Roke wrote:Easter weekend and social distancing means I did nothing but play FM. Thus, another update.
I noticed your time on Steam with this. I'd say you're getting your money's worth!
Seems as if you're close to taking that next step up, nice work!
A fair chunk of that is leaving it on during the day some times when not playing, but yeah, it has its hooks into me.
I have, as you predicted, grown a little tired of press conferences. Team talks are still good in my books though.
Godzilla Blitz wrote:Roke wrote:Easter weekend and social distancing means I did nothing but play FM. Thus, another update.
I noticed your time on Steam with this. I'd say you're getting your money's worth!
Seems as if you're close to taking that next step up, nice work!
A fair chunk of that is leaving it on during the day some times when not playing, but yeah, it has its hooks into me.
I have, as you predicted, grown a little tired of press conferences. Team talks are still good in my books though.
Yes, I may have written more about the negatives than the positives, but on the whole I think it's the morale system and mechanics that separate FM from other sports sims, and really add a layer of challenge that other sports sims can't come close to. Although it's clunky and repetitive in places, I'm really glad it's in the game. Going through the answers and whatnot for the most part only takes a small amount of time, too.
Spent £70m on Callum Hudson-Odoi and he had to come off with a knee injury in his first match. Feared for the worst, but it was only a 3-6 weeks sprained knee ligaments injury.
Decided my next file is going to be Sunderland after I finally get around to watching both seasons of 'Sunderland Till I Die'.
Spent £70m on Callum Hudson-Odoi and he had to come off with a knee injury in his first match. Feared for the worst, but it was only a 3-6 weeks sprained knee ligaments injury.
Decided my next file is going to be Sunderland after I finally get around to watching both seasons of 'Sunderland Till I Die'.
Ouch, but that could easily have been much worse, for sure.
But wait! There's a second season of Sunderland? I really liked the first one. Netflix I suppose?
Yes Netflix, and it is so good.
Yes Netflix, and it is so good.
Good to know. I'll check out the second season!
By the way, I've been following Forward Madison on Twitter. What a cool club. I ordered a jersey this week when they came back in stock. I feel bad for these smaller clubs, getting hit hard.
Yay!
Totally agree they're really fun, and once the pandemic lifts I'm happy to go to games with anybody who comes through town.
I'll buy the first beer. 
My daughter and I were talking about coming down to see a game and check out the University, whenever things resume. I'll buy the second beer!
I hope they make it through all this.
Me too - building an enduring team in third-division US soccer is no easy task. (Lansing Ignite, who finished second in regular season, and lost in the semifinals, shut down last year in spite of a pretty impressive season on the pitch).
I'm confident that if any team can navigate these challenges it's Forward Madison. Staying quarantined now in the hopes of singing my heart out with the rest of the Flock soon.
Wanted to take control of training from the beginning (you were right, it's not that difficult or too different) Nd load more leagues (especially the Canadian Premier League) so I started over at Newcastle.
Only house rule was no signing players I had in my other save, unless they're Canadian because I'm patriotic like that.
Won't be doing season thread updates because it's an EPL team again so not super interesting. But I'm having fun, which is the most important thing.
Wanted to take control of training from the beginning (you were right, it's not that difficult or too different) Nd load more leagues (especially the Canadian Premier League) so I started over at Newcastle.
I really like the training system. It could use a better tutorial, but there is good help out there on the Internets. I also like it because for the most part you can ignore it and it won't matter that much. With the exception that it doesn't handle adjustments for match rescheduling well.
Has anyone ever tried international management ? Having won the Bundesliga with Borussia Moenchengladbach (flicks V's at Bayern Munich, who collapsed at the end of the season), I was busy with my offseason recruiting when towards the end of July I got emails from the English FA and its Italian equivalent offering my the national jobs. I'm guessing this was just after the end of Euro 2024, where both underperformed.
I created a save at that point, then took the England job while keeping my job at BM. But I'm not interested in international football IRL, so when I got the first message about being responsible for four teams, I just thought "y'know what, I can't be arsed" and went back to the save before I took it and declined both.
Has anyone made more of an effort than me (which wouldn't be that difficult)? Is it worth it? Is it better to resign your club role and just concentrate on it.
To be honest, the first thing that flashed into my mind was this.
Quick note for non-British viewers - that film was made about England manager Graham Taylor and the unsuccessful 1994 WC qualifying campaign. It was also titled "The Impossible Job", and catalogued the travails of Taylor under media pressure and with a squad filled with players who'd be lucky to make a living at Championship level now. Well worth a watch.
Has anyone ever tried international management ?
.
I went in big on it with Canada in FM07 (my most cherished FM memory) but haven't really enjoyed it when dabbling since then. Did keep my club job at Newcastle in that save, which privablu helped.
I don't know if the Nation's League changes things but outside of tournaments and big qualifying matches it gets a bit tedious to me with all the friendlies.
Though if FM would finally add women's soccer I'd be all over it.
Thanks Roke. Both the England and Italy offers said that they didn't really care about the Nations League, so that I was effectively working with a target of qualification and achievement for WC 2026.
Having played on a few weeks in the save where I didn't take a national job, I'm probably glad that I didn't. I've just played Bayern in the German equivalent of the Charity Shield (at their place, surprisingly, given that I did the flipping double), and their RW (Cengit something) spent the entire game ripping my new £42m LWB a new one. Got beat 2-0, but only because my keeper (Fruchtl) had a blinder. Looks like Bayern have upped their game, after last year's collapse.
I've done international management a few times, but it's a lot of pressing [Continue] so I only do it if I don't have to give up my club role. And then I can only bear it for one four year cycle before it becomes frustrating busy work and I go back to my club.
Mostly I use it as a nepotism engine, where I give international caps to all my own club players.
2nd-last match of the season, level on points with Liverpool in the title race (1 point behind Man Utd but this is a match in hand for both of us) and I would love it if we had beat them...
It all went wrong.
Ahh well, I still have the Europa League final against Lazio.
Discovered Queen's Park are no longer and amateur side and I've my Desperation 4-2-4 tactic in my Newcastle save has made me really hankering to try to go 4-4-2...
Edit: Scottish League Two goalkeepers are... not good. So many long-distance goals.
Do they still have Hampden Park as their home ground? Queen's Park vs Montrose must be eerily prescient of playing a game behind closed doors...
Do they still have Hampden Park as their home ground? Queen's Park vs Montrose must be eerily prescient of playing a game behind closed doors...
They are, but moving into the 2,000 seater "Lesser Hampden" July 2020.
In my Fulham game, we're redeveloping Craven Cottage and have made Wembley our temporary home for the time being, and despite the fact that we're now CL regulars... we didn't exactly pack the place out. 
This might be just me, but I'm noticing a lot of sendings off in friendlies. In the last few seasons of my Borussia game, I probably play about 8 friendlies a year, and yet I'm getting 1-2 red cards in those, which is about the same as in the 50 or so competitive games.
Unfortunately, of those 4 or 5, at least 3 would go to my wonderkid homegrown 19 year old RWB. The last straw was getting a straight red against FC Arrogant after 20 mins when I was 1-0 up..we lost 2-1. I've now sold him, because it seemed that he couldn't handle big games. So after spending all summer looking for an LWB, spending £42m and having buyer's remorse , I'm now on the hunt for an RWB in the Jan window.
On the plus side, I've got the achievement for career earnings of £10m (looks around back bedroom/office).
Christ knows what I've spent it on.
I mentioned that to a friend a while ago, as far as I can tell, your contract value is utterly meaningless, beyond how much it'd cost for another team to get you to break it in compensation. I wish it meant something in-game, not a ton, just a little something.
I mentioned that to a friend a while ago, as far as I can tell, your contract value is utterly meaningless, beyond how much it'd cost for another team to get you to break it in compensation. I wish it meant something in-game, not a ton, just a little something.
+1
I know it's silly but I wish you had a house, a car, etc., that you could upgrade as you earned more money.
This might be just me, but I'm noticing a lot of sendings off in friendlies.
I never manage friendlies (I'm a lazy manager) but I don't think I've noticed anything like that. Were they mostly straight reds?
In Scottish League Two I did see a lot more red cards for bad tackles but I figure that's just the match engine simulating lesser British football accurately.
Did win promotion with Queen's Park, quite comfortably thanks to our 2nd-highest wage bill , and won my first League One match. My 4-4-2 is buzzing, though a newly promoted SPL side coming in with a £10k bid for my best defender/captain was a bit depressing. I turned it down, he got upset, but he's fine now.
It'd be nice of the contract money accumulated and you could spend it on stuff like you can in New Star Soccer.
Admittedly, what I used it for in NSS was buying hang gliders for my girlfriend. Over the course of one career I bought my girlfriend something like seven thousand hang gliders.
davet010 wrote:This might be just me, but I'm noticing a lot of sendings off in friendlies.
I never manage friendlies (I'm a lazy manager) but I don't think I've noticed anything like that. Were they mostly straight reds?
Almost all of them were 'shocking two-footed lunges' - I can't actually recall any instance of a player getting sent off for two yellow cards. And that certainly isn't because they aren't getting booked at all, I've had games when ALL of my back 4 and my DM have been booked. I'm now wondering whether it's something to do with using gegenpress..
..and now, during the first leg of our CL knockout game away at Lyon, my 19yr old wonderkid LW gets an early bath for a tackle. Upon looking at the replay, he was obviously trying to recreate a famous match of the past, although I'm not sure this was the right stage for a remake of the Battle of Santiago.
He is an exasperating player though - some games he'll be garbage, others he'll beat 4 men with a slaloming run and tuck it home with ease (away at Bayer Leverkusen, who were top). 15 goals and 8 assists, and I still spend time browsing the player listings for left wingers.
I guess if he was more consistent he'd be forcing a move to a bigger club by now?
Won the Scottish League One with Queen's Park. Turned professional a few months early, scouting range increased to the UK (and all of Europe after I talked to the board), and I went from a £12k transfer budget with £10k/week wage budget at the beginning of the season to a £3.6m transfer budget and £31k/week wage budget. Desperately getting better staff in so I can be ready when the transfer windows, going professional now instead of July is really going to help with that.
Really geeking out with the 4-4-2 I have in a way I haven't since a 4-3-1-2 I had back in FM08 or so. It's a flat 4-4-2, but I have my right back set as a defensive inverted wingback so with possession in the other half he basically sits in front of the CBs as a pseudo-DM which really helps my team recycle possession. I was trying to make a fluid counter-attacking 4-4-2 when I started out but I've accidentally got a good possession game.
I guess if he was more consistent he'd be forcing a move to a bigger club by now?
Yeah, I never seem to field many offers for players though, even when they are valued relatively cheaply. We've just retained the Bundesliga title, and he finished third in the Player of the Year poll, so we'll see. The wonderkid striker that I prised away from Rangers last summer finished top of that poll, and top scorer, but I've just given him a new contract to strip out the £29m release clause he had.
Now I've got a another dilemma. A lot of my summer transfer work has been done - Argentinian wonderkid defender and Tommy Doyle from City signed up (I did agree a fee of £67m for Phil Foden, but he fancied Barcelona over the industrial Ruhr, for some reason), and prospects coming through..
And City have just phoned, to offer an interview. They've just sacked Pochettino for the crime of finishing second (and they were in with a shout of the title on the last day, but got walloped 4-0 away at Palace), and might be interested in acquiring my services. The question is, do I have the managerial talent to go there...I keep thinking about Pep, jettisoned after previously winning the CL three years in a row.
Time to create a what-if save, I think. Of course, I might just end up not getting the job at the new Board at my current club taking the hump about my being interviewed, but we'll see. I would quite like to do something in Europe with Borussia though, I've never won the CL or EL in any save, I don't think.
Probably too late, but I think you should go for the interview, at least. Even if you stay maybe you can leverage the board into improving the club a bit.
I turned the interview down, but created a new save afterwards.
Preseason went well, we've won the German equivalent of the Charity Shield, but then lost away at Werder Bremen in the opening match (14 shots, 1 on target,)
First home game vs Wolfsburg, my new MEZ, Tommy Doyle, scores a hattrick of 25 yd screamers. Probably best not to rely on that every week.
Oh, and upon reviewing my previous statement about not winning the CL or EL...I won the EL in my first Borussia season. Just shows how important it is.
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