Season 2: Preparing for the Prem

Hello and welcome back to my Middlesbrough FM 2012 story. Last season we managed to win the championship and gain promotion to the English Premier League; having gained my main aim, i was determined that we were not going straight back down and would make a good account of ourselves in the prem.

Transfer Market:

For a championship team, we had a strong squad but i was doubtful that we really had enough strength in depth to survive in the prem. Going through the transfers, most are young players to add depth to our squad. Pogba joined the club full time after a promising season long loan last season. I managed to snap up Mexican wonder kid Carlos Fierro on a a free which i was incredibly happy with. Branescu is a talented young keeper who i imagine to be my number 1 for years to come (my first choice would have been Luis Guilherme but it is impossible to get a work permit for him..); having such a prospect keeper it is hard to find a backup as i don't want another young keeper as he will be wasted because he won't get much, if any, game time so i opted for a seasoned professional in Jerzy Dudek who would also act as a goalkeeping coach. The two other big signings, that were made in January, are Yaya Sanogo and TTdV. Sanogo is another promising striker to pair up with Fierro and TTdV is a really promising midfielder.

After brining so many new faces in i embarked on quite a large clear out to complete the rejuvenation of my squad.

I didn't make as much money as i would have liked but i had to clear the deadweight; mostly made up of players from my youth squad who had no future at the club. When West Brom offered 3m for Steele i just couldn't turn them down as i was already looking to get a keeper with more potential ability. Lots of players went out on loan as well to gain valuable first team experience.

Preseason friendlies:

I was invited to take part in a preseason tour of Belgium as apparently Boro have quite a following there. The preseason was a mix of calamitous defending and squandered changes. I was mixing things up and it would take time for the new faces to settle in so overall, i wasn't too upset by the way our preseason went.

Looking forward to see how we get on in the prem but i think my relatively young and ambitious squad can do quite well; my main aim is to make sure we do better than West Ham and Portsmouth who were promoted from the championship with us.

Your comments are always welcome and if you want any screenshots or have any questions, i'll answer/show them as best i can in the next post.

Thanks,

Atokous

Season 1: The Championship

Hello and welcome back to the North East of England and my Football Manager 2012 story with the mighty Middlesbrough. After a promising preseason i was eager to get started with the competitive matches and hoped that the impressive for we had shown in friendlies would be carried through.

I am sorry but i will be rushing through the first two seasons to catch up with where i am at the moment so will not be going into a lot of detail (can't get the screens and can't remember properly :p).

nPower Championship:

Our season in the championship went really well. Our opening game of the season saw us draw against a decent Bristol City Side. I wanted to really start opening up a lead at the top of the table as the early season form would do wonders for the morale. After a team meeting and a few tweaks with the tactics and lineup, we really managed to start building form and by the end of the first half of the season, we were looking strong and had build up a small lead at the top of the table; Portsmouth and West Ham were also going well and were keeping us on our toes.

(sorry about the screens, being in the perm i could't filter only the championship matches so i've had to mix and match)

The second half of the season went almost as well as the first half. We continued our good form, and apart from a small blip of losing to Burnley, we dominated the championship building up a considerable lead and winning the title with quite a few games to spare (sorry, can't remember the exact number). However, even thought it may not look it, we had quite a sluggish end to the season, losing at Barnsley and drawing far too many games. We also weren't controlling the games as much as i had hoped; i was slightly concerned but not to worry, plenty of time to bring in new signings in the summer and continue my reboot of the Middlesbrough squad. The final league table:

McDonald was our star striker, netting (i think) 19 goals. Varga and Soukouna on the wings were incredibly effective as their pace tore teams apart. Martin in midfield looked a really good prospect but i've really screwed up wit him and somehow he's joining a L2 French side at the end of next season for free... Thompson was also effective in midfield. Bates was a rock at the back and Steele performed really well between the sticks.

League Cup:

I was hoping for a nice cup run in the league cup as most of the bigger teams let their youngsters or fringe players have the games. I was encouraged after we breezed past Crewe. Then disaster struck, Portsmouth were also pushing hard for promotion in the championship but i thought we should be able to dispatch them. I fielded a full strength team but in the first 3 mins Bates got sent of for what looked like a dive from the pompey player. We battled hard with ten men but couldn't pull through so that ended our cup run :( What's more, i was advised to appeal against Bates' red card and upon doing so, his ban was extended to 5 games... brilliant!

FA Cup:

We drew Derby in the first round who were also going well in the championship. I was really hoping for an easy draw so i could give my youngsters some game time but i never ever seem to get those :( After a really entertaining 1-1 draw, we then convincingly won the replay. The replay added games to my already busy schedule and with quite a few players starting to pick up knocks, it wasn't ideal so i was almost glad that we dropped out of a competition we had no chance of wining (realistically). However, losing to Middlesbrough's rivals Sunderland wasn't ideal but we did give them a really good game.

What can i say? We achieved our aim of promotion with style and had started to invest in youth as was my target. We had only just started a clear out of the ageing players and i need to continue that in the next transfer window. However, our cup successes were non existent so hopefully a nice cup run next season will sort some of the fans complaints out. 

Hopefully this was a good enough read for you to be interested in reading my next post (Season 2) which will be coming as soon as i can find enough time to type it up :)

Thanks,

Atokous

Season 1: Preseason

Hey,

The first two seasons of my story will not go into huge amounts of detail as i have completed them already and it is not until now (i am just starting my third season) that i decided to write a story.

Here we go, my Football Manager 2012 career is officially starting! As you know I chose Middlesbrough as the starting point for my career, the reasons are explained in the previous post.

As you know the board expect me to steer the club towards promotion, i think this is an achievable goal as the squad is actually quite good although it is lacking in key areas. 

On to the transfers now. Nothing spectacular to be honest, mostly due to the lack of funds but also because of the scouting restrictions. I am only allowed to send my scouts in Europe and with attribute masking enabled finding good players at cheap prices is a pretty tough task at the moment. I also only want to sign the very best and the clubs low reputation has hindered that.

Apologies for the lack of screens of player stats but as mentioned earlier, i am way ahead of this time period in my career. 

The signings that i made are, I think, very good. Ahmed Soukouna is the pick of the bunch. At 21 he is a prospect for the future and to get on a free transfer is just an added bonus. Rivaldo is very old but adds huge amounts of quality to the side, he won't be playing much but should be able to fill in when needed. Stuart Parnaby was signed as cover for my defence. I also secured Pogba and Morrison on loan from Manchester United which will give me more cover in midfield and on the wing respectively. Varga is good winger who is a little older than i would have liked but is never the less, quite good. Pulido is a young spanish defender who will be taking the place of the departing McManus. The rest of my signings are young players i hope will either grow into something special or can be sold for a juicy profit later in the game.

The selling i had in mind did not go to plan. Nobody seemed to want to buy my players so the squad overhaul i had in mind didn't really come to pass. The 2M i got for McManus was a very good deal. To reduce the wage bill, and to give them some first team football, i sent a few young prospects out on loan.

I will be playing with two main tactics. The first is a 4-5-1 that is based on how Arsenal play:

This can be downloaded here: http://www.footballmanagerstory.com/2011/10/football-manager-2012-arsenal-tactic-play-the-passing-game/

The other is a 4-3-3 that is designed to replicate Barcelona:

This can be downloaded here: http://www.footballmanagerstory.com/2011/10/download-barcelona-tactic-for-fm-2012/

I used the preseason friendlies to experiment with players and formations, tweaking my line up and tactics to best suit my team. Overall i was very pleased with the result; 7 wins from 8 with the only defeat coming at the hands of Lyon who are a quality side. I was pleased with the way my team played against Lyon and was, in the end, disappointed we didn't get a result. At this stage, i can't fault the players' efforts or determination.

That's it for this update and I’m looking forward to getting the regular season started. Once again, Your comments are always welcome. If you want any screenshot and have any questions, I’ll answer the questions and post the screenshot in the next post.

Thanks,

Atokous

Middlesbrough: The Start of Something Big??

Hey,

My name is Chris Pritchard (gaming name is Atokous). I live in England and have been a supporter of Middlesbrough FC all my life. Football is a passion for me but i have never really got into the Football Manager series but a few weeks ago i decided to try it out and i got hooked. I bought the game and, after having read some other FM stories, decided to write my own story. 

The team that i will be staring with is the one and only Middlesbrough FC; the team i have supported all my life. I'm not really sure about what my aim is during this 'journey'. My first aim, i think, will be to make Middlesbrough the best team in the game and then i'll see where i go from there. Moving on, I present to you, Middlesbrough:

As you can see, the club is going through a rough patch and is on the decline. Pretty much all the premiership standard players that the were at the club have been sold. The club is turning into a proper 'championship team'. My first aim has to be to get the club back into the Prem.

The fineness at the club are the biggest problem. The wage bill is far too large and the large revenue cuts that came with relegation have hit the club hard. Keeping the finances in check will be one of my main targets.

The squad:

The squad doesn't look too bad but is filled with too many average players who are getting on a bit. The main area of strength is the midfield but there is a severe lack of wingers. With a limited transfer budget this is something that i will be looking to address. I will also be completely focusing on youth.

That's all for now, sorry the post doesn't really give that much away as this post is really only an introduction. My next post i will focus on pre-season; friendlies and transfers. Your comments are always welcome. If you want any screenshot and have any questions, I’ll answer the questions and post the screenshot in the next post.

Thanks,

Atokous