Leicester City Story

Been playing for years and had some great stories but never actually done one of these story posts before, thought I'd give it a go, hopefully it will be fun. Unfortunately I also jsut left studentdom so now have far less time to actually play FM so there may be some fairly large breaks between updates, I will however try to update once per in game season which looks like it might be every week to ten days at my current rate. Anyway, to the story:

5-7-2011
Leicester announce the appointment of me as their new manager on a 2 year £6500 a week contract.

Leicester are predicted to finish 7th in the Championship for this season, but I set my expectation to Win the league in order to maximise my transfer and wage kitty.

I set up the tactic that i've been using in FM for as long as I can remember which is 4-1-3-2 with the 3 consisting of AML, AMC and AMR and the 1 being a DM. Still using the old style tactics system because I prefer the sliders: go fairly attacking with moderate freedom, short passing and a quick tempo (if anyone wants more details let me know and I'll post a screencap of the sliders or something)

First attempt at a game means that for transfers I've fallen back on players who did good jobs for me in previous FM years.

Transfers in:
Marco Veratti (AMC 2.6m from Pescara)
Craig Noone (W 1.2M from Brighton)
Richard Wright (GK Free)
Yaya Sanogo (ST 3m from Auxerre)

Wright aside I erred for younger players who will gain home-grown status at Leicester and should develop well as I hope to elevate Leicester.

The Season:
12 games into the season and unbeaten, unfortunately 7 of these games were draws (admittedly also draws where I was lucky not to lose), this sluggish start, combined with a disappointing exit from the carling cup at the 2nd round stage (losing away at Portsmouth, aim was at least 3rd round) results in the news that failure to win my next game will result in dismissal puts the pressure on me to find the winning formula quickly. (incidentally I think I either had the same amount or one more point than leicester had in real life when they sacked Sven so props for the accuracy). My team finds itself one down away at Ipswich until 2 substitutions on 65minutes turn the game. Both the players I put on score with the winner coming in the last minute of normal time, ensuring I live to fight another day.

After this close call I decided to tinker with my standard tactic a little, increasing the directness of my passing from 'short' to 'direct'. This seems to do the trick and 7 consecutive wins and remaining unbeaten to the new year sees me enter the transfer window secure in 2nd position and chasing down West Ham in first.

The good form sees me fairly happy with my squad but I do make the following additions (all on free transfers):
Rivaldo (AMC/SC)
Tom (AMRLC)
Jonathan Lacourt (DM)
These guys give me improved wing options and some good experience in my squad, I also use Rivaldo as a tutor for young Veratti (surely not a bad role model for any yound AMC out there?)

The good league form continues throughout the rest of the season, a win over West Ham away sees Leicester leapfrog them to take 1st position, a place that Leicester never relinquish to the end of the season. Promotion is secured with 6 games to go and the Championship title with 3 games remaining.

The FA Cup

However, that is not the end of the story for this season. The team also far surpassed it's expected 5th round exit in the FA Cup. Early ties against Tamworth (A), MK Dons (A) and Reading (H) see the side advance to the 6th round (Quarter final to some) where a tie with Wolves (A) lies in wait. Despite having to absorb heavy pressure in the first game a draw in the first match progression is secured thanks to 4-3 win AET in the replay. Tottenham lie in wait at the Wembley Semi-Final, quite shockingly my Leicester team race into a 3-0 lead after 50minutes and manage to see out the rest of the game to leave put me through to a final showdown against Chelsea. The Final sees Chelsea rest several of their regular first team players and have a bench consisting mostly of youth players. My hunch that this may play into my teams hands proves true as Leicester more than match their premier league opponents and secure a 2-1 win AET. This secures European football for Leicester for the next season and more importantly the FA cup for the first time in their history.


So all in all I have to say that I am pretty chuffed with my first full season in FM2012. I felt promotion was always on the cards with the players already in Leicester's squad but the FA cup was a bit crazy.

Player season summary:
The younger players in the squad have all progressed well, Sanogo finished the season as my top scorer (18 goals) and the others all seem like they should be able to make the step up.

With regards to Rivaldo I do accept that it was a bit of a wildcard signing but I think it was more than worth the money as he was only on a 6 month contract. He finished having made 15 appearances, scored 5 goals, 2 assists and a average rating of 7.3 vindicates that decision I think.


I'm looking forward to getting stuck into the next season and seeing what my team will be able to do in Premierleague and Europe. I'll do a similar summary when anything interesting happens for the next season.

If anyone has any questions or wants any more information just leave a post and I'll try and get back to you!

Sorry mate but all due respect, there's no way you've won the FA Cup with Leicester without fixing it in some way!

#34979 Tom_BcFC : Sorry mate but all due respect, there's no way you've won the FA Cup with Leicester without fixing it in some way!

Erm, well, no actually I didn't fix it, there is absolutely no point in fixing the game because a.) It would take all the fun out of it and b.) I'm actually quite good so I have no need to.

I'm sorry if I'm better at FM than you can conceive as possible. Except, Much like using the phrase 'all due respect' before accusing someone of cheating is meaningless, I'm not sorry at all.

I'd like to mount a more robust defence rather than trading petty insults, but as you are claiming I could not have won it fairly rather than I could not have won it I am at a bit of a loss as to how I can go about this. If there is anything you would like to see to validate it then I am more than happy to accomodate you, just let me know. I have the screenshots etc so I can give you a full explanation of the FA cup run and how I set about things which would then perhaps teach you a thing or two.

England U23s Olympics

With the announcement of the Great Britain team for the 2012 Olympics I applied for the job immediately (why not really?) I receive the appointment a few days later.

My first task is to arrange a friendly against Belarus, mostly just to give the players an extra team to gel with the tactics I want to play (the same as I use with Leicester though with a bit of added width due to most games being at Wembley and two cm instead of the AM and DM to reflect the build of my squad).

The squad that I selected is as follows:
GK Alex Smithies
GK Jason Steele
DRLC Jordan Spence
DRC Kyle Walker
DC Chris Smalling
DC Phil Jones
DC John Terry
DL Ryan Bertrand
AML Gareth Bale
MC Jack Rodwell
AMRLC Jack Wilshere
MC Aaron Ramsey
MC/AMRL James Milner
AMRLC Tom Cleverley
AMRL/SC Daniel Sturridge
SC Wayne Rooney
SC Andy Carroll
SC David Goodwillie


Most of those names are fairly obvious I’m sure. The selection of David Goodwillie as my third striker ahead of Danny Welbeck was in part due to wanting a Scottish player in the squad and I slightly prefer him anyway. Jordan Spence seemed to me better than several of the alternatives and had the benefit of being able to play across the entire back line (it being only an 18 man squad versatility was a key thing I wanted in deciding my squad).

For my three over age players I chose Wayne Rooney, John Terry and then James Milner. I wanted to have an experienced spine to my team which these three players provided and Milner again had the versatility advantage over the other contender for the final spot which was Ashley Young. I plumped for Milner in the end because he was better in the middle.

Warm-up match
Vs Belarus, Won 1-0
Despite dominating the game a single goal victory is only secured in the 70th minute courtesy of a Wayne Rooney strike.

Group Stages
Vs Uruguay, Won 3-0
Vs Mali, Won 2-0
Vs South Korea, Won 6-1
Great Britain were heavy favourites for all of these matches so the smooth progress shouldn’t be any surprise. My team dominated the matches and I was able to rotate my players enough that their fitness was still high despite the high volume of games.

Quarter Final
Vs Belarus, Won 4-1
Again a match GB were heavy favourites for and which the team delivered. Bale, Carroll, Goodwillie and Sturridge all netted with the only issue being the 63rd minute sending off of Carroll.

Semi Final
Vs Brazil, Won 2-0
First match GB entered not being favourites to win, but they came through with a great result to reach the final. A 20th minute sending off for Daniel Sturridge made the game trickier than it was already but goals from James Milner and Chris Smalling in added time ensure safe progression. GB managed to have double the attempts on goal despite the fact they played 70minutes with only 10 men.

Final
Vs Spain, Won 4-0
Injuries and suspensions mean GB are only able to name 4 substitutes but they make a mockery of the pre-match expectations that Spain were too strong and emerge with a thumping victory to secure the Gold Medal. A goal each from Rooney and Carroll put GB in command at half time before a second goal from Rooney and one from Tom Cleverly add the icing to the cake. GB managed 26 attempts on goal to Spain’s measly 5.

Overall then, a successful campaign in the world cup and a nice debut in international management for me. In truth though I think this may be one of the least well put together parts of the game. The squads available to the likes of Brazil and Spain should make them far better than they actually are. GB had more than 20 attempts on goal and dominated possession in most of the games making what should have been a fun extra challenge seem a bit pointless. I have managed an U23 team and won the Olympics in previous games but I’m certain that it was not this straightforward. Oh well my reputation I game has been given a nice boost by it at least and it kept me interested during pre-season.

Not had a chance to update this story unfortunately but I have been playing. I'll post full details soon but for now the enxt two seasons results were as follows:

2012/13: Back in the Premier, finished 5th without ever really threatening to win the league. Won the Charity Shield but out of the FA and League cups early due to wanting to focus on the Europa League. This paid off as won it in the end. Overall a good year really!

2013/14: After a season establishing Leicester, this year the league was the main priority. Did not lose a game until the 36th round of the season when the title was already secured. Managed to make the season into a Double by securing the the Europa League for back to back wins. Took the Croatia job with 4 (I think) games of qualifying remaining, managed to get them to the World Cup via the play-offs.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to fill in all the details soon!

Please keep us updated!!

Nice job, mate. Could you share screencap of your tactic?