2015 Sheffield Wednesday, anyone?

[mikan]

hello everyone!

i'm not sure i should hope for anyone to remember me, but i am the guy who did the fergie challenge last summer

... so while waiting for FMM 2016, i thought why not give it another go.

sheffield wednesday was pretty obvious choice for me, because that was my club back in CM01/02 days.

...

i was surprised in a very pleasant way by the quality of the team i found... i mean it's not like i had any transfer money, but it really turned out that i didn't need any.

i bought only two players, but both backups: a third midfielder and a fourth wingback.

this was my lineup in the first season:

... to be continued...

[FastFurious]

Good luck!

[mikan]

thanks guys!

i started this career just before the weekend.

since i like to play very fast and without putting my tablet down, i already did six full seasons!! however, i just couldn't force myself to write about it.

...

a little spoiler: i'm in premiership.

also, i was extremely close to being sacked after season 03 AND 04!

another spoiler: rafa benitez was managing manchester united! /o\

[mikan]

so championship wasn't that hard.

but as i already said, my squad was really good... without any significant additions, i breezed past through season:

 

premiership was quite hard... but again, i wouldn't wanted it any other way.

however, i recorded some nice wins

but it was pain and struggle throughout:

 

somehow, i managed to finish 7th and to get euro cup spot!

nice first season, but even nicer stuff followed:

 

[mikan]

from the previous screenshots:

giuseppe giordano was on loan from bayern... he was ok, but only a sub to my bus-may combo up front. later he turned into a real beast and was bought by city for 40M+!

i bought john stones for only 8M! i was also after barkley, but he went to arsenal... i tried my luck with wilshere, can, and chambers (who was with me on loan) but without success.

lucas silva was on loan from real madrid.

i didn't have any money, so i tried with loans. it worked out pretty good, but from season 04 on i haven't used loans at all.

[halamadrid]

Impressive stuff mate :)

[Devil 03]

Ya, great work!

 

[mikan]

thanks guys... nice to see someone is following this ;)

[mikan]

only the second premiership season, and we're already in champions league!! (ok ok, after qualifying round)

 

it's hard to believe i almost got fired that season.

but the board is very demanding and 3-4 losses in a row could end your employment... they also always turn up a notch: first just avoid relegation... then achieve respectable position... and now they already demand continental qualification!!

 

season 04 began with the bang:

Bus and May you've already met. Maximilian Meyer was bought from Schalke for 13M (huuuuge amount of money for my team... i usually get 7-8M per season). he is very young and really something special, but he wouldn't have come unless i gave him big club release clause, and he is already making problems... but hey, what can you do.

 

Edited November 5, 2015 by mikan

[Jason Cooper]

Amazing I did the same lol can I see.your formation and tactic please. May is a quality forward and devannte Cole is to

[Jason Cooper]

What team instructions did yo use sorry 

[mikan]

jason, i always play 532 like it's shown in OP.

i hate micromanagement, so i set up my team in a way to accomodate those roles.

i alternate between complete forward and advanced forward role, but eventually would like to play trequartista there.

my logic is to put trequartista on the other side of BBM, because BBM might run forward a lot, and trequartista could operate a little further from goal, so i try to give them both enough space... i'm not sure that make sense, but it's my setup.

also, i always play attacking style, with default option for passing and tackling... if the match is going the wrong way, i might try direct passing and committed tackling, but usually not.

i use pressing and offside trap.

[Meow]

Haha I love Sheffield Wednesday, it's usually the club I manage from Championship. Some quality players, not difficult to get promotion.

Although surprisingly when I'm not managing them, they never promote...

[Jason Cooper]

Thanks mate 

[mikan]

OK, i wasn't here for some time... but let's get up to date with this career.

 

12 and a half seasons already under my belt... I'm not sure I will continue, because now I see FMM2016 is just about out.

 

only 6.5 seasons at Sheffield Wednesday, though!

6 at... well, let's still keep it a secret for a little while. ;-) 

 

so, season 04 at Sheffield.

things started great... you can see that from the last screenshot... poor Rooney managed to score and eased the embarrassment somewhat.

 

but then the disaster struck!

Maximilian Meyer, you remember him,right?

well, I already said he was my only player with big club release clause... and Liverpool snapped him up on August 31st for £26.5M!!!

so I couldn't react in time and buy replacement(s).

 

but I pushed Ward-Prowse (I forgot to mention him, right?) to AMC position and managed quite alright.

 

season 04 table:

 

 

season 05 was a big improvement for Sheffield Wednesday!

for the first time I challenged for the title!

the season ended in fabulous way with three teams on top sharing the same number of points! and me just behind them.

 
 

I was pretty convinced I'm finally prepared after full five seasons!

[mikan]

yep! I was certainly right!

[Zkleeds]

2 conceded in 12. That defense

[mikan]

only two goals allowed in 12 matches?!?

well, that has to be a keeper, right?

right... after putting up with original keeper for five seasons, I bought this fabulous young goalkeeper:

 

my other fabulous young player already had bids from Real and City for 45+M!

not yet absolute world class skills, but it seems AI knows he will develop into one.

[mikan]

8 minutes ago, Zkleeds said:

2 conceded in 12. That defense

yes, thanks. ;-) 

it was a nice run!

[mikan]

everything went as planned... I won big time that season!

champion with two rounds to go.

 

up until season 06 I hadn't won anything.

I think it was quite realistic... I wouldn't want to win premiership in my first or second season, I prefer to earn it through strengthening my squad from season to season.

but that season I won the treble!!!

 

of course, it was purely coincidental... I always play non-league matches with my second lineup... I like to give them plenty of matches throughout the season, so they won't complain.... I hate when they do that! ;-) 

[mikan]

you can see from that last screenshot that Bus is still kickin' ass ;-)  and that Ward-Prowse play wonderful football!

Zuculini I bought from City for a few bucks... he looked excellent skill-wise for BWM position, but City simply couldn't use him, it seems... I certainly could!

[mikan]

somewhere around that period I started looking elsewhere.

United was in trouble. they weren't anywhere near the top for seasons!

so when they fired Van Gaal, they said I was favourite no.3 for the job!

I applied! but Mourinho won it... it's OK, we all know he would go on his knees from London to Old Trafford to get the job. ;-) 

 

the season was total success... my last screenshot before changing clubs:

I really think I could've gone on and on with Sheffield Wednesday and just kept winning it season after season... I strongly believed in that team... it had everything and I had no idea how to improve it further.

... so I left.

 

I can't picture my self running City or Chelsea, but pretty much everything else is OK as far as I'm concerned... even Liverpool (yes, I know, but I'm from Croatia ;-) ).

but the next big team to fire their coach was Arsenal... and I was their no.1 man for the job. I took it.

[mikan]

so, Arsenal!

pretty much every current player was there and also some nice surprises: Nastasic and Verratti ;-) 

the beginning was rough, I took charge on January 21st, so had only 10 days to strenghten my squad.

also, I came in the middle of extremely tough series... what sealed my predecessor's faith was loss against Sheffield Wednesday, of course. ;-) 

even more interesting, I played league cup semifinal leading each club for one match ;-) 

[mikan]

I was taken for a ride by the board... not for the first time... I was promised 82M when offered a job, but got only 35.5M... and with wages 40M in the red, you can sense I wasn't very happy about the whole situation.

I managed to sell couple of not needed players and bought Dutch wingback for 40M... yes, he is that good.

 

I managed to finish 4th, but it looks like I don't have a screenshot. ;-) 

the summer was very productive... I got rid of quite a few players and I had injury nightmare... welbeck, sanogo, Brazilian forward and another one (all for forwards) got injured for 7 months, 4 months, 2 and 2!!!

I had to have seven forwards to cope with that horror.

 

it turned out OK though... in my first full season, I had only Chelsea in front of me:

but hey!!! look at that!!!

champions league in my first full season!!!

[mikan]

from the last screenshot:

Kostov is one of those forwards I had to buy because of injury crisis.

Lewis Cook was brought from Sheffield Wednesday.

And Doria Macedo... well, I will let his skills speak about him:

[mikan]

oh no, the champions league... so one dull game in August and another two in December! this might hurt my premiership chances, and that is pretty much all I'm interested in.

 

Chelsea is very strong, other teams not so much, but as with Sheffield Wednesday, I feel like team is becoming mine after a season and a half (naturally, a little quicker than at Sheffield, the team was pretty good to start with) and that I would be on top in may!

 

not only that I have a wonderful team, but youth players are amazing... not so much ones that are offered to me, but greyed out ones are spectacular!

look at this wingback:

or forward:

 

I had quite a problem with keepers... Szczęsny and Ospina were still there (enough said, right? ;-) ), but I finally got around that problem:

 

the season was almost perfect... but the board is getting on my nerves... I should be performing slightly better?!? I should be performing slightly better!!!??!! ;-) 

[mikan]

a little showing off ;-) 

 

and at the end:

 

my manager profile page:

[mikan]

OK, I'm not playing 2015 version for a couple of weeks now... I took Sheffield United in FMM 2016 ;-) 

I wasn't planning going with Sheffield team again, I just wanted a league 1 team and then cought myself thinking: hey, this could be fun ;-) 

but just to wrap things up here, I played another three seasons with Arsenal... Chelsea was extremely strong so I took only one title and was second twice:

 

in a way, I'm glad it wasn't too easy, even with Arsenal, but the money was always there and I also had fabulous youth players... for instance:

 

and was having pretty hard time deciding where to upgrade my team:

 

all in all, nice 12 seasons and a lot of fun playing! ;-) 

but off to FMM 2016 now... bye ;-)