Yeah, they do look like good players but I needed the cash and I had cover for those positions. Valdes is excellent, I didn't know how young he was, I thought he was in his 30's. How did Eto'o perform for you and what formation did you play? I sold Oleguer this season, can't get rid of that shit Sylvinho though.

Yeha but the positions you covered with the signings were basically the ones you sold players in

I generally played a 4-5-1 first season:

Yeah Barzagli's a rock in defence. RVN played terribly for xpronic, he was sold to Tottenham I think. Henry played very badly for me also, I started off rotating him with Eto'o but he just didn't score, Eto'o was amazing though. Xavi's been a great player for me, he's scored a few as well, mostly long range blasts.

Out of interest, how much did you get given to spend second season? As you can see, I got 117M.

Heh, funnily enough, that's how much I'm buying Barzagli for in January - I play with no transfer budgets in first window too. How is Eto'o good for you guys, he's rubbish for me, he just waste opportunities and shoots from outside the area on numerous occasions. Thierry & Eidur up front is proving immense, Eidur has got a handful of assists with a passing attribute of 18 to boast about and Henry just feeds off this and puts goals away, away and away. Even Bojan is ahead in the pecking order before Eto'o. Valdes is good for you guys ? Man, what game am I playing ?! If it wasn't for me scoring so many goals, I may have picked up Valdes' dot on the screen and kicked him into Row Z ! £12m for Puyol ? I'd take it tbh, he's been playing at 6's whilst everybody is playing at 8's and 9's, making silly mistakes which Millito has to save his ass from time after time. Barzagli & Millito at the back

Yeah, that's why I sold Puyol, Thuram was getting 7's and 8's every game whereas he was getting mainly 6's. I use Eto'o as a lone striker, target man and he runs onto the balls. He played brilliantly there. At the moment Baragli and Milito are my center backs, they're playing great. I've got a major problem though, a big midfield injury crisis. Fernandez, Messi, Ronaldinho and Rosina are all out, as well as Eto'o for 3 months. Henry played terribly for me, just couldn't finish.

Ahh yes, I can see how that would work for Eto'o. Saying what I said previously, I must give him some credit for filling in when Messi is injured, he covers the AMR position so well, with an arrow supporting the forwards, that's where he's got the majority of his goals from for me. How is Fernandez playing, I know he's good but is he adequate backup for Barcelona ?

Edit: Yaya Toure is a machineeee.

He was first choice left winger first season, he didn't play that badly but didn't play very well either. I think he's more suited to the AMC role. He's now backup to Xavi and Ronaldinho, he's more than good enough for back up. Fred's filled in for Eto'o quite nicely, he's managed to score 4 goals in one start and coming on as a substitute 5 times. Once was when Eto'o got injured. Here are my transfers so far:



here are xpronic's transfers:

Sunderland AFC

..:: Season 2007-2008 ::..

So with that all taken into account, i had to start planning for the season ahead of me, which was going to be a hard task, so i set my team instructions and played a flat 4-4-2, here are the instructions.

I decided to go the long passing way about it, as I had the big man Jones up there, he would be set as my target man, and his partner would mostly be Soldado.


All in all, i had a great premiership season, the only thing i was worried about at the end was the amount of goals we conceded, i obviously now know that i need to bolster my defence.

Here is how the premier league division finished up.

Number 1 game of the season, Reading VS Sunderland, The Madjeski Stadium, 19th January 2008

Number 2, Tottenham Hotspur VS Sunderland, White Hart lane, 28th October 2007

Number 3, Sunderland VS Bolton Wanderers, Stadium Of Light, 16th January 2008



Those i feel, as manager the best games i had as my first season of Sunderland boss.
Hopefully there will be more where those came from.

Craig Gordon - GK



Yohan Gourcuff - AM RC



Kenwyne Jones - ST



Roberto Soldado - ST



All these players i feel really spurred the team on, helped us achieve what we did, and I will try my best to make the two on loan be back at the stadium of light again.

• Finish in the top 15
• Concede less than 50 goals
• Keep 5 clean sheets
• Bring Gourcuff back on loan
• Reach the 5th round of both League and FA Cup

quote desigN

If you only talk to me on MSN to link me here, then don't expect me to post anything constructive.

PLaying as Arsenal atm after starting a new game last night, I played Diarra at right back and Sagna at left back for a game because Clichy was injured. My word...Diarra @ rb = win. Walcott scored 4 against AEK in the cl qualifier.

Just lost against Blackburn after Reid scored in the last three minutes to sink me 2-1. Damn. Bought Aguero and VDV, VDV's been shit, Aguero been decent. I'll likely to a post of my first season then a SOMS of my second once it's done

Hey everyone.

I've added a new section to the Football Manager 2008 portal, it's a story section. Bascially, as SOMS's are too long to put onto the portal, we'll be adding the best season reviews. If you take a look at xpronic's and Vincent's reviews, you'll see the sort of standard to aim for. If possible, when writing a review, could you please make the images thumbnails as they will fit onto the page. (If you're unsure about how to do a thumbnail, look here.) I am waiting for xpronic to resize his pictures as well as Vince. If Hogan and Eruption resize their pictures, I'll add them to the portal.

If you look into the story section, you'll see I've already added The Lynx 99's Man City story and the review I wrote.

If you think your story is up to scratch, or make a story that I miss, please PM me or one of the other portal staff which are listed here.

Thankyou.

you could have used the preview feature

Preview feature?