MarinerFM

Buon giorno and welcome to the second instalment of my retro Italian adventure with Juventus in Championship Manager 97-98. If you missed last week's episode then you can catch up  here .  After our defeat to Milan in the last outing, the last thing we need is the Champions League creeping up on us, although we should turn over Maccabi Haifa on our home turf. Cue the music Perhaps my optimism was misplaced as we labour to a dour goalless draw at the Delle Alpi against our Israeli opponents. We manage ten shots on goal but can only get two of them on target, Maccabi don't offer much and it's a case of they get what they came for by going back to Israel with a point.  French midfielder Corentin Martins comes in for £4,500,000 from Strasbourg but it'll be a week or two before he can make his debut as he comes to us with a slight injury.  There's more injury misery for us when right-back Marco Zamboni limps off in the first half of our home clash against Lazio but we...

The year is 1997, Juventus rule the roost domestically but surrendering their Champions League title to Borussia Dortmund at the end of the previous campaign still hurts. In their quest to get back to the top of European football's totem pole, the Old Lady of Turin have turned to me in order to bring the famous old trophy back to the Stadio Delle Alpi as well as maintain the club's stranglehold on the major domestic honours. Here's how our Italian affair begins.  Here is our squad at the beginning of the save, I'm quite happy with the squad depth generally although I'm tempted to bring in another central midfielder to ease the burden on Antonio Conte as the anchorman. In one of the best deals of the decade I manage to tempt Augustine 'Jay-Jay' Okocha to swap Istanbul for Turin in an absolute steal of a £1,500,000 deal.  Our season gets underway with the SuperCoppa Italiana against last season's Coppa Italia winners Vincenza at the Stadio Delle Alpi. Afte...

Yes lads and lasses it's the best day of the year for nerds like myself as Football Manager 2023 is finally unleashed into the gaming wild. For my long-term save on the game I'll be aiming to rule the footballing world using clubs only from the Greater London area (I explain in a little bit more detail  here ). Our adventure begins in the Vanarama National League South at Champion Hill with Dulwich Hamlet, here's how the opening stanza of my time with the club unfolded.  My task with my new club is clear, I'm expected to reach the VNS play-offs and utilise players that are 23 and under to fit in with the club's ethos. As a firm believer in bringing through youth, I'm more than happy with this. I made a couple of forays into the transfer market and brought in some highly rated young players. My first piece of business sees 19-year-old central defender Andi Janjeva join the club and he is swiftly followed through the door by 25-year-old former Arsenal goalkeeper R...

It's nearly that time lads and lasses as Football Manager 2023 is released to the masses and we all start to think of a save that will keep us busy for the next year. I'm no different and following on from the Alive And Kicking save that saw me manage Grimsby Town during the 1992-93 season thanks to MadScenitist's retro database, here's the lowdown on my save for FM23.  LONDON CALLING As the title might suggest, the save is going to be built around playing the game using clubs from England's capital city. It's a bit of a twist on the usual journeyman/rise through the leagues save, the only rule is a simple one, our rise through the divisions begins in the National League South and the ultimate goal is to win the Champions League with a London club. If I part company with my starting club, I must wait until a job in London becomes available, so on and so forth until reaching my final target. The likelihood is I'll be steering one of London's Premier Leagu...

Hello and welcome one and all to another slice of FM22 content as we're here with episode three of our 22-23 season adventure at the helm of Manchester United. If you want to catch up with the most recent instalment before this one then simply click  here .  After out slightly feeble showing in the derby defeat to Manchester City, a change of approach is requited as we anticipate a visit to Bosnia in the Europa League. Pairing Casemiro and Christian Eriksen together instead of having the Dane play in front of the former Real Madrid man pays dividends as sweep aside Zrinjski 5-1 to give the players a much needed morale boost. Cristiano Ronaldo grabs two fine goals with Lisandro Martinez snatching another in first half stoppage time before Eriksen and impact substitute Anthony Martial wrap up the victory.  It was important to use the Europa League win as a platform to arrest our stuttering league form that had seen us winless since the opening day rout of Fulham. Thankfully...

Hello everyone and welcome to the second instalment of my 22/23 database save on FM22 that I'm playing through to keep myself occupied until FM23 comes out. If you're new here then take a look at  yesterday's episode  in which my Manchester United side kicked off the 2022/23 season.  With an eleven day gap between Premier League outings, we play a friendly match against Celtic in an effort to get some minutes under the belt of some of the fringe players. The game ends scoreless but the main point is Antony suffering an injury that will keep him out of first XI action for the majority of the month September's action gets underway with a long visit to the South Coast to take on Brighton at the AMEX Stadium. Some fine link up work between Anthony Martial and Bruno Fernandes culminates in captain Bruno giving us an early lead. Christian Kouame runs our defence ragged and pulls the home side level before they go on to dominate the remainder of the first half leaving us fortu...