Football Manager Series Catch-All

Judging from FM, I actually like the Europa League/Conference League changes UEFA made. The prize money for winning Europa matches is actually decent now and I like clubs from smaller nations getting European football.

Sunderland in my Queen's Park save.

- Win promotion to the championship in 2019/20
- Tycoon takeover in June 2020
- Finish 19th in 2020/21 having only spent £4.6M on transfers.
- Relegated back to League One in 2021/22 having spent £3.7M.

I want a mockumentary of this.

So I won the Scottish Championship, though it was probably my least impressive promotion so far. Our wage bill was 75% higher than the next team (and would have been middle of the pack in the SPL). My star player since League Two, Craig Slater, is already a club legend and should be good enough to stick around the SPL in at least a backup role for a couple more years.

I knocked Rangers out of the Scottish Cup in a replay at Ibrox and started dreaming about European football but we lost 2-1 at Celtic Park in the next round (and the 1 was a consolation goal). Stadium is still only a 2,000-seater and we aren't in the best financial position (a -£1.5m balance) so I'm not sure how we'll build things up for the long-term.

But I splashed transfer fees on a midfielder (£67k), starting keeper £200k), and right-winger (£100k) in addition to my usual wheeling-dealing Bosman and some players are starting to have serious valuations so hopefully we can start to sell players at a profit soon.

Finished my first season in the SPL, it was a bit of a rollercoaster. 6-match unbeaten run to begin the season had me dreaming of Europe, but then I went 11 without a win in the league and even easy friendlies during the Dubai Break didn't help us turn our form around. I think forced rotation post-Dubai did the trick though, we went on a mini run without losing and finished the season strongly, missing out on the Championship Group in the league by a point and ending up 7th.

Really hoping I can qualify for Europe next season because UEFA has an 8,000-seat minimum and that will hopefully force the board to take out a loan to expand.

I've had two either-footed prospects come up through the youth ranks in the last couple of seasons. A striker who had spot minutes last season but is now clearly my #1 backup and a central defender who came up the year after him who's developing nicely with some 2nd-XI minutes in addition to his reserve team starts.

Played a few more seasons in my Queen's Park save.

The board just sold my wonderkid CB, who came up through the youth system, to Burnley for £16m. His listed value immediately after the transfer went through was £26m.

I am so angry.

I've been bingeing OOTP recently, but I need to come back to this as my "what I play while I should be working" game.

I've been thinking I should do some more historical stuff in OOTP20

I won't derail the thread even further, but I mean, that's 150% of the reason why I play OOTP. Because it allows me to do things like ask "What if Prime Alex Rodriguez played in 1974?"

(Answer: He absolutely f*cking mashes. Dude's OPS was 1.42)

If there's anything I wish FM let me do, it would be play with historical stuff like OOTP does. I'd so love to play 1992 Barcelona vs. 2009 Barcelona, or see if Gerd Muller could cut it in the modern game, et cetera.

Prederick wrote:

If there's anything I wish FM let me do, it would be play with historical stuff like OOTP does. I'd so love to play 1992 Barcelona vs. 2009 Barcelona, or see if Gerd Muller could cut it in the modern game, et cetera.

I keep seeing tweets about FM historical databases and such, have you checked any of those out? I thought I just saw that a couple were recently finished up for FM2020. I know that's not exactly what you're looking for, but it'd be pretty cool to play a game that starts 15 years ago with a full player database.

I seem to remember Eidos (who did the original CM) talking about this years ago, but the difference between soccer and baseball is that outside of goals, there's almost no statistical data from more than, say, 10-15 years ago. I also think that both physically and tactically, soccer has moved on light years in the last 20 years.

Here in the UK, one of the channels has been showing a series called 'The Big Match Revisited', replaying a weekly highlights of English football show from various seasons (the last few have been 1978-79, and 1982-83). Even from this sample, it's fair to say that any top side in the current Premiership would have won the title in either years...mostly by default if current laws were implemented, because there were many wince-inducing challenges that only got a ticking off at the time, but would probably be generating bans nowadays.

Let's take one example of the difficulties of rating historical players and current ones. Pele, and Lionel Messi.

Pele scored 1000 goals, apparently. But how can you rate how strong or otherwise the Brazilian league was? Think about comparing him to Lionel Messi. The latter has scored 638 goals in all competitions, and I bet you can find at least 550 of those in highlights or on YouTube. I bet that you couldn't find 50 different goals that Pele scored. So how do you give them comparative ratings?

I would actually consider save-scumming that.

Just finished season 7 of my game, and Borussia won the Bundesliga for the 3rd consecutive season (3 games before the end this time..and with an away draw at our main rivals, RBL, which was nice). Another summer of retooling ahead, as City paid the £72m release fee on my striker, wasn't too fussed though as I'd been playing him at inside right for most of the season, and he'd missed the final 2 months through injury. Still, City had money to burn, as Barca had just paid £191m for a DM that they'd picked up from Bayern on a free.

WC 2026 has been and gone - Italy beating Germany 1-0 in the final, after beating England 2-1 aet in the semi.

Strange things I've noticed this season.

- The England team had no regens in the first XI, and Italy had only 1. This despite being 7 seasons in, and the game simply replete with wonderkids.

- England played Kazakhstan in an actual WC finals game. And won. 15-0.

- Phil Foden has only just left City (to Arsenal, £61m), despite having played less than 100 league games in total.

- I won three trophies this year (Bundesliga, Pokal and Charity Shield thingy), and wasn't even in the top 3 for manager of the year. Winner was Augsburg's manager. They were 10th.

- None of my players won any individual awards. Team of the season - 8 from Borussia.

I'd have burst into flames from the anger.

davet010 wrote:

- England played Kazakhstan in an actual WC finals game. And won. 15-0.

I would LOVE to see some screen grabs of that match, and the whole path to that game.

Ahh, the good old Patrik Stefan.

Psych wrote:
davet010 wrote:

- England played Kazakhstan in an actual WC finals game. And won. 15-0.

I would LOVE to see some screen grabs of that match, and the whole path to that game.

Seconded.

Planning on sticking with Borussia Dave or will you be eyeing something new in that save?

Roke wrote:

Planning on sticking with Borussia Dave or will you be eyeing something new in that save?

I've been through summer, and just started my 4th season here.

Sold another striker (Thomas Buitink) for £66m to Chelsea, then my LB (Miranda) took the hump and demanded a new contract, trebling his wages. So he's off to Chelsea as well, for £44m.

At which point I got a bit twitchy, particularly when my first choice striker got a 4 week injury. So I ploughed £75m of our £190m transfer profits into Erling Haaland.

First 5 Bundesliga games - P5, W1 D4 L0, GF 3 GA 2

I'm hoping that this surgery will improve after convalescence, but for some reason a number of my players seem to be getting more nervous...4 of them were wilting in our home game against what should be the weakest of our CL group opponents (Craiova), and with good reason, we only won 1-0. The other teams in the group are Juventus and Monaco.

I tend to run with very lean squads (the BL has 9 sub slots, and if players are out I just play with fewer subs). I'm wondering if I've gone a bit too far this time.

Picked up my Queen's Park save again last night after sleeping off the anger.

Ended up spending a fair chunk of money in the transfer market, £11.5m, with all the cash I had brought in. Been buying a lot of Serbs since there were a bunch who fit into my wage budget and are able to get a work permit.

While Lesser Hampden gets expanded to 4,500 seats we're temporarily playing in the "Alex MacLeish Arena" in Glasgow and I don't know who that belongs to. Scotland, Rangers, and Celtic are all in their usual stadiums and nobody else in the Scottish pyramid plays there. Matches against Celtic & Rangers there have led to amusing attendance figures - 44,600 total of which 31,220 has been away fans in both cases like it's a Canadian Men's Natoinal Team home match in World Cup Qualifying.

Managed to get past FC Midtjylland and Ajax in the qualifying phases to get into the Champions League but we were seeded 4th for the draw and ended up in a group with Chelsea (25x our wage bill), Monaco (19x our wage bill), and AC Milan (9x my wage bill). Throughout the save my 1st XI has consistently been very competitive against teams with 3x my wage bill and it was the same here whether I played my 1st XI or 2nd XI.

Went on a Cinderella run in the Champions League in 2027/28. Got past Sporting Lisbon and then Monaco in the qualifying stages; finished 2nd in a group of Real Madrid (1st), AC Milan, and Bayer Leverkusen; knocked out Spurs with a 90th minute away goal; Beat Man Utd 3-1 on aggregate in the quarterfinal; before losing to Arsenal 1-nil in the away leg in the Semi.

Haven't had an FM experience that tense since my Canada in the World Cup Cinderella run many years ago.

My Borussia save is turning into the most interesting season yet. After my earlier travails, we've turned the corner, slightly helped by the fixture schedule turning up matches against the 15-18th placed teams almost one after another (with FC Arrogant in the middle). A spate of unconvincing 1-0 and 2-0 wins, together with a 2-2 away draw at Mount Doom has catapulted us into 4th.

Mistakes have been made, it is fair to say. My experienced DM wanted a move to China after being offered silly money, so I've ended up with a 3 man midfield consisting entirely of players purchased from Man City's u-23 team, at one yearly intervals. My suggestion to rename them the British Army of the Rhine was, thankfully, shelved by our PR department, but the team as a whole is very young - only my keeper is over 25. This might not do us well when tougher fixtures come round, and I suspect that finishing outside the Europa places might lead to some tough discussions with the Board at the end of the year.

On the upside, BM are now on their 4th manager since I joined Borussia. I'd like to think that I've played a part in that

EDIT - And mistakes continue to be made. The £20m goalkeeper that I signed from Inter in the Jan window (who's arrival annoyed my existing number 1) can't be registered for any competitions because I didn't realise that he'd already played for River Plate as well as Inter this season. And now I'm paying a goalie who can't even play for my reserves until Jul 1, and I can't loan him out because no one else can register him either.

And now I'm wondering why Inter got rid so quickly.

Can you loan him back to Inter?

Mr Bismarck wrote:

Can you loan him back to Inter?

Or maybe River Plate?

I've run afoul of that can only be registered twice thing before. Wish there was a warning like there is for work permits.

Tried that - he threw a paddy and accused me of 'trying to force him from the club'.

He can play for the u-19 side, so he's doing that and (hopefully) learning the language.

On the field, things are still progressing well. We're still in the CL, and were drawn against Rangers. First leg was at Ibrox, where we were beaten 2-0. Rangers' manager then left for Schalke before the return leg, and they looked in disarray as we caned them 5-0 at home.

Next round - PSG. With the winners meeting Juventus or Man Utd. Our Asst Mgr thinks that 'as long as we are still in the competition, we have a chance of winning it', which is slightly more subtle than it sounds.

Aaannndd...we got battered by PSG.

Still, they have won Ligue.1 every year of the game so far (this is season 8) and are top by 12 pts this year.

Their line up

GK - Kepa

Def - Wan-Bissaka, Marquinhos, Kimpembe, Reguilon

Mid - Ruben Neves, Pogba, Haavetz

Atk - Mbappe, Fati (regen, valued about 160m), Lautaro Martinez.

Lost 3-0 away (and we were lucky to get 0) and drew 0-0 at home.

Didn't shout at the team, we simply are nowhere near that level.

Don't sell your captain in the January transfer window.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EX8jaTFWsAIxQWN?format=jpg&name=large)

We were in first place for almost all of the season and Celtic didn't lead until the end of the last matchday. They were home to Rangers and Rangers had an early red card.

On the bright side, we won the Scottish Cup and we're getting a new stadium named after this dude which is pretty cool: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew...(footballer,_born_1856)

Ouch. One goal difference? That’s painful!

I know that my response to that would have taken one of two forms.

1. Save scum (just the once, else we'll be here til doomsday), or
2. Introduce mouse to wall. At speed.

My Borussia team eventually finished 2nd, only 2 points behind RB Leipzig eventually, but they'd won the league with 3 games to go. FC Arrogant were 3rd, now managed by someone equally objectionable (Mark van Bommel). He described me as over-rated before we met in the second-last game..we won 3-0. These fingers yours, Mark ?

I've got some good prospects coming along, but am currently arguing with the Board. I've bid for a 4 star English MF, only £12m, but the Board are saying that I ain't signing enough German players. It's only June, so I might let it go and see how my new signings work, including the GK who can now be registered.

The Premiership ended up with 4 teams split by 1 point with 1 game left (MU, Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea). United were a point clear but blew it by drawing 2-2 at home to Norwich, Spurs lost away and Arsenal ended up with the league title. City won the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, finished 5th and sacked Unai Emery. They got to the CL last 8 and were beaten by Barca, so that seems a little harsh.

On a side note, how do you end up with 38 matches in a season? It looks like they're doing a split season, right? But twice against everyone is 22, and then twice against your half would add ten more for 32. How do you get to 38?

I was more frustrated with my board saying they were disappointed because they expected me to challenge for the title. Felt a lot better after I managed to sign a gem of a midfielder out of Brazil in the summer even though it meant breaking my wage structure (nobody over £20k/week) and my transfer record (£15m). Dude doesn't even have a release clause, but it was only a 3-year contract.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/4JCGrlg.png)

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

On a side note, how do you end up with 38 matches in a season? It looks like they're doing a split season, right? But twice against everyone is 22, and then twice against your half would add ten more for 32. How do you get to 38?

You play everyone 3 times, then the league is split in half with a "championship group" and a "relegation" group where teams play each other once for the final 5 games (and balancing out the home/away fixtures between them in that group). It's kind of neat.

And you're locked into the group in the table so you can't, say, tank a game to get into the relegation group for the easier fixtures to finish higher in the table than teams in the championship group.

^Got it, thanks! Wales is similar, but does 2x then splits, then does 2x again, against your half.

Yeah, it's an odd system. I believe that at least once the 7th place team actually had more points than the 6th place team at the end of the season.

It's now week 2 of my 5th season in Germany. My now-registered South American keeper has made his first appearance. And I've sold him.

He played in the first game of our pre-season camp in Switzerland. When picking the team for the next game, 3 days later, he was showing as unavailable. Flicked back to my inbox to find that he'd stumbled out of a nightclub that morning, and my assistant manager had banned him. He was then fined in accordance with our policy, and he had the nerve to moan about that. And about the fact that I hadn't signed any more coaches, despite us having more staff than the average department store. So I engineered a deal with Atletico Madrid to swap him and £5m for their backup keeper.

Fair does for coming out of a nightclub in Switzerland drunk. Though I would probably have bought a car with the money, myself.

Football Manager 2020 is on gamepass and I keep looking at it thinking "this will be the one that draws me back in" but knowing it won't because of feature creep