The one with Gareth Bale's career in my FM game

While it’s still not official yet, but my beloved Spurs will lose their talisman Gareth Bale to Real Madrid soon. While the money is too good, the team needs to keep its best players in order to challenge and compete for honours.

Today, I will share a post from my Football Manager 2013 game, in which Gareth Bale stay with Spurs till he retired at the end of the 2023/24 season. He played 17 seasons with Spurs (12 seasons with me). He won every club honour there is, as well as leading his Welsh national team to the 2020 Euros title.

I was given the option to retire his number 11 jersey which I did as a tribute of his accomplishments with Spurs.

Below are game screenshots of Gareth’s career with Spurs.

Now back to real life, it will be sad for us to lose a player of his calibre, but when a team with deep pockets (or backed by the royal family and banks) come to offer to triple his wages, you are bound to have your head turned.

In today’s climate, money does talk. Players these days will seek massive pay checks with established teams. Gone are the days where a player will stay with a team and help build the team and forge an identity. Players like Matt Le Tissier comes to mind. He stayed at Southampton his entire career, and while he didn’t win any major honours, he stayed with the club. Today he is loved by all that supports Southampton.

So while it will ache me to see him play in the ugly white jersey of Real Madrid, I will thank him for his years service as well as spectacular goals for the club.

And I will continue to support Spurs and the players who will still wear the shirt and play with their heart on their sleeve.

I had hoped that Gareth would stay and become a club legend, but maybe being a legend is not what he is seeking.

The one where I won the World Cup.....in Football Manager 2013

I finally managed success on the international stage in Football Manager 2013. Lead England to the 2022 World Cup title. The final itself was the most loop-sided final ever.

At first, I didn’t want to lead an international team, as it would take up too much time. In the end I decided to give it a go since I’ve already won everything at club level.

Below are the screen captures of the qualifying phase and the world cup run itself. I managed to go to the world cup as a group winner, despite a late setback in which I lost 2 in a row, in which I thought I managed a late draw against Serbia, only for them to score a very late winner.

In the world cup group stage, I was drawn with Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine. Prior to the world cup, media pointed out that a third of the squad were Spurs players. Well, I know them and I’m using the same system, so why not use players I can trust. Two wins and a draw saw me through to the second round.

The second pitted me against the Dutch and we won 2-1. The quarter final matchup was against the holder Croatia (yes the won the 2018 World Cup). I was 2 down at half time and staring at defeat with 10 minutes left, until 2 late goals completed the comeback. The semi-finals drew me against the French. Three goals in a 5 minute blitz sealed my place in the final.

My opponents in the final were the Americans. Yes, I too was surprised they made it this far. I went 3 up at halftime and there was no looking as I went on to win 8-1. My striker Matthew Eyre even helped himself to a hat-trick.

After the world cup, I resigned from the England managerial post to concentrate on continuing my Spurs dynasty.

The road the the World Cup

My World Cup run