What happens to West Ham when you play a career on Football Manager?

Disclaimer: I am under no circumstances saying that Football Manager can predict a full season of games, nothing can, that’s football! I thought that it would be a fun change to the usual article after one fan left a comment saying the articles were too similar, which is good to know. Feedback is a good thing! However FM is actually quite accurate a lot of times and teams such as Everton are known to use their database for scouting.

I decided to start a new career in FM 2014 with all the up-to-date transfers and major changes in the Premier League. I watched the league unfold and stopped the progression of the simulation every so often to take a few screen shots and see the happenings throughout the year. There are a few things that I didn’t update in the career, such as Andy Carrol’s injury and the correct position for Enner Valencia. I did, however, simulate the season 10 times and I will comment on those at the end of the article.

The first picture shows all the transfers Big Sam decided to make and this is where you can see that Football Manager isn’t exactly always on the mark! Aouate is a keeper, 36 years of age and from Israel, Vukojevic is a DM and is 30, Palacios, as we all know, is a CM and is 29 and Barreto is another CM and is also 29. One realistic trait we see straight away is Sam’s unwillingness to buy young! Mohamed Diame decided to leave West Ham at the start of the season for pastures new at Inter Milan for £3.5 million. He went on to make 18 appearances and assist just one goal, with a rating of 6.42, which is pretty average.

The season got off to a bad start with a draw to Newcastle United and a loss against Everton. We then lost to Millwall in the Capital One Cup and picked up our first win against QPR. The first 10 games were pretty unimpressive with four losses, four draws and only two wins!

The table didn’t look to good after 10 games with West Ham in 15th and only 10 points on the board. Meanwhile at the top Manchester City were ahead with Manchester United four behind. Arsenal and Liverpool made up the other two top four spots.

Our team-sheet looks very familiar 10 games in with a 4-1-2-2-1 formation being implemented, with a DM and only one striker. (I know Razak is no longer with the club but I forgot to edit him out).

15 games in and we have managed two wins, two draws and only 1 loss in the last five games. Which moves us up the table to 12^th and Man City still lead, now five points ahead of Arsenal.

Mauro Zarate is has scored four goals for us so far but Carroll is keeping him out of the squad for most of the games.

The lowlight of the season for The Hammers was a 5-0 loss to Spurs on the 27^th of December. Definitely not a game to remember! However the mood was more buoyant after Mark Noble signed a new three-year contract, which quickly quelled the interest from Newcastle.

After 21 games West Ham were flying high with 28 points from 21 games and sitting in 9^th position. The sale of Ricardo Vaz Te on the 24^th of Januay apparently disappointed fans, again a sign that FM doesn’t know everything about football.

With 26 games gone West Ham are looking down on the table from 7^th with 38 points. Fears of relegation are well and truly out the window and dreams of a Europian place start creeping into Hammers heads at night!

However, it wasn’t meant to be. After 31 games we still only had 38 points. Losing five games on the trot has Hammers fans disappointed and Sam Allardyce’s position was getting precarious.

With the season nearly over, Sams golden boy Carroll, has yet to reach double figures, with nine goals and one assist in 25 games.

Ravel Morrison had been given a chance making 15 appearances and scoring three goals, however a rating of only 6.65 isnt too impressive.

The season ended with West Ham in 12^th. Sam remained in charge for the whole season. Carroll was our top scorer with 10 goals and Noble was the stand out performer with five MOTM awards and a rating of 7.13. Man City went on to win the league by nine points and Arsenal came 2^nd.

This is the first of 10 games I simulated. In the 10 games we were relegated four times, came 7^th once, and finished between 10^th and 15^th the other five times. Sam kept his job past the first season, three times, with him being sacked before Christmas five times and after Christmas twice. The three times he kept his job we came 10^th , 12^th  and 14^th. ‘Arry came in three times in the careers, and guided us to 7^th position, and 10^th twice. Martin Jol, Steve Bruce, David Moyes and Neil Lennon took over in different careers, but all were powerless to avoid the drop.

I hope this article was a welcome change to the recent doom and gloom articles about relegation!