Some seasons Ferrisin'

Go for it, get stuck in and make sure you read up about the rules and that. It will probably take you three seasons to fully get to grips with everything but once you do it becomes all the more enjoyable. The MLS offers a totally different playing experience from any other league in the game.

Two signings in, one on a free, one for 10k cos his contract was running down.



Brought in for some extra quality at MC, I think he's a good all rounder and if he settles he should do well.



Straight in as starting AMR and can definitely play ST if Johnson gets injured.

What countries are your scouts scouting?

Final acquisition right here, picked him up off the waiver list and the squad is now finalised. He'll be a good option from the bench with his physical stats I reckon. I have £7 left in my wage cap and I've enquired as to the availability of Shola Ameobi.

Never had any interest in the MLS before and tbh you're not helping my preconceptions.

The MLS should be played by everyone, a welcome change from the normalities of FM. The wage cap actually makes you think about squad composition to a degree.

On my front we're going ok, round about halfway stage I'm 6th in the conference, 3 points off the playoffs in 5th. I'm also 7th in the whole league, goes to show the strength of the East compared to the West.

Also into the semi finals of the US Open Cup and I'd love to win that, earlier on in FM14 I won it three seasons in a row with Columbus, and last season I got the semis with DC. That shit my calling card. I go hard in the US Cup and I go deep.

Visual rep of the league, exactly where I want to be at this point. Its just all about staying in and around 4th/5th. I'm also about to play the QF of the US Open Cup, winning that could provide a nice morale boost to the squad and also hopefully a small rep boost.



Last year Silva was one of my best players with 3 goals, 7 assists and a 6.93 average rating. There was some interest in him from Europe and I wasn't that interested in selling him, so I set an asking price of 1m (value of 400k). This year he got an injury early on and has only started six games. He was just coming back into the team and out of nowhere Auxerre put in a bid of 1m, so straight away I accepted it. Great money for a player who has hardly featured this term.

With that I have about 1.3k in cap space to go out and get myself a decent MC option, first I'm gonna look around the league and if nothing is forthcoming I'll look into the summer releases in Europe.

Replacement for Silva, picked him up on a free, he's bounced around a lot lately (five clubs in as many years) but I think he could be a valuable addition for us. American, good age, good all rounder stats and can play two positions.

Another thing that swayed me on signing him instead of going foreign was the performances of Grabavoy at MC. I've started him in the last few games and he's done really well. As I only drafted him this season he's still very rough round the edges, but if he keeps performing this well he could be a starter in our potential playoff run.

Europe's summer culling has taken place, most high profile who wants to join me is probably Joe Cole. I only had one player in mind for a potential DP this season and it wasn't him. It was Antonio 'Wee Cass' Cassano. And he has no interest in joining. So fuck the DP system. It was Cassano or bust.

Time to cross the great divide.

DC United is taking its talents to.......Galatasaray.

Purely because they are willing to pay me 1.7m whereas Fenerbahce are only offering 1m. It hurts me, because I consider myself to be a Fener kind of guy.

Great career mate! Always enjoy your careers and people managing in the MLS!

Slowly but surely boys and girls. Things are falling into my place and the Skac 433 has been unleashed. Calcio pulito.

And believe me, I am. He's been such a great pickup, slow start because of a lack of fitness but he has 9 assists in 15 games. He's been absolutely crucial to our success so far this season, his form has allowed me to sell Silva and also slowly integrate my number two draft pick, Bernardo Andrade.

Would have quite liked Holden in fairness, I reckon on a non-DP contract he could be an absolute steal. Hey ho.

Interested to see where he lands, he has great mental stats for the league and should make an impact.

I simply don't know what it is but I just can't get involved or even stay remotely focussed on an MLS game. I shall fester here but will only take interest once you move on.

It's not you, it's me.

I won't be moving on. The MLS is where I belong. A non-transparent, LA/NY biased, Miami induced, Ray Hudson loving, Freddy Adu making, soccer is the work of satan, USA 94 came eight year too late but FIFA will never say it, league.

Maybe after a few MLS titles I'll go to another one of my beloved leagues, for now I'm happy to plod along and chase the dream.

Some great references in that first section of the post, one for the hardcore US fans. Since I'm in the garden and bored I'll explain them.

'non-transparent'; the MLS is famed for not properly disclosing how transfers actually work and what allocation money does
'LA/NY biased'; its long been said the MLS favours these two big markets, and its true imo, not to the extent of match fixing or anything, but certainly in terms of player recruitment
'Miami induced'; MIAMI FC BABY
'Ray Hudson'; Youtube him, an eccentric Geordie MLS coach / commentator
'Freddy Adu'; former trialist at Manchester United and also Blackpool
'Soccer/satan'; this is an Australian thing, fuck do I care
'USA 94'; 86 WC got took off Colombia because the coffee market imploded, eventually Mexico got it, but imagine if USA had? Arguably the MLS would be eight years further along in its evolution. Obviously a potential 86 WC wouldn't be as successful as the 1994 WC, but from an American perspective that extra eight years could have been huge.

Word.

Here's something for you, and something I think people can relate to it. An English league dynasty? You've not been there at all since I have known you (08 maybe?) and I think it's time to make the old, the new.

Also Mexico 86 was an obvious choice, it's fairly near to Colombia and they had the infrastructure due to '70, although your sentiments I agree with.

Start of the season signing Jose Varela has handed in a transfer request, hasn't been starting enough games. Fair enough, I wasn't expecting Brad Davis to be so good this season from AMR (and MC for that matter) and Espindola has done ok whenever he has come in at AMR. I expected Varela to be a great player but it hasn't worked out that way, other players have hit form at the right time.

Straight away I had bids from Vitoria and Panathinaikos but only for 61k (weird figure), he has a value of 500k so I want something around that. My hand could be forced however, will see what the market says.

Good deal, 500k is good money for a player who hasn't feature much in the past few months. Gonna look into getting a new backup striker but its not imperative, I have enough depth uptop to pull me through.

Really not happening, I think next season anything but a deep playoff run is a failure for us, it makes no sense to leave at this point.

US Open Cup final up next, I play my beloved Seattle Sounders.

Obviously a disappointing defeat, but we created a hell of a lot of chances and on another day we could have won big. That is testament to just how far we've come, I honestly believe that we are only two or three players away from being a true force. Hell, with a little luck we could win the MLS this season.

However, I think its starting to show how much we need a backup striker, I thought Pontius and EJ could hold out but their form has dipped in the recent weeks. We've hardly plummeted down the table but its still worrying.

There's 3 games left and I'm all but assured of a playoff spot, I may rest some key players for two of those games and try and enter the playoffs with a fully refreshed starting eleven.

Managed to tie Brad Davis down to a 1 year extension to his deal, in doing so he took a 1.7k wage cut and that will help us out a lot. Tied up a few other extensions with wage cuts too, looking to add some first teamers next season, I think the depth element of the squad is great now, just need that extra bit of quality.

Great turn around from the team, we were predicted to finish 2nd last and we proved everyone wrong. What was this down to? The 433 sticking, Brad Davis and the depth of the squad.

I don't fear anyone from the West, if we can win the Eastern playoffs I think we take the title home.

Got a bit sketchy in the first leg when our starting GK Hamid got brought off injured, luckily it was nothing serious and he returned for the second leg. We went out there, showed New York what was what and set up a doubled legged affair with Toronto, a team we have beaten every time we've played them this year.

Unbelievable game, heading into it the players were tired as this only came a few days after the semi final 2nd leg. Gilberto has been top scorer in the MLS this season and he certainly tore us up, we just couldn't handle him at all.

I'm still confident heading into the second leg mind, its nearly two weeks away so the players will be fully rested.

Starting to look at the possibility of bringing in a DP for next season, there's a few decent players interested in joining but obviously one DP wages wise (something like a 4.8k cap on how much a DPs wages actually count against the overall wage cap) is equivalent to two or three solid MLS guys. So its between signing a DP and having a smaller squad, or having no DP and having a bigger squad.

I'll balance it all out come January, for now I'm just doing the preliminary scouting on a few guys.

Just been offered a job interview with the Galaxy, a season or two down the line and I'd strongly consider it. Galaxy have a good rep and good money behind them, one for the future. Right now? Nah, I'm sticking with DC. Overcome Toronto, beat whatever team wins the Western playoffs, sign Cassano, repeat next year. Plan.

We can thank Brad Davis for this yet again, played a 9.0 game and bagged two assists. We probably should have got beat in this game but for whatever reason Defoe was just missing chance after chance for Toronto.

I play Chivas USA in the final and looking at them they're a very average side, if Pontius and EJ are on their game we could run out with a big scoreline victory. Its about two weeks till the final, Davis picked up a knock and will miss around a week of training but should be fully fit for the Chivas game. We need him. This is Davis' team. I love Brad Davis.

Bloody Bruce Arena just took over at Houston and now they're interested in Franklin, Boswell and Johnson. I think I'd be willing to give up Boswell, with Johnson if a decent enough bid came in then yes but there's no way Franklin leaves. Always fit, has good pace, solid enough performer, fair wages.

Told yous. 17 seconds into the game, 1-0 up. We didn't hang around, sure we gave Chivas a free goal but then Davis grabbed two assists and a goal for himself. Great game for Kassel too, picked him up on a free and he's been instrumental in us winning the title.

This win is big for two reasons, firstly we'll hopefully get a rep boost from it, and secondly we've qualified for the North American Champions League, that means I'll have to play the draft cool and bring in some kids who can rotate in and out of the team to cope with the extra games brought on by the NACL.