sanjeevdas

I have been playing FM from its 2005 version onwards, and have been a big fan always. In all the previous versions, Chelsea had been my preferred team to manage and I would manage them till they won all the trophies in the season for a few years and then I would take up some other challenge.

But this time, since Jose left, I am not that much interested in Chelsea, and I thought I would better start with the Premiership underdogs, Derby County.

Have been playing ever since the game released, and have completed 2 seasons already and am in the final third of the 3rd season.

I was only expected to fight against relegation, but I always claimed to the board that I will not get the team relegated. And it's going all good. Finished 15th in 2007-08, but lost David Jones in the summer because of his ambitions and then lost Giles Barnes in the January transfer window for the same reason.

But, I could keep my performances intact and finished 16th in the next season. In this season, i.e. 2009-10, I applied the strategy of not reacting at all or very late to all the transfer speculations for my star players and it paid off. I could retain everyone of them, and added another 2 in the summer transfer window as well.

I really had a good first team to kick off, especially strikers, the area where I was struggling earlier, and started the season in fabulous way. After 2 home victories and 2 away defeats, I had another home win, and then an away draw. From then on, I had an 8 game winning streak at the end of which, I was top of the table with 34 points in 14 games. But all good things come to an end, and I lost the next match. Then the team really struggled for the next 2 months in which I could not get a win. After that, I got a couple of draws and finally won, away at Charlton. By the time I had fallen to 10th in the standings, when my strikers returned to form again. I have not lost since, though the number of draws have increased and am currently 5th in the standings.

The media expectation from my team is 20th, so its quite a feat for me. My optimisitic hope this season is to qualify for Europe, but I would be satisfied with a top 10 finish as well. I am not sure if my team are ready for Europe yet, because of lack of backup in the team, and it would affect our regular season. So, I think we need another season and some more good signings to be ready for Europe.

Now, I think this is a good achievement. Do let me know your views.

sanjeevdas

Finished at 9th place in the third season, and qualified for Euro Vase. That could lead me to the Euro Cup. Got 2 good 20 year olds to play in the first team and a bunch of seventeen year olds to groom in the summer.

Financial difficulties have started though, as the wage bill keeps on increasing. So, I asked the board to expand the stadium and they announced it this season at a cost of 17M Euro (this is new in FM08, expansions didn't show up as cost in earlier versions). So, that eroded all the bank balance and even though, I have a transfer budget of 20M, I am not spending it.

This season is going to be tough. If I go to the latter stages in Euro Cup, it would be a big boost though. In any case, I have to keep performing in the league. The media prediction is 13th, so I need to finish above that. Am targetting better than 9. Let's see what happens. I wil keep you posted.

pthfcning

Sounds like a nice career you have for yourself, keep it up. Nice posts aswell.

rams11

sounds like an absoloutely fantastic career you've got going there!

I myself recently purchased fm 2008 and having played the previous ones i was eager to go for a challenge with Derby county, who, coinsidently i support :D. I managed to scrape myself 6.5m for transfers at the start and purchased players who were young and full of promise such as - Aaritelo, Torje , Alex Fernandez and two others.
Got off to the pre-seasons brilliantly, cruised through with my youngsters really strutting their stuff. And the first 4 games in the premiership were brilliant results, including 2-2 away to man u. 2-1 over wigan. 3-2 over bolton and 2-0 over sunderland. My next fixture was rnd 2 of the league cup against Arsenal, i didnt expect to win and i didnt, lost 3-1. But from then on in for the next 6 fixtures my strikers and team at that have been very poor. at first i thought it may be the youngsters with a lack of experience in the big leagues such as this one, but even with experienced players i get absoloutely mauled. I have tried numerous different formations none of which seem to work.

# edit - I would now like to add how i have got going again and mauro zarate , my main striker has scored 21 goals in 23 games helping me to 9th place with 7 games to go in my first season. I signed Jason koumas and Andy van der meyde in january to boost my european chances. I also just beat man u 2-1 at home which i am pretty chuffed about..But anyone looking for a cheap decent striker look no further than Zarate , because not only can he develop well, His freekicks are lethal, hes done 11 for me and scored 9..says it all.

leachy-boi91

sounds good mate ,,
you got any pics?/
danny haynes is doing class for me at the moment and so is zarate


hope that helps mate

i finished 14th on my 1st season
just started my 2nd season =]

WozzaWolves

Sounds good guys, any screenshots? If you don't know how to take them go on to my thread at the top of the Current Games forum ;)

banga42

oO SioS Oo

sound svery interesting m8i

some screenies would be nice showing your transfers in and out over the years and also your current team :)

keep it up m8i and hope all goes well ;)

Akenatwn

Good work there mate.Glad to see your career thriving

hope you qualify for uefa cup and get some cash...

waiting to hear more of your career

Toumba...Don't you just love it?


Villans Fan For Ever

Hartynips

Good work there fella, derby always a team with potential, let us know how it pans out