Football Manager 2019

Absolute bargain. No idea what Dortmund are thinking.

 

Got him coming in for £2.2 million. Looks a poormans Tierney for right back.

 

Got these 3 players on a free this season. Unreal how good they have been

 

Would take this at half time today, this is the league cup but at the semi-final stage......

 

I'm in February of my third season. The January window was a bit up and down. In came Thiago Almada (£10 million) and Leon Goretzka (£13.25 million).


Hamilton produced a quality regen, however he chose Man City over me. Atletico bid almost 40 million for Roberts and I'd lined Lucas Moura up as a replacement however Roberts rejected the contract. Lost out on another right midfielder to Real Madrid.

I'm currently 12 points clear in the SPL and have won the League Cup. I have Barca in the last 16 of the CL after comin second in a group of Chelsea, Bayern and Dynamo Kiev.

I'm reasonably happy with the first team, although I'm on the lookout for a new RW and defensive midfielder. Wanyama is soon to be out of contract so i'm considering him. I really want Tonali though, but Brescia want £60 million. Hopefully they drop their demands closer to the summer window.

BTW, is anyone having difficulties uploading screenshots? I can't get mine to embed.

 

Season 2 Koln prep well underway.

On the sales front I've been flogging players for wonderful sums, although in one instance I was forced into selling someone I'd rather have kept. But more on that in a bit. First move was to get rid of Cordoba and Fenerbache came to the table with a very agreeable £12m offer. I was planning on loaning Ghuirassy out for a year and had a nice £300k rental lined up with some team I've now forgotten, but Stuttgart came in for him and I couldn't resist dabbling in a bit of bargaining with them to test his value. In the end I haggled them up to £17.5m up front, plus 10% of future sales.
Now the move I didn't want to make. Leverkusen are flush with cash having just sold Volland to England and they took a fancy to my second choice left back Jannes Horn. Adding to my woes was the fact that he desired the move on account of them being in the Champions League. I really, really didn't want to sell him but after failing to convince him of the merits of staying I reluctantly opted to cash in. He's only Hector's backup, after all, and we've got Katterbach on the books as his eventual successor. Accepted an offer of £25.5m in the end, plus 30% of future profit.

I was suddenly flush for cash and had a few priorities for it. The first was not going crazy and holding a bit of it in reserve as I'd managed to get Benfica to agree to a £28m buy option on Keaton Parks. Ideally I'll get him for much less than that but I now have a guaranteed avenue to sign him, which is great. Finally stumbled across my ideal #10 in the form of FCSB's Olimpiu Morutan. Wasn't really aware of him but his attributes really fit the bill, and he proved really cheap at just £3.8m rising to £4.3m. He'll be starting ahead of Schaub from the off.

Scouts had alerted me to the potential of Matias Pellegrini from Estudiantes and I liked the look of him, he's your basic traditional left winger but his strengths are more weighted to the technical side of things than pure pace at the moment. A nice development project at £2.8m rising to £3.7m.

I was reluctant to make a big-money signing, wanting to keep the proverbial powder dry for future windows, but the sales windfall meant I had a bit of leeway to get a marquee signing across the line while still leaving the Keaton Parks fund intact. Domenico Berardi's agent alerted me to the possibility of signing him, just as he was in negotiations for a move to newly-promoted Aston Villa. Decided to go for it, not thrilled with the £22.5m price tag but he's a clear upgrade on Risse at RW and his killer penalty taking will no doubt come in handy time and time again. One sad aspect to this transfer is that it forces hometown boy Christian Clemens out of the club. Had to be ruthless and overlook my sentimental side, toyed with loaning him out for a couple of years and then giving him Risse's backup RW spot, but there were no takers. Middlesbrough took him off my hands for £8.15m.

Final signing I'm working on is a replacement for Jannes Horn. Chose to go for Raoul Petretta from Basel, reasonably cheap at £6.5m but it's dragging out a bit as I'm battling with Gladbach for his signature. If it falls through I might have to promote Katterbach to the first team ahead of schedule.

 

I've officially caught the transfer bug. Couldn't resist the urge to keep overhauling things, was slightly dubious about the ability of Pohjanpalo to fulfill his potential so I shipped him out on loan whilst buying Piatek as a replacement for £13m.

Another transfer I forgot to mention earlier was Dedryck Boyata on a Bosman, represents a good short term profit vehicle and I intend to play him for a bit and sell either in January or at the end of the season.

Got off to a cracking start by mauling TSV Shilksee in the Pokal away from home, 1-12. Then took apart Rafa Benitez' BVB on the opening day of the league season.

 

This game is quite good at predicting the future.....

 

He was forever gettin the sack in last year's too

 

Scenario: veteran backup goalkeeper Thomas Kessler is out injured with a back strain. Starting goalkeeper Timo Horn then proceeds to twist his ankle in training the night before a game, putting himself out of action for 4 weeks (reduced to 2-4 weeks under the care of head physio Karen Gibson). Oh, and that game is Bayern. Away.

I'm used to playing in Spain where youth players don't need to be registered in order to play in the league, so thought I'd just go down to the U19 ranks to pluck out Daniel Adamczyk for the start. But alas, no, if you're not already registered for the Bundesliga you're not getting onto the pitch, and you can't register players mid-season.

I ended up having to choose between starting an outfield player in goal, or starting one of the greymen that popped up in my first team. I went greyman, and the randomly generated keeper proceeded to do absolutely nothing in order to stop Bayern from walking the ball into the back of the net.



Delighted with the fact that we earned the draw, particularly as we equalised whilst down to 10 men following an injury to sub Matias Pellegrini. But immensely frustrated that my lack of Bundesliga registration rules knowledge and failure to register a third keeper at the start of the season (how sodding hard could it have been, it's not like we're allowed to register up to 99 players or anything) were the sole reasons for us conceding 4 times, and thus costing us a famous win away to the perennial champions.

Kessler should just about pass a fitness test for the upcoming visit of Schalke in a week's time. Pocchetino is in charge of them, him being their second choice after interviewing me (I had no intention to leave Koln but it would have been rude not to attend, plus I was able to parlay their interest into the board increasing my wage budget as a gesture to get me to abandon talks).

 

Anyone as perturbed as I was by SI seemingly losing the naming rights for Niko Kovac (he's now randomly called Max Mustermann) can apply the following fix.

Head to Football Manager 2019\data\database\db\(version here)\lnc\all. Either make a new Inc file or just edit an existing one, and paste the following line into it.

"CHANGE_PLAYER_NAME" "8680" "Niko" "" "Kovac"

You'll need to repeat this for all three versions of the database files. Then re-load your save and you should be good to go.

 

Going pretty well with my 2 up top formations. Of my 5 strikers, Da Graca is the only one not into double figures yet as we enter the January break - he has 9 goals to his name. The team are really starting to bang them in - we’ve scored at least 3 in each of our last 12 games in all comps.

Didn’t top my CL group this time though, finishing behind Utd but comfortably ahead of Marseilles and Sparta Prague. Finding the right 2 striker formation for CL away games is definitely the biggest challenge this season. We’ve drawn Chelsea in the last 16.

Domestically we finally lost our unbeaten record at the same place as our last defeat 18 months earlier - Pittodrie. We go there in our first Scottish Cup tie too which will be tough.

Won the league cup and Club World Cup very comfortably.

Not sure if I’ll do anything in January. If the right players become available I may do some business but would need to sell first and theres no one I’m desperate to punt.

Thibaud Verlinden of Stoke looks a great option for right wing but I think he’d be too expensive as they are a Prem team again - maybe worth a look for anyone in their first season or 2.

 

Anyone got the Football Manager 19 on their mobile is it any good? I see it's £9 on chrome store, I'm tempted to get it.

edit: i gave in and got it, it's basic but quite fun.

 

Had an eventful January window. It was the right time to ditch Boyata who was performing pretty poorly all things considered, not entirely convinced about the merits of a no-nonsense CB in my system. Flipped him to Palace for 12.5m, a tidy little profit for 6 months work. Didn't really anticipate replacing him so just recalled Sobiech from his Schalke loan to fill my 4th-choice spot.

However my scouts alerted me to the opportunity to snap up a Serbian phenom from Partizan, Svetozar Markovic. Was really intrigued as I'd never heard of him before from previous FMs or irl, and he was already rated ahead of my first choice Jorge Mere on current ability. Barca and Atleti were both in for him which was problematic, but the minuscule transfer fee of 1.6m allowed me to beef up the contract offer a fair bit. That and the offer of a key player role probably ended up swinging it in my direction, as he rejected the two Spanish giants. Sobiech was promptly put back out on loan.

I'd been tracking HSV's fullback Joshua Vagnoman for quite some time, in the summer I'd launched a few speculative bids with a view to unsettling him which were all rejected. Silly money I wasn't intending to actually pay, went upwards of 30m before I pulled out. He'd been unhappy with HSV for not letting him talk then so I thought I'd return to the table in January to try force the issue. Same trick again, a couple of bids that I knew they'd reject, this time lowball offers. They rejected at first but I think his upset at not being allowed to talk to me finally forced their hand, as they came to the table with a negotiated counter-offer. Managed to tie everything up for 13.75m up front, with add-ons potentially taking it up to 19m in future. Despite already having the solid Klostermann at RB I was very keen on Vagnoman, who is a cut above and slightly younger. Previous 2nd RB Bader headed off to Kaiserslautern on loan.

Hoger had been upset about wanting a move for continental football. Bitterly regret not snapping Stuttgart's hand off when they bid 6m for him in the summer, at that point it was late in the window and I couldn't be bothered finding a new 4th-choice CM. But 6 months down the line with Hoger still unhappy I decide to shift him but can't find any interested takers. Best I could manage was getting a loan to Hannover to at least get his wages off of the books. Replaced him with former Koln man Yannick Gerhardt who was on the transfer list at Wolfsburg. 2.6m so reasonably cheap, has a bit of potential left in the tank so could see him developing into a decent enough Ozcan B2B backup.

Had been toying with the idea of replacing Louis Schaub for a while, he was a fine 2. liga player but wasn't having much of an impact coming off the bench in the Bundesliga. RB Salzburg bidding an initial 8m rising to 9m made my decision for me, so he was off. Had a look at a few different #10s, stumbled across Dinamo Zagreb's Lovro Majer and was impressed with the scouting reports of him. Tidy player pretty much on par with Morutan, and has good ability at set pieces. Signed him up for an initial fee of 8m rising to 9.5m.

On deadline day I spied a couple of investment opportunities in the form of Murgia and Cheikh, who were transfer listed for 2.2m and 2.4m respectively. Neither have fulfilled their potential so there's room for growth, they'll be loan farmed for a while and I should be able to turn a tidy profit on them. Murgia was loaned to RB Salzburg and Cheikh went to Hoffenheim. Also signed Alexis Mac Allister on a Bosman and after the deadline nabbed Bremen's Josh Sargent for 2.4m.



All in all a very solid first season back in the top flight for us. Early season form suggested we could perhaps duke it out with the big boys for a top 4 spot, but they were just a cut above us in their levels of consistency. Very pleased to claim a Europa League spot, particularly when looking at the fate of our promotion stablemate HSV who are going straight back down. Things went about as well as they conceivably could have gone.

Title race was fascinating and went down to the final day with three teams level. Leipzig hosted Frankfurt whilst Bayern hosted Leverkusen in a schale-decider for the ages. RB tonked Frankfurt 4-0 but it wasn't enough, with Leverkusen sneaking past Bayern by a single goal. B04 and RB were level on points and level on goal difference, B04 ended up winning the title on goals scored, having notched up 70 to RB's 69.



Piatek led the way with his 22 league goals, and was crowned Torschutzenkonig. Morutan had a lovely debut season. Ozcan came up with some important goals. Bit disappointed by Berardi's overall production, may look to sell if I can identify an upgrade.



I managed to win one of the manager of the year awards, but the other went to Heiko Herrlich. Fair enough, really. Rafa Benitez lead Dortmund to a Europa League win, defeating Leverkusen in the final. PSG beat MoUnited on pens in the CL final. Bayern sacked Niko Kovac mere hours after he lead them to a Pokal win over Leipzig. Harsh. Jurgen Klopp has been appointed to replace him.

Juve's Italian dominance continues under Conte. In England Manuel Pellegrini's Arsenal pipped Zinedine Zidane's Spurs to the title.

Don't anticipate doing much with my budget, will keep an eye on anything juicy popping up on the transfer list. Was considering resurrecting Renato Sanches with a view to selling as he was listed, but Klopp has recalled him from Bayern II and taken him off the transfer list so that's no longer an option.

Would quite like Fiete Arp to ditch HSV but they're not interested in selling, quoting a 100m+ figure when I tried to negotiate. So short of unsettling him it looks like he's going to endure another trip to the 2. liga. Have fired in a couple of bids for Bayern's Alphonso Davies but the rotters don't want to sell.

 

Markovic is one of my best ever signings on FM. Immense at the back in my Celtic save

 

You get him cheaply as well? Was amazed by the price tag.

 

Anyone still playing on their Beta save?
I tried doing a Hertha save the other day, but struggled as I just wanted to get back to my original Celtic save. Which wasn't exactly the best save in the world, some very unfortunate things happened, but over time I've built a decent squad with a lot of youth/regen that I want to see do well. Think in to season 6 now and Tierney, Morgan and Johnston are the only original 3 left - I think.

 

My beta save is on hold at the moment, think I'm in season 7 with Athletic.

 

Nice, that's dedicationg to get to 7 for a Beta save.

Need good inspiration for a new save for full game though. Hertha didn't grab me enough. Done Villareal last year, was good, but fancy something different again. Maybe take one of the Milans back to the top.

 

I'm still doing my Beta save. I'm just starting season four and I've officially jumped the shark.

I won another treble last season but was knocked out of the Champions League at the last 16 by Barca. We drew 2 each and Celtic park and I lost 1 nil away in the Nou Camp. What was frustrating though was that over the two legs i had 9 clear cut chances to their 3. Suarez scored by outpacing Markovic, even though he has pace and acceleration of 7. Rajkovic made a major blunder at Celtic Park so he was top of my list to replace. I sold him for 18.5 to Roma and replaced him with Loris Karius for 15 million. He's a proper World Class Keeper so definitely an upgrade.

At right back, I had an option to purchase Almany Toure for £11 Million, which i did. He was excellent for me last season and worth £20 million. I sold my back up Tyler Adams to stoke for 17.5 million as he was just too slow and hadn't developed at all.

At centre back my first choices are still Markovic and Ajer. Backups are Callum Chmabers and Boubacar Kamara. Kamara hasn't really developed so i might move him on. I'm currently in negotiations to take Lindelof on loan from Man Utd. we've agreed i'll pay 30% of his £110k a week salary with an optional fee of £20 million.

At left back, I sold Moreno to City for £50 Million and i'm going to try to develop a Brazilian regen i picked up as my backup to Tierney who is ridiculously good.

For my first choice 11 I go with a deep lying play maker at DM (Valverde), a box to box midfielder (Goretzka) and Mezzala (Ntcham). Both Ntcham and Goretzka are as good as I can get for those positions. I tried to upgrade Valverde with Tonali but he wanted £250k a wee to join. He's joined Man United so hopefully I can pick him up on loan next season. I swap out Valverde for Almada for weaker teams, but I can't get anything out of my attacking Midfielders. They are consistently my lowest scoring first team player, no matter who I play. I sold Rafinha to Spurs for £35 million. I have Morilla, McGregor, Riccardi and Blesa all providing backup.

I'd identified the right wing as an area i wanted to upgrade along with DM and the keeper, so I've got Kingsley Coman in on loan for the season. Again i'm playing 30% of his wages (around 40k) but I forgot to put an option to buy in the contract. I've got Roberts, Fabrice Hartmann and Forrest providing backup. Roberts rejected a move to West Ham, after we agreed a fee of £40 million, which i wasn't best pleased with. I took Hartmann as he is a wonderkid and available to £2.2 million, but i don't think he'll get much game time. A loan might be best for all parties.

At left winger, I've got Marin and Mikey Johnson. Marin is quality, probably my best buy in this save, along with Markovic. I have the option of taking Martial on loan, again paying 30%of his wages. He'd be an instant upgrade on both, but I'd likely stifle the development of Johnston. I'm considering putting him out on loan.

Martial would also provide competition up front where Eduoard is still my number one striker. I have just bought a Swiss regen for £17 million. Further backup is provide by my own regens. In writing this, I've convinced myself to go with Martial.

Overall, happy with the squad. I should be challenging for the Champions League this season.