I can't be arsed reading the entire thread but just wanted to add a couple of things:
After playing FM for fucking years without any sort of 'real' success it dawned on me that I'd never set out to man-mark anyone, I actually had to look up how to do it, the result has been miraculous and by adding a defensive midfielder purely to mark the main threat a career that had started quietly with Edinburgh City now has me challenging with Hearts in the top flight
When I joined Hearts though one player decided to hold me to a promise to improve the depth of the squad that the previous manager had made to him - I was romping up the league and brought in 8 players in my first window but the c'nt still wasn't happy - and most of the squad agreed with him - I had to try every trick in the book just to beat relegation. C'nt.
Cheery.