Barcelona - European Giants? - FMFormation.net - Football Manager

genocide112 · 23-05-08, 04:55 PM

I saw Jonners71's Anfield Revolution story and I was inspired to create one of my own, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

So I've taken charge of the aging squad that is Barcelona, proclaimed by the media as being "second best" in La Liga, having to compete with Spanish giants Real Madrid C.F.

I am now nearing the end of a fourth season in charge, having won so far:
1 League Title (2009)
2 Runner Ups (2007,2008)
2 Champions League Trophies (2008,2009)
2 European Super Cup Trophies (2009,2010)
2 Club World Championship Trophies (2008,2009)
1 Spanish Super Cup Trophy (2009)

The squad was reasonably strong to begin with, but having a rather old first team I knew I was destined to fail without some young prospects. Bojan, Giovani Dos Santos and Messi were already with the squad, so I knew that it wasnt going to be the Striker or Attacking Midfield that I needed wonderkids in most.

At the beginning of the season, I was given around £75m to play with, which I extended to £86m adjusting the wage budget. I have brought David Silva (£90m), Sergio Ramos(£40m), Daniel Alves (£31m) and Ashley Cole (£25m) to the club in my 4 years in charge, sending Yaya Touré to Atletico Madrid for a fee of £11.25m, Andres Iniesta to Valencia for £10m and Oleguer to Deportivo for £1.5m

So yeah...after winning the title in the previous season, could Barca do it again? it would seem so, a tremendous string of league results saw us crowned champions for the second season in a row after just 31 games, having been unbeaten in the league for 37 games.

34 games in...and Barca currently look unbeatable, drawn against Manchester United in the Champions League semi-final, it should have been plain sailing if we could beat the likes of Real Madrid C.F. 3-0 earlier in the season, right?.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, the squad, shadowed by an ever-growing cloud of injury, struggled to achieve a 3-3 draw at Old Trafford followed by a lacklustre performance at Camp Nou in the second leg, stumbling to a 3-2 defeat. There goes our hopes of a 3rd European trophy in consecutive seasons.

European dream shattered, can Barcelona pick themselves up from this and perhaps have a better run next season? or are they about to crash and burn?

BOARD CONFIDENCE UPDATE

To summarise, the board are pleased with your management of the team.

This is no small part down to your extremely tight control of wage expenditure.

Despite the positives, the fans are understandably dissappointed with Barcelona's 5-6 Champion's Cup semi-final aggregate loss to Manchester United.

The club made a profit of £5.73m last month.

May update
So after the dissappointment of being knocked out of the Champions League by Manchester United, I had the job of picking the team up after a blow to morale.

With only 4 games of the season remaining, I aimed to reach the 100 point mark and maintain the unbeaten record. My remaining fixtures were Sevilla, Recreativo, Espanyol and Almeria.

I expected quite a difficult match against Sevilla, possibly winning by 1 goal or just scraping a draw, as Ronaldinho picked up an injury in the semi-final. Carles Puyol and Bojan have also been ruled out for around 3 months a piece earlier in the season, Bojan is the top scorer with 34 goals in 39 appearances.

A fantastic result from my boys, the half time score was an excellent 3-0. It was all looking good at this point and I hoped the lads would continue their run of superb form through to the end of the season.

Recreativo 1-3 Barcelona
Samuel Eto'o picked up two goals in this fixture, he showed his lethal touch and played a good game.
Morgado scored an own goal 80 minutes in to produce Barcelona's 3rd goal of the match
Kenan Kodro scored a goal for Recreativo 15 minutes into the first half, the 17 year old is showing some promise.

Barcelona 2-1 Espanyol
There's nothing like a good old derby match between two fierce rivals, the players usually play above their usual standard and there's always a few harsh tackles. Unfortunately, an early red card hindered our early progress in this match.
Ashley Cole was sent off after 8 minutes for a dangerous two footed tackle, I was very dissappointed.
To no surprise, just 18 minutes after Cole was sent off, a 10 man Barcelona conceded a goal courtesy of Luis Garcia.
Half time score 0-1
Samuel Eto'o scored at 59 minutes, after an improved performance from the whole team.
Giovani Dos Santos scored the winning goal in the dying seconds, saving us from the dissappointment of drawing with our rivals.
Full time score 2-1
I was extremely please with how my 10 man squad handled themselves in the 2nd half. The half time team talk worked wonders and we came out on top in the end. I was confident that Dos Santos was the right man to fill in for the injured Ronaldinho to play in the right sided attacking midfield position and he proved me right with the last minute winner for us. Ashley Cole was fined 1 weeks wages for his unprofessional behaviour in the first half.

So i had won three of the remaining four games, it was looking good and i needed 1 more point to reach the century. With the last fixture of the season being away to Almeria...whom the media expected to finish 19th, I was almost certain that we could secure another win.

Obviously, these things happen in football, a 3-3 draw despite having been 2-0 up at half time. I can only pray that my team playing like this doesn't carry over to the next season and that i don't have my key players injured pre-season.

shadowbrewster · 23-05-08, 06:58 PM

hmm not bad not exactly the hardest team to play with well is proberly the most easiest in alot of peoples opinions
signings seem a bit overpriced and as usual way too much money to spend
anyway gd game and gl with rest
man utd rule btw :P

genocide112 · 23-05-08, 07:43 PM

I agree, it is an easy team to play with, not perhaps as good as teams like Real Madrid, Inter Milan and others, i also have a Newcastle save, but i got bored of it a while ago and thought i'd try something new, the transfers are way overpriced i know...i do have Ever Banega lined up to join for next season for 11.25m, but the problem i constantly have with signings is that the teams demand far too much, no matter what the player..especially Valencia for obvious reasons lol

itll also be quite interesting for me when henry, eto'o, ronaldinho etc. retire as theyre getting on in years...which is why ill be squad building for that day to come

The time has come for the end of season awards to be handed out, Bojan gets the best Spanish player of the year award with David Silva having also been in the running, being awarded 3rd place.

busheyladd · 23-05-08, 11:53 PM

can you please give me the link too download the background you have

please :)

genocide112 · 25-05-08, 12:58 PM

i just got it from the downloads section, the black in 2 skin...

FMFormation.net - Football Manager - FM2008 - Downloads - Black-in 2 v.1.3

**Hartynips** · 26-05-08, 06:31 AM

The signings are overpriced but unfortunately when you play as such a big club, The selling team knows you have the cash so whack their player prices up. There are few bargains to be had at this level.

Some good results there and nice layout to your game info, well done mate

genocide112 · 27-05-08, 12:49 AM

The players are back from their pre-season holidays and confidence is high for the new season. I have a few good transfers lined up of some great young players.

Board expectation: Winner
Transfer funds allocated: £72m

My first signing of the season was to be Ever Banega, I managed to bag the useful defensive midfielder for just £18m plus 25% sell on clause, this was a fantastic bargain when compared to the extortionate fee I was finding myself having to cough up last season.

Followed by the signing of another flamboyant midfield playmaker, Javi Martinez for a fee of £20.5m, which triggered the minimum fee release clause in the players contract.

I decided that these two signings would suffice, at least until the January transfer period rolled around.

After making two signings to strengthen the midfield positions i had an excess of players in that particular area, so i decided to send the 33 year old Deco on loan to Fulham, whom we are now a parent club to.

The board have recently congratulated me and stated that my management is to thank for getting the best out of flaming hot Bojan.

BOARD CONFIDENCE UPDATE

To summarise, the board are pleased with your management of the team.

This has been underlined by the fan's belief that your management is truly getting the best out of Bojan

The club recorded a profit of £11.25m this month

I decided i'd take the lads on a tour of an African nation to please the sponsors, UNICEF, so i arranged a visit to Kenya.

Once we had been to Kenya, another tour, of China, was arranged followed by a few pre-season friendlies against more reputable teams to get the lads ready for the new season.

Javi Martinez picked up a broken toe against Real Madrid and would be out for around a month, bitterly dissappointing, although we still won that game 5-1, showing our footballing prowess to our closest rivals.

The following two games, Valladolid and Real Sociedad were agonizingly close...to my dismay. We were saved by a 90th minute goal from Bojan in the Real Sociedad game and i pray that this isn't the beginning of a bad season.

Followed by two not so great results, a draw with Juve and a loss away to Sevilla, I pray these results don't continue and that the team finds the form they had last season.

Rick_James14 · 27-05-08, 03:02 PM

Looks good but how could you sell yaya

genocide112 · 28-05-08, 03:05 PM

he was surplus to requirements imo...perhaps i would have been better off keeping him and using him as a central midfielder, but i have better players in his place now

New update coming soon