Call Me John Henry Because I Can Handle a Hammer

[ShiftyPowers]

West Ham United! I'm proud to represent this working class town in London and I actually really liked the Elijah Wood movie Green Street Hooligans... hopefully I'm not disowned now. Anyway, I have taken over the Hammers and their legendary youth system. I think they have a first team in the Premiership too.

I don't care for friendlies, so the assistant took care of them. Transfers:

Didn't really have much money, but I think Jo is an excellent player who will play next to Carlton Cole when both are healthy, and he can also play the Target Man role should Cole suffer an injury.

Formation:

You can probably tell from the screenshot that it's not the most sophisticated thing in the world. We're playing a narrow Italian type formation with essentially 3 holding midfielders (though I'll never admit it) and for this first season we'll try to grind out 1-0 wins. Aside from Beckham, Behrahmi, and possibly Hitzlsperger, that is my starting XI.

First Game. Suck it Mackems!

Not too shabby.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Carlton Cole is out for 6 months with a broken leg. You have got to be kidding me.

Sold Behrahmi to City for 11m. Brought Rafael in on loan and........ Signed Paulo Henrique "Ganso" from Santos. Will be paying this transfer off for 3 years, so he better not flop.

 

[Filipower]

Ganso is great, hope you can use him well. Are you going to put Becks as a deep-lying playmaker?

 

[Xifio]

technically (pun intended) Ganso is an excellent signing ... he could prove as important as Carlitos was for the club, though with a completely different skill set ...

I don't like Beckman as regista ... he can spray the ball around alright, but his vision is good enough only for a cross-happy winger, not a deep-lying playmaker ... but considering the fact that you don't want to play Scotty in that role, your other options, and Dave's mobility hampered by age, I suppose I can understand the decision ...

EDIT: btw, how are prospects from your academy looking?

 

[ShiftyPowers]

technically (pun intended) Ganso is an excellent signing ... he could prove as important as Carlitos was for the club, though with a completely different skill set ...

I don't like Beckman as regista ... he can spray the ball around alright, but his vision is good enough only for a cross-happy winger, not a deep-lying playmaker ... but considering the fact that you don't want to play Scotty in that role, your other options, and Dave's mobility hampered by age, I suppose I can understand the decision ...

EDIT: btw, how are prospects from your academy looking?

The academy is okay. I was using James Tompkins as a starting center back until he got a long term injury, Jordan Spence looks alright (but his positioning and anticipation aren't good enough to be anything more than a #3 CB at this point), Stanislas definitely has a future, and I'm intrigued by Sears and Zavon Hines although I don't know if either will be Premiership quality. In the lower teams: Frank Nouble looks like he could be a talented winger, but I don't really use that position, so he's sort of SOL at West Ham as long as I'm around (or as long as we suck so much that I need to play a defensive formation), and Dominic Vose looks like he could be a good one for the future.

Robert Green though... I'm going to need to do something about him fast. This is going to be a tortuous year with him between the posts.

Agree about Becks in real life, but in the game his mental attributes and PPMs make him almost ideal.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Kind of a strange run of form for my boys, but it looks like we're finally getting it together. Held Chelsea to a ridiculously boring 0-0 draw and then hit Liverpool on a counter attack and held on for 1-0. Counter Attack really hurt them, Carragher got sent off around halftime.

Pretty good start to the season. Conceding quite a few goals, but it's not awful and I had a few big losses (conceded 5 to Fulham in the most unlucky game of FM I've ever played).

EDIT: Ganso has been pretty good. I guess it's hard to ask much of a Trequartista in a defensive formation that clogs the middle, but he's been alright. Obviously much more effective when we're in possession instead of on the counter. Becks is playing some spectacular long balls to create chances. Rafael is probably the best player on the team and I'd say Tomkins might be #2. Parker is obviously solid, Jo is okay, and Piquionne has done an admirable job filling in while Carlton Cole recovers from his broken leg; Piquionne got the winner at Anfield.

EDIT2: Forgot to mention that I've been using Jonathan Spector as my first choice left back. I came in assuming that Ilunga, from the DRC, would be my starter, but after a string of absolutely disastrous performances I decided to try Spector, and while he isn't exactly providing me with offense on the left side, he is very solid and makes far post crosses to his side virtually impossible.

 

[Theodorakis]

i do really love these threads, makes me wanna play fm again.. sadly though i'm short in time and now even shorter since gt5 has arrived.. please keep it coming..

 

[Juventino]

i do really love these threads, makes me wanna play fm again.. sadly though i'm short in time and now even shorter since gt5 has arrived.. please keep it coming..

Whenever I need some motivation for FM I also check these kind of threads and screenshots. On the official SI forum there are even managers who turn their career updates into novellas. It's really fun to read, especially the lower league managers.

There was one guy who selected every country and every league in the game (not all on playable). He started out unemployed and basically travelled the world for over 20 years, starting out in Hong Kong and finishing at Manchester United. I don't think I'd have the patience for a career like that though.
Here's a link: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/171102-FM10-This-is-a-Tribute-DodgeeD-s-World-Tour

Good luck on your game, ShiftyPowers.

 

[Mandieta6]

I'll call you John Henry wghen you suck my meaty bacon cock you marxist feminist ****. Sorry, I thought you were Bobby, but my point stiull sstands, I mis Bobby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111111!!!1111o1gei1gr291gtrelevnish

 

[Juventino]

There was one guy who selected every country and every league in the game (not all on playable). He started out unemployed and basically travelled the world for over 20 years, starting out in Hong Kong and finishing at Manchester United. I don't think I'd have the patience for a career like that though.
Here's a link: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/171102-FM10-This-is-a-Tribute-DodgeeD-s-World-Tour

That guy didn't actually have all leagues loaded, I mixed him up with this guy:
http://community.sigames.com/showth...Global-Managerial-Tour-This-is-the-Big-One!!!

Either way, both are pretty awesome.

 

[Zlatan]

Man that's actually a very exciting idea there. If only I had a PC which could carry that many leagues.

 

[Mandieta6]

You're awesome! a/s/l/w?

W stands for why the **** aren't you sucking kmy bamboo dick

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Where we last left off the team seemed to have found it's footing and was playing better. I'm happy to note that this continued for awhile:

Which puts us up to 7th with half of the season done. I'm quite proud of this. Too bad we lost to Birmingham on Boxing Day; we wasted an extra clear cut chance and then conceded a really weak goal from a set piece. Oh well, not too bad and the 0-0 draw at Man City I'm very happy with. In fact Joe Hart kind of rescued the point for the Citizens. No Tevez in that game.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Not too much improvement in the last month, but not really a drop either. I was given 7.75m Euros and the opportunity to change my season expectations. I decided to keep the expectations at "avoid relegation" and I did not spend the funds. I thought I had come to an agreement with Andy Carroll for 4.3m, but despite agreeing to the contract, he refused to leave Newcastle citing his love of the club (even though he "wants to leave the club"). Oh well

So we got knocked out of the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge. Sucks, but oh well. Two pretty similar games here vs. Chelsea and Man U. Conceded a cheap early goal (Terry header after a few passes from a throw-in and a penalty for United) and then folded. But oh well, I wasn't expected to win, and after getting crushed Ancelotti said he admired me which was cool.

8th, but we have a home tie with Wolves coming up in 3 days which will be a hugely important game IMO.

In other news, Carlton Cole is back after 6 months off with a broken leg. This was his first game, in fact he wouldn't have made the bench if I had any other competent striker healthy. We had a 1 goal lead when I put him on with 15 minutes to go in the target man position that Jo has done okay at, but was designed for Cole. Not a bad 15 minutes:

I also think I might have to revise my CM rotation. Beckham has been a bit of a flop tbh. I like having a skillful outlet sitting right ahead of the defense to recycle possession and occasional hit a striker on a run, but I don't know if Becks is the guy for it. I might think about trying to get Aaron Ramsey in next season. Other than that I'm happy with the team. Defense could be better, but conceding 1 goal per game in the Premier League by a team with some pretty shaky defensive personnel is quite good I think. Next summer's spending will be interesting; I definitely need a striker, but I could also use defenders; CM is my strongest position, but I'm not 100% comfortable with that position either because I use so many of them.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Not sure I posted the first XI, so here it is.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Things have pretty much evened out for us and we're looking at a top half finish, although a bit of bad luck meant that our European aspirations were thwarted.

Not too bad... we'll get to that Bolton game. Which puts the table here:

And now for the most frustrating game of the season

 

[Pogba4Now]

For the deep lying playmaker I'd suggest Carrick, Pedro Mendes, Barry or even Fellaini but I doubt you can afford them with West Ham.

 

[ShiftyPowers]

Alright, so the season is over! Here are the end of the season fixtures

Which puts us here:

Looks like we could have made Europe, but Wolves get 6th which looks completely unwarranted.

You may have noticed we beat Man City; I thought this was funny:

And a couple of impressive awards. I'm interested in resigning Jo, but Newcastle has been relegated, so I'm also thinking about Carroll.