Leeds United story

This is my Leeds United story.

This is only my second ever game in any Football Manager game. I started playing last year and never looked back. I made it in to year 2028 in FM2011 and managed to win the premier league twice and Champions League three times with Leeds. I am hoping to take Leeds even further in this year’s edition. I only decided to start writing this story when I was already in the 4th season so it starts there.
All comments are greatly appreciated!

Currently I’m in the 2024/2025 season
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Current tactic and team:
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League positions so far:
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Domestic Cups:
Won the FA Cup in 2020 and 2024
Won the League Cup in 2018 and 2024
European Cups:
Won the Euro Cup in 2021.
won the Champions League in 2024

Transfers:

2011/12
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2012/13
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2013/14
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2014/15
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2015/16
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2016/17
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2017/18
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2018/2019
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2019/2020
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2020/2021
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2021/2022
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2022/2023
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Story starts here, in the 4th season.

I went in to the transfer window with the intention of saving money and that's what I did. As this is a long term project, I want to invest in the club's future. Again, I wanted to strenghten my midfield, mainly a playmaker and possibly a left winger.
I looked for a playmaker for ages, but didn't find one that suited my budget and requirements. I did manage to find a decent, cheap left winger though, he cost me only 2 million and accepted a wage of 4000p/w.
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I also signed Henri Lansbury 1,8m from Arsenal while in the search of a playmaker. I'm not sure what kind of a role he will play at Leeds, but I thought I'd give him a chance.

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Also I bought a goalkeeper from Gladbach through scout recommendation, cost me 5million, but he looks very promising. Definately going to compete for nr. 1 jersey with Fabianski.

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I also have to point out here one amazing little things. A country in Africa called Mali just finished as runners up in the World Cup!

The pre-season went very well. We played in Germany, Italy, Spain and England and I have to say I'm very happy with the results. All the teams were similiar to us or lower in reputation, but I've always liked to build some team spirit and raise the morale in pre-season.

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It remains to be seen whether this confidence will be good for us. Our first match of the season isn't the easiest possible, but I think we have a good chance of a win, or atleast a draw. After that It's a few easier games, but we've always had some complacency issues so it could prove difficult.

Well the season started with some very good performances and some very bad performances. We lost some games we definately should have won.

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We were winning well against Liverpool, but they managed an added time equalizer. Then against Ipswich we should have recorded a comfortable win, but ended playing very badly and Ipswich deserved their victory.

I was especially disappointed with the 5-0 defeat against Everton. It came like a bolt from the clear blue sky. We were heavy favourites for this one and Everton actually ended a long losing streak.

Daniel Sturridge is the only positive thing to take from this first quarter of the season. He has already scored 8 league goals AND 8 Cup goals. It's a very different form than we saw from him last season, when he didn't score until february.

Well we march on and try to stay in the top half atleast, although European qualification is my goal. Here's what the league table currently looks like:

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Also here is the best player so far this season.

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Keep up the good work!! Always liked Leeds for some reason. 9th is pretty good. What were your 'Start of season expectations'?

Wow Sturridge 16 in 11 appearances. Hes killing it.

#35015 ALX : Keep up the good work!! Always liked Leeds for some reason. 9th is pretty good. What were your 'Start of season expectations'?

Wow Sturridge 16 in 11 appearances. Hes killing it.

Thanks man. Expectations were top half finish so 9th isn't really that great.

So the season is finally over and our form in the last few games helped us achieve my personal goal of qualifying for the EURO cup. We stayed in 8th position for the most of the season, but in the end we had a chance to qualify for even the champions league.

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Daniel Sturridge's form continued throughout the season and it was a joy to watch. He was injured for a few weeks, but that didn't stop him from winning the Golden Boot.

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So once again it is time to strenghten my squad. I'm still looking for a Playmaker CM and my primary target is Jonjo Shelvey from Liverpool, but he doesn't seem to eager to join Leeds. I might have to buy other players aswell to achieve sufficient depth for the EURO cup. Next season's goals for me are qualifying for EURO cup again and possibly reaching the latter stages of EURO cup.

Well it seems that Arsenal aren't rich enough just yet. If this goes through it will be very hard to beat both Arsenal and Man City who constantly buy the best players available.

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Well the summer is over and new players have joined Leeds and some have departed.
Here is a quick recap of the activity:

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The most notable transfer IN:

Felipe Anderson from Santos. After my very long search for a playmaker, I finally managed to find one that actually wanted to join Leeds. I had to pay a huge amount of money for him, so I hope it was the right decision. Cost: 20 million.

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To bolster my midfield more I signed a defensive midfielder on a free transfer by the name of Gaby Mudingayi.

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And finally I was delighted to strenghten my defense with Pepe. Got him on a free transfer on a one year deal and I hope he'll have to time to make an impact before his playing days are over.

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None really important players were sold/released, but I was unhappy at selling James McCarthy. I just felt he never really blended with the other squad members and with Felipe Anderson coming in, I decided it was best I sold him.

So we are facing a new and exciting challenge in the European fields this season. I hope to qualify for the latter stages of the competition, but I would be happy to even boost my finances and club stature in the group stages.

I scheduled very few friendly matches for pre-season, as our EURO cup qualifying matches seemed rather easy and I didn't want to have too many games before the League kicked off. Here's how the first month of the season went:

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I was mostly happy at our performances, but was obviously disappointed at losing against Tottenham in a match we dominated. We quailified for the group stage after a decent run in the EURO cup qualifying games, but in truth the teams we faced shouldn't have posed much challenge and I think we could've done even better.

The next month will probably be one of the easiest when looking at it now, but we have developed a habit of gifting points to lower reputation clubs and I can only hope we can perform to our own good standard.

Also we have lost Pepe and Steven Fletcher to injury. Neither should have a major impact, but further losses to injury especially in the forward department and we could be in big trouble.

Well we are well in to the season now and the results have been very pleasing, but I am very concerned about the performances. We're currently in 4th place, but we can count ourselves very lucky to be there. I think we could well be below the mid table.
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I think our goal difference of +2 reflects our bad performances. EURO cup has started off very well and I think our performances in that competition have been more satisfactory.
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I think my inexperience in managing a club that plays european football in addition to league and domestic cups has been apparent. The players are pretty tired and we've had way too many injuries. We are facing the worst injury crising imaginable right now as our long serving captain Johnny Howson is out, but also my key strikers Paloschi, Sturridge and Griffiths. We were lucky to have Steven Fletcher return from injury recently, but I have to play a youngster with him from the U18's squad.
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The list also features two of my best defenders, Caulker and Connolly so it's a very hard time for us as a team. I hope there will be no further injuries and that we will improve our performances towards the end of the season, because honestly if we keep this up, there's absolutely no way we are qualifying for EURO cup next season.
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Well I cant quite believe it, but the the next match after my last update and Fletcher is Injured. I am now completely without a First team striker for atleast a week, when Griffiths is set to return, but it will be risky playing him right away. Then 2-4 weeks before Paloschi, Fletcher and Sturridge are back. Difficult times indeed.

We're now half way through the season and after my last update we had a great change of form. Griffiths was first to return from injury and I put him out there immediately against Ipswich and he scored both goals and secured us the win.
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I was very happy that we managed to win the Everton and Chelsea matches. Both were played away from home and the players were very tired. Also the win against Arsenal is something for the fans to savour. We were completely crushed by the incredibly strong Man Utd side and disappointingly drawed against Newcastle.

Our rather lucky results in the start of the season and the current good form sees us sit comfortably in 5th place.

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