Crazy Diamond

Best contribution to this thread. It's getting downright stupid, are we seriously now arguing over where in Mexico he is? Wait for the official confirmation either way for God's sake.

Unless I've missed something (please point out if I have) I don't know why we're playing Arsenal in pre-season. We're going to play them twice next season anyway, aren't we?

When he was younger, SWP was always 'one for the future' as long as he worked on his delivery of crosses, which would be sporadic at best. Years later and nothing seems to have changed.

To me, being in the PFA team of the year means very little. Whilst I realise it's not the best thing to go on, a friend of mine watched him at the Hawthorns as he is a season ticket holder at West Brom, and he said he was really overrated. Similarly Scott Dann, I really did rate him at Birmingham alongside Roger Johnson. Birmingham went down and they both got moves to Premier League clubs, but they both went to pretty bad teams, both of which went down. Dann ended up at Blackburn, and given they had sod all cash to spend on fees and wages, I was really quite surprised he went there. If he was that good, I've no doubt that someone better would have come in for him. He's been relegated again, so once again I have worries. If memory serves, Dann played alongside our very own Fox at both Walsall and Coventry, and they were rated very well when played together.

He's been in that estate agents in Winchester for about three years now. Must really want a thorough survey.

Quite how Ukraine and Poland were appropriate places for the competition in the first place is beyond me. Then again, despite being run by a madman, we're having a World Cup in Russia, and despite having no interest in football at all, we're having one in Qatar as well. Money talks.

Curtis Davies was good an awfully long time ago. Has looked awful in recent years. Wouldn't want him anywhere near us.

Forget it. This is SaintsWeb. We want every player that can kick a ball with any conviction - and a failure to sign such a starlet means management and ownership should be sacked.

Salomon Rondon from Malaga. Solid investment. Scored 58 goals as my Spurs side won the title on the last day of the season.

Acquafresca is awesome using that tactic, shame in real life he's pretty crap. Consecutive European golden boot wins for me, still knocks in one or two now that I've left as well. I went the first 12 games unbeaten, 11 wins, before losing to Arsenal 1 - 0 in my opening matches with Spurs. Going for the title - Salomon Rondon has 30 goals and it's not even Christmas yet!

Try that http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2012-tactics-training/96393-mr-hough-fm12-2-tactics.html - if you want, put the wingers' crossing to often, helps a bit. Finished fourth with QPR, made the Champions League semi-finals where we blew the chance to beat Barcelona at the Nou Camp by missing two penalties. Miffed at this, but in March I agreed to talk to Spurs at the end of the season and am now their manager. Was never going to get QPR any further with their small attendances and constant financial problems. If you want a good centre half, get Inigo Martinez. He cost me £13.5 million in 2016, I could have had him for £8 million a year earlier.

Anderton, yes. Saints fan. Just what we need. Brian Howard, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Brian Stock need to be scouted while we're there. Ashton scored a hat-trick against us for Norwich, he hates the club, wouldn't want him here. Powell is in non-league, he'd love the chance to come back. I see no issue with this.

His son goes to Winchester College. Very exclusive.

I think it's already been mentioned - possibly by me even - but Henri Lansbury was a target for us until Arsenal were charged the crown jewels for AOC. Would love to sign him, and now that he's finished with West Ham it's time to move!

A Dutch youngster I got on a free from PSV. Always rated him but he's had tough competition with only one striker role in my tactics. Carling Cup comes around, figured I'd give him a go. Five goals and an assist, 10.0 rating. Have some of that! He's starting my next game - United away.

Harry Redknapp's season: Heart surgery, a court case, no England job, the Europa League and not the Champions League. Nice. The odds have tumbled on him getting the Liverpool job though... Very interesting.

Did the double over Man City, got a Champions League place at Liverpool's expense on the last day of the season. We were two points clear and by virtue of a poorer goal difference had to win to make sure of it. We drew 3 - 3 whilst Liverpool only managed a draw at West Brom. Happy days! Some selected results: Hamburg 0 - 4 QPR QPR 5 - 0 AS Roma Man City 1 - 2 QPR QPR 6 - 0 Blackburn Rovers QPR 6 - 0 Wigan QPR 2 - 0 Man City

After an indifferent start to the season, and in the wake of a 3 - 0 loss at Saints and blowing a 3 - 0 lead to draw 3 - 3 with Blackburn, this happened:

Love it when that happens. Kara, who I mentioned earlier, cost me £8 million. To detract bidders, I multiplied his worth by ten, and Liverpool were STILL interested at £42,000,000! Have a look at Marco Verratti and Guido Pizarro, cheap wonderkids. Verratti is being linked with £20m plus moves to Milan within two seasons.

We're all going on a European tour! Won the Carling Cup and finished sixth, having at one stage looked a dead cert for the Champions League we had a barren run of form and had to settle for the Europa League. Beat Arsenal in a crunch game that meant we stayed above them and I've just splashed out £6.5 million for Gary Cahill and £9.75 million for Seamus Coleman - part of the never ending quest to stop conceding so many bloody goals. Robert Acquafresca once again won the European Golden Boot with his 40 in 42 games.

Give this tactic a go. It's got me to third in the Premier League with QPR. http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/football-manager-2012-tactics-training/96393-mr-hough-fm12-2-tactics.html Beat Man City 4 - 2, pretty happy with that!

Sod it. Bought Dawson, shoved Bartley into a defensive midfield position, has all the right attributes for it. Going for a European place this season.

I'm interested in Dawson who had a loan spell at Saints on my game - trouble is he's going for £7.5m and I can get Kyle Bartley for £1.4m, and he's bloody good.

Had a bit of a mare recently. Upgraded my MacBook to Lion 10.7 only to find Steam is incompatible with it. For some reason I couldn't update to the latest OS, 10.7.4, so I had to roll back to Snow Leopard. It took up valuable game time! Finished seventh with QPR in the top flight, am looking to spend my entire £28 million transfer budget on a decent defence. Robert Acquafresca, who I signed on a free transfer, ended the season as the highest goalscorer in Europe with 36 goals in a fewer number of appearances. Torres was second with 33. Highlights included a 4 - 1 victory at White Hart Lane, a 3 - 2 win at Old Trafford and a 1 - 0 victory over Arsenal. If you've got money to spend, Kara at PSV Eindhoven is a very sturdy defender. The Stevenage trio of Bostwick, Laird and Wilson are three solid signings for any Championship/bottom half of the table Premier League side. Farkin 'ell, I've just got Charlie Adam on loan for 30k a week.

First game of the season, away at Old Trafford. We took the lead THREE TIMES but ended up drawing due to Fergie time. Not bad I suppose, it's not every day Jay Bothroyd scores twice at one of the big four plus I had two key players out injured after they picked up knocks on international duty.