I just started a new FM11 game (my last one didn't go so well...), and thought "hell, why not try one of them there let's play thingamajigs".So here we are.

I plan to post updates about once per in-game month. Might be more, might be less, we'll see. Feel free to make suggestions for transfers, tactics, who should play, and what not. Also feel free to comment and laugh as I fail.

If you enjoy this let's play, please let me know even if you don't have anything else to say. I probably won't continue updating if no one cares, after all. ;)

Well then, let's get to it.

Update August 1st 2010

First off, I'm managing Manchester United.

The boards expectations for the season:
Win the Premier League
Reach the final of the Champions League
Reach the final of the FA Cup

My personal goals for the season:
Finish top 2 in the league
Reach the semi finals of the Champions League
Don't get fired

Anyway, July was, as July usually is, a month for playing friendlies and buying players. So far I've bought seven players, while two have been sent out on loan. I expect more signings in August, until the transfer window closes.
The marquee signing so far is Karim Benzema who arrived on a season long loan from Real Madrid, with an option to buy for £7m. This seems a good deal to me, and it means I now have four good strikers to rotate.
I did accept a bid from Inter of £18m for Patrice Evra (after which I immediately wondered why I did), but the contract negotiations broke down, and Evra stays. I wouldn't be surprised to see him go next summer though. At that time he will be 30 years old, an if I can get some 12-15 millions, I will probably cash in.

Which brings us nicely to my transfer policy. The finances at the club aren't exactly stellar (I'm paying €8m a month in bank loans), so until that improves my plan is first and foremost to purchase young talent - and in many cases I expect I will have to sell players when they are ~30, so that I can get some money for them.

As for the team, I'm looking to strengthen in midfield, central midfield in particular. I really want a Roy Keane type, and am currently looking at Jack Rodwell, though I doubt I have enough money.

Players in:
Karim Benzema - 22 year old striker - Season long loan from Real Madrid, option to buy for £7m
Alex - 17 year old central midfielder - £80k from Real Madrid
Denis - 16 year old attacking midfielder - £60k from Celta
Sergi Roberto - 18 year old attacking midfielder - £1,3m from Barcelona
Jerome Roussillon - 17 year old left back - £1,7m from FC Sochaux-Montbe
Martin Montoya - 19 year old right back - £1,4m from Barcelona
Oriol Romeu - 18 year old defensive midfielder - £1,1m from Barcelona

(Yes, I have totally raided Barca's youth team)

Players out:
Matt James - 19 year old central midfielder - Loan to Derby
Darron Gibson - 22 year old central midfielder - Loan to Aston Villa for £750k, with option to buy for £4m

Injuries
Owen Hargreaves 7-8 weeks
Rio Ferdinand 2-4 weeks
Anderson 2-3 weeks

Fixtures July (all friendlies)
Man Utd 5-1 Man Utd Reserves
Man Utd 5-1 Besiktas
Lech 0-6 Man Utd
América (MEX) 0-3 Man Utd
Chivas 1-1 Man Utd
Man Utd 4-0 Villareal
Yeovil 0-4 Man Utd

Seeing as they're all friendly matches, I don't feel the need to comment all that much, but the team has looked decent so far. Rooney has scored quite a bit in the friendlies. Benzema has yet to break his duck, but I hope it comes soon.

Fixtures August (league matches unless otherwise noted)
Man Utd - Juventus (friendly)
Man Utd - Chelsea (community shield, neural ground)
Man City - Man Utd
Man Utd - Blackburn
Fulham - Man Utd

Tricky opening fixture, away to City. Important to get off to a good start, and I hope to have 13-15 points when I face Arsenal in the sixth round (West Ham and Blackpool are the opposition in round four and five)

BOO!!! Man Utd. BOO!!!

Good luck with the thread by the way.

Also, love the opitimism of the game having Hargreaves out for 7-8 weeks. Years would probably be closer to the mark for his real life counterpart, although my heart does go out to the guy.

Get Messi PLZ.

Update September 1st 2010

Transfers

Surprisingly, no players arrived in August.

Players out:
Will Keane - 17 year old striker - Loan to Aldershot
Robbie Brady - 17 year old left winger - Loan to Dag & Red
Tom Thorpe - 17 year old central defender - £350k + 20% of future transfer to Birmingham
Ryan Tunnicliffe - 17 year old central defender - £500k + 50% of future transfer to Birmingham

While no players arrived, it wasn't for a lack of trying. I had a £15m bid accepted for Jack Rodwell, but he wasn't interested. I was also in talks with Spurs over a transfer for Gareth Bale, but their demand of £70m up front + monthly installments for 2 years was deemed a bit too steep.

Injuries
Anderson and Rio Ferdinand are back to full fitness.
Benzema and Rooney have both been injuried during the month, so the current injury list looks as such:

Hargreaves 2-5 weeks
Rooney 1-2 weeks
Benzema 2-3 weeks

Fixtures August (league games unless stated)
Man Utd 6-2 Juventus (friendly)
Man Utd 0-1 Chelsea (Community Shield, neutral ground)
Man City 0-2 Man Utd
Man Utd 3-0 Blackburn
Fulham 1-0 Man Utd

So, I lost in the Communty Shield, but I could honestly care less. Had a great start to the season, beat City with 2 goals from Giggs, a spot kick and a direct free kick. The game against Blackburn was a breeze, only flaw was that Rooney got injured.
The game against Fulham was a let down. Vidic got sent off after half an hour for a silly challenge in the middle of the park. Despite playing with ten men for most of the match I do feel that we should have taken at least a point, as our strikers, Hernandez in particular, had a couple of great chances.

Fixtures September
man Utd - West Ham
Man Utd - Valencia (Ch. Lge)
Blackpool - Man Utd
Man Utd - Stoke (Lge. Cup)
Man Utd - Arsenal
Anderlecht - Man Utd (Ch. Lge)

Apart from the Arsenal game, the fixture list for this month looks pretty good. I should win all the other league games, and get at least 4 points from the Champions League games.

Misc.
In addition to Valencia and Anderlecht, we drew FC Twente in the Champions League. All in all a pretty kind draw - advancing shouldn't be hard.
Ryan Giggs won the Player of the Month award, while Tom Cleverley (on loan to WiganI) won Young Player of the Month.

We're currently fifth in the league, with 6 points. Chelsea and Wolves are the only teams to have 9 points from three matches. I tried. For some reason Barca weren't very helpful.

EDIT: adding screens of the signings that didn't get into the first post.

Enjoyed this as I have wasted hundreds of hours on Championship and Football Manager.

One of my tips is Jefferson Farfan - reliable goalscoring midfield who can always usually be had for between £5-7m

Owen Hargreaves injured? Imagine that!

;-)

I don't see the point in managing the big teams in Football Manager. I find it much more gratifying to start at the very bottom and improve the fortunes of a club languishing in one of the basement divisions of football.

Playing as Manchester United is too easy. Taking Queens University Belfast into Europe is much more satisfying. :)

Update October 1s 2010t

It was a good month - I won every league game, and got my four points in the Champions League.

Transfers
While the window is closed, my activity in the market doesn't. One of my scouts came to me with an 18 year old Brazilian who supposedly has the potential to be a lot better than Anderson. According to said scout the potential is around the level of Messi and Ronaldo. I'm not sure I believe that, but...

Players in:
Lucas - 18 year old Brazilian attacking midfielder - £6,75m from Sao Paulo
(deal will go through January 1st 2011)

Injuries[/b[
No long term injuries in the first team squad.

Fixtures September

Man Utd 2-0 West Ham
Man Utd 1-0 Valencia (Ch. Lge)
Blackpool 1-3 Man Utd
Man Utd 1-0 Stoke after extra time (Lge. Cup)
Man Utd 2-1 Arsenal
Anderlecht 0-0 Man Utd (Ch. Lge)

It's a bit worrisome that I don't score more. I tend to completely dominate possession, and have had as much as 12-15 shots on goal. Hopefully we can start converting more of our chances.

Table after 6 games
1. Wolves 16 pts
2. Man Utd 15 pts
3, Chelsea 14 pts
4. Fulham 13 pts
5. Man City 12 pts

Arsenal are down in 14th with 6 points from 5 games.

Fixtures October
Sunderland - Man Utd
Man Utd - Birmingham
Man Utd - FC Twente (Ch. Lge)
Wolves - Man Utd
Aston Villa - Man Utd (Lge. Cup)
Man Utd - Liverpool

Triicky away match to the league leaders, but at least I will finish the month on a high with victory against Liverpool. :p

Misc
Tom Cleverly (on loan at Wigan) was once again Young Player of the Month, while I was Manager of the Month. Matt James (on loan at Derby) won Young Player of the Month in the Championship.
The finances worry me a bit, this month we had a loss of £9,5m I was looking at Farfan in the transfer window, but I didn't have the spare £10m when City came in for him. I know, this game is completely unrealistic. :/ Eh... I prefer playing with the big boys, and rarely do I play enough seasons for it to really be worthwhile to manage one of the tiny teams.
And I'm not very good at Football Manager (haven't been since the 2006 version). The last edition I played, 2009, I just managed to eek out a league victory, a point above Arsenal - but due to some financial mismanagement I was put under administration, docked ten points and finished fifth - didn't even get into Champions League.
Of course, after that the club was subject to a take-over, I for some reason got to keep my job, got a several hundred million pounds transfer kitty, bought just about every player in the world. and was fired come Christmas when the team was in 12th place.

Update November 1st 2010

Injuries
van der Sar got injured early in the month, which was worrisome. Also got a couple of other niggles over the course of the month, so right now the injury list looks as follows:
Edward Van der Sar - 2-3 weeks
Darren Fletcher - 1-2 weeks
Oriol Romeu - 1-2 weeks

Fixtures October

Sunderland 0-3 Man Utd
Man Utd 2-0 Birmingham
Man Utd 2-0 FC Twente (Ch. Lge)
Wolves 0-3 Man Utd
Aston villa 1-3 Man Utd (Lge. Cup)
Man Utd 2-0 Liverpool

A perfect month, and even with Van der Sar out my defense is rock solid so far. The goal that Villa got was clearly off side, by the way. ;)
the match against Liverpool turned out to be a simple affair, as they got Suarez sent off after 10 minutes for elbowing Antonio Valencia in the face. Seeing as they after that decided to play with three holding midfielders and no striker, they never looked threatening. A goal each from Rooney and Hernandez sealed the deal.

League table - top 5

1. Man Utd 27 pts
2. Man City 22 pts
3. Tottenham 21 pts
4. Liverpool 19 pts
5. Chelsea 18 pts

Fixtures November
FC Twente - Man Utd (Ch. Lge)
Man Utd - Wigan
Bolton - Man Utd
Man Utd - Chelsea
Stoke - Man Utd
Valencia - Man Utd (Ch. Lge)
Man Utd - Tottenham

A really tough schedule this month - lots of fixtures, and I face both Chelsea and Tottenham. If we can go through this month undefeated in the league, things are looking very good.

Misc.
A clean sweep in the awards this month - Rio Ferdinand took Player of the Month, Rafael got Young Player, and I won Manager of the Month.
A strange month for finances. First of all the club lost just over £10m this month. That, however, is not the strange part. The board, due to improvements in the club's finances, or so they claim, decided to increase my transfer budget for the season - by £30m(!). So we'll see, I may just dip into the transfer market for January.