some people don't know so I thought I'd explain things a little

Mr Tafer is like that on my current game. You were surprised that he joined me in League 2, but he is rated as having nowhere near the potential to be as good as James Vaughan by the scout in my Arsenal game. I checked his stats on Genie Scout and he's got a 130 CA and 132 PA. Still tears it up into the Championship but I'll look elsewhere for my Arsenal team.

Was he [url=http://i46.tinypic.com/v2wy9x.pngthis[/url good on your game?

The screenshot ain't mine but it just shows you how the strange PA system is. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of it to be honest, it makes sense in a way, but some players have such a low CA to start with, it really takes stupendous time and effort for him to achieve his full potential. Take the player with the double barreled name at City, Nimely whatever, I've seen a screenshot of him where he's far better than Adebayor, but on my game, he's utterly woeful and is struggling to perform for a Belgian division 2 team. The difference is, on one save, he got tutored by someone good and got regular senior football from the off, on mine, he was a bugger to tutor and a year in the reserves pretty much ended all chances of him fulfilling his potential. Whilst the idea is nice, I shouldn't have to blood players aged 16 and 17 in the senior squad, it's far too tough and risky, but it's pretty much the only way a player can fully develop, at least in my experience.

No I'm only in 2014 but the only noticable stats he has over ten are pace, acceleration and finishing.

I'm a fan of it to be honest. It used to get boring after a while on previous versions where you started a game and ended up buying the same players that had turned out to be brilliant the previous time. This way at least you have to either spend time developing them properly as a young player (Which is how it is in real life) or scout them more thoroughly. They may or may not turn out to be good enough for the level you are at. But IMO that's not a bad thing, many, many certs in real life turn out to be poor. Look at Freddy Adu, he was nigh on perfect for several years on FM with everyone telling us he was the next Pele only for him to not make it in European football.

It means when you start a game you will have an idea of which players MIGHT turn out to be good, but there are no guarantees. You have to choose more carefully and decide if the risk is worth taking.

That Nimeley-Chumlewumni or whatever he's called is absolute pants on my game. I signed him on loan in league 2 after hearing rave reviews, but he scored 0 in 12 and I cancelled the loan. He was released by City, signed for Burton, dropped through their setup and disappeared from the game.

As you say, some aspects of it are good and the random element I do like, but, I just don't like the massive amounts of work that has to be put in with the lower CA players. Take Liverpool, for example, they have 5 -9 players, Pacheco, Nemeth, Bruna, Dalla Valle and Pepper, in order to get close to their -9 potential (Nemeth could be excluded in this), you have to pretty much get them included in the senior squad from year one then have then as regulars by 18/19. That isn't realistic IMO, not every player is Cesc Fabregas. Basically, I feel the reserve/U-18's could develop players more.

Another thing I have a problem with is the stats of players. I just find it extremely strange that I can be trawling through the lower ranks of Holland or Ukraine or wherever, only to find some random 20 odd year old player who will be '18' on a stat like creativity. Are the FM scouts honestly telling me that a player playing in a crap league, with crap stats in everything, can be randomly more creative than players like Gerrard on the game? I've often wondered if there was a way they could put levels to the attributes or something. Kind of like when you get a scout report, before a player has any gold stars, he is rated by silver stars, if they could incorporate a kind of silver star attribute thing - and make it work - I'd be all for it, but that does sound very complicated and could well over complicate things even more.

But yeah, just some random things, Lucas Leiva is apparently quicker than Gerrard off the mark on this game; Insua becomes quicker than Glen Johnson, Fernando Torres is only '1' better than Lucas on acceleration, whilst he's quicker than Johnson off the mark. Diego Cavalieri - a happy back up player - is apparently more determined than Pepe Reina, one of Liverpool's most determined players. David N'Gog apparently has the same overall pace as Fernando Torres. I could go on, honestly, I sometimes wonder who on earth does the scouting. Just another one, we have a young player at the club called Christopher Buchtmann, he's a German youth international, he was voted in the top 10 youngsters in the world by Uefa after being one of the stars of the youth world/European cup and has been immense since arriving on Merseyside. Apparently, a Korean U-21 free agent has higher PA than him. I know, baffling.

No mate, if you could give me that link that'd be stella. Cheers for that