Arsenal 3 Burnley 0

[Killfacer]

FA CUP Fith round highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj23VKN3urw&feature=related

I particuarly enjoyed eduardo's sublime volley. Although Carlos Vela's magical chip was also wonderful to behold.

(edit) It is just the goals, so you don't have to sit through loads of boring bits.

[Wanted Man]

Whoo, Burnley, tough one. ;)

So what do you think of Carlos Vela? A perennial Football Manager favourite, of course, but will he really be that good?

[Killfacer]

Vela will be class no doubt, he already can finish better than most veteran strikers.

[Redmau5]

Whoo, Burnley, tough one. ;)

Burnley are actually having a decent season. They beat Arsenal 2-0 back in December in the Carling Cup quarter-finals, and have played more games than any other team in Europe this season.

But credit were credit is due. Eduardo's volley was one of the best goals I've seen this season, and he hit it with the leg that he broke last year. I'm glad to see him back in action because he's a quality player to watch.

[Picky Bugger]

So what do you think of Carlos Vela? A perennial Football Manager favourite, of course, but will he really be that good?

He does look good, I don't really like to trust football manager too much but it usually picks up the superstars of the future quite well. I remember buying Arjen Robben about 4-5 years before he appeared, inspired on my part :lol:.

[Wanted Man]

Burnley are actually having a decent season. They beat Arsenal 2-0 back in December in the Carling Cup quarter-finals, and have played more games than any other team in Europe this season.
Ahh, forgot about that. :blushing:


He does look good, I don't really like to trust football manager too much but it usually picks up the superstars of the future quite well. I remember buying Arjen Robben about 4-5 years before he appeared, inspired on my part :lol:.
Yeah, FM usually does pretty well. Ezequiel Garay is always class, Georginio Wijnaldum, etc.

[Killfacer]

I played FM05 recently. They spotted Robinho, Teves, Mascherano amongst others, whilst they still played for their home nation's clubs. Plus Arsenal are great and Alan Shearer still plays :lol:

[Picky Bugger]

Not really amazed with the new FM the 3D pitch Isn't to my liking, it makes the matches last for about 40mins which can be annoying. And I resent them taking most of the arrows away from the tactics screen.

[Wanted Man]

I couldn't really get into FM09 when I got it, unfortunately. The 3D will need a lot of tweaking before it works properly, I think. Luckily, there's still good old FM07, where all my favourite players haven't gone to a big club yet.

[Picky Bugger]

Luckily, there's still good old FM07, where all my favourite players haven't gone to a big club yet.

So you can get them on the cheap is that really honest :p

[Wanted Man]

Well, to be fair, that I can get them at all is ridiculous. :p In FM, Ajax are considered a bigger club than Hamburg, so I can get Van der Vaart back. Of course, I do need to pay through the ass for him, but still. Same story with Nigel de Jong.

It's just so easy to assemble a good team full of native internationals in this game. I once read the archives of some FM forum, and it seems that there were already people griping about the difficulty and "AI cheating" back when FM07 came out. It seems ridiculous now, and it is excellent proof that these people are usually whiny losers and shit managers.

[Picky Bugger]

Indeed...

I love the way Newcastle are considered a big club, I bought Sergio Aguero on 08 for 36.5M the mere fact that he came is almost as stupid as the 40M wage budget I was given by Mike Ashley of all people. (My pound sign is broken)

[Wanted Man]

Indeed. It's also very easy with Tottenham to become champions within one or two seasons. Also, my current Ajax team, in the 2008-2009 season, says enough:

GKs: Maarten Stekelenburg, Dennis Gentenaar, Erwin Mulder.
Defence: Zdenek Grygera, Ezequiel Garay, Gareth Bale, Thomas Vermaelen, George Ogararu.
Midfield: Urby Emanuelson, Gabri, Nigel de Jong, Martín Demichelis (on loan), Tom de Mul, Shaun Wright-Philips, Kenneth Perez, Roger, Rafael van der Vaart.
Attack: Ryan Babel, Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Edgar Manucharyan, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

And mind you, I usually get that Mexican goalie, Ochoa, but I figured that would be overkill for this game. Plus, I like having lots of native players in my starting 11.

[Picky Bugger]

Very nice team cant say ive seen any of the keepers. As far as i've seen the best young keeper on the game is Hugo Lloris, simply amazing.

[Wanted Man]

Yeah, Stekelenburg is Ajax's keeper in real life, and now also the first keeper of the national team since Van der Sar retired from international football. He's decent enough for my intentions. But Francisco Guillermo Ochoa is really good as well.

[Picky Bugger]

Interesting, as I said I haven't played the new one much so I don't really know who the next super stars will be.

I do recommend Henri Saivet as a future star he looks quite tasty...

Sky Sports has a nice little page that lists viewer recommended players, mostly from FM experience I would guess but still.

http://www.skysports.com/football/transfers/scout/0,24035,15198,00.html

[Killfacer]

The game i'm playing currently with Bayern Munich is great. 6 seasons in (thats easily a record for me) and i have won the champions league 3 times, won the league 6 times, won the national cup 4 times.

It's easily the longest i have played a game. I now have an stupidly good team :thumbup:

Usually i do well, then dtop after a season or two. I swear in all the FMs the prices in the second season for good players is always insanely high. You have to pay like 60 million for Aguero, stupid.

I used to play as Ajax a lot in 07,08 but in 09 they're so bad it's not even worth being them.

[Killfacer]

The discovery i was most pleased with is Daniel Opare. I got him for 750k from Real Madrid and now he's worth 23 million. He's better than Sergio Ramos :cool:

[Wanted Man]

PB: Well, Ochoa was good in 07, I have no idea if he's any good in 09. Sometimes, players don't break through in real life, and so they also get pegged down a notch in FM, no longer being wonderkids. Renato Augusto is always great in the game, though. Too bad he's just transferred to Leverkusen in 09. I nearly always get him when my best attacking midfielder gets bought away.

Killfacer: good stuff. My record is with Ajax with FM07, I made it into 2021 or so. Won the league in 2008, and then in every season since 2010, some cups, and the Champions League five times. Got a new stadium named after me, of course. God, that game was awful, too bad I lost it. My other long-term game in FM07 was with Tottenham, going into 2015. Won the CL twice, and became the best club of England, which I'm sure you'll be delighted to hear. ;)

And yeah, Ajax are crap in 09. Like in real life, they have gotten some "big" transfers (and some questionnable ones, like Evander Sno) who turned out to be crap. When the game came out, I was surprised that Sulejmani was so lowly rated, but now I can fully understand it. But to be fair, Ajax were also really shit in 08. Babel and Sneijder gone, and only shit players in return. All those players are now disgraced in the real world.

But of course, FM is a bit unrealistic when it comes to "big" names. Feyenoord always do well in 08 and 09 because they have big-name players like Van Bronckhorst, Makaay, Hofland, etc. But the game fails to realistically show that these players are largely past their prime, which is why Feyenoord finished 7th in the last season, and are in the bottom half of the table now. Heck, Feyenoord were even pretty good in FM07, when their best strikers were Charisteas and Huysegems... Looking at that squad in FM07, it must be said that Feyenoord are really underachieving with their current material.

[Picky Bugger]

Ive played well over 25 seasons as Newcastle and then (shudder) Milan...

Yeah I found Opare as well just sitting in the Madrid 3rd team, i'm sure I got him for about 200K very nice.

[Picky Bugger]

PB: Well, Ochoa was good in 07, I have no idea if he's any good in 09. Sometimes, players don't break through in real life, and so they also get pegged down a notch in FM, no longer being wonderkids. Renato Augusto is always great in the game, though. Too bad he's just transferred to Leverkusen in 09. I nearly always get him when my best attacking midfielder gets bought away.

Its always annoying when the big teams steal your secret little buys :lol: It pissed me off so much when Munich bought Breno what a player he was for about 4M

[Wanted Man]

I was devastated when Liverpool got Lucas in real life, that made FM08 a lot less fun, because he was one of my favourite young DMs. :lol: Of course, then I'd get either Nigel de Jong or Jean Makoun (still at Lille, so easy purchase) and never look back.

[Picky Bugger]

Where there's one there's always another.

Superb philosophy from me there :lol:

[Killfacer]

Lucas is fucking shitty in real life.