Topic: Football Manager Series

[Wullie160975]

I agree with the United bias - His performance stats for the season are OK, but look at the suggested price on Dalot after the first season for a bang average player with bang average stats. At least double my most expensive player (Salah: £130m - £142M)

[Jake]

In my 5th season with Wakefield City. First season 15th in the conf North, second season playoffs but lost the semi, third season won the play offs.

First season in the national conference and we just missed out on playoffs. Over the summer I saw that two 50% of profit clauses I put in the contracts of two youth players i took on for the first team then sold were available to be cashed in. Brought the bank from 300k to 2.5m!!

This season is going well, we are deffos gonna get a play off spot, managed to get to the 3rd round of the fa Cup and lucked out with an away draw at stamford Bridge (adding another 900k to the bank).

Finally the board has agreed we can go professional at the end of the season (5 years of semi pro) and I'm unsure whether to spunk my wad now and push for league two or save it for the increased running costs.

Major problems being this low down is the lack of sponsorship and attendance. We've got 10% of what Stockport get in relation to crowds and our sponsorship income is 11k compared to their 2.8m per annum. Its going to be such a damn slog to turn these lads into a real team

I also wonder if something is built into the game to recognise that Wakefield isn't a footballing city, which is keeping the crowds so poor.

Hey ho, its fun.

We're into season 8 now. It took three seasons to get promoted from the conference national finishing 2nd and winning the playoffs (so thats the end of season six) but somehow we tore it up in League Two immediately and got promoted from League Two finishing second again (80 odd points as opposed to 100 odd points the season before). Except for a mid season wobble in January we were the best team by miles.

So here we are in League One. This is going to be tough. We have sponsorship income of £50,000 per season. Burton have £5m. Our wage budget is less than 60k a week. We are still only getting 1200 or so per game.

There is no way we are going to be able to get past teams like Hull, Sheff Weds and QPR. On the other hand, I wasn't expecting instant promotion from League Two, so as long as we stay up, a few seasons of building isn't so bad.

[ToneLa]

Footie Manager 22 is free on Epic

[FiSh77]

Footie Manager 22 is free on Epic

It's just a free weekend

I saw it pop up on my desktop last night and clicked it thinking it was free but was on sale at £26-ish, just checked now and it says free to play until the 11th and on sale until the 12th

[ToneLa]

Epic could fuck up a cup of coffee 

[ToneLa]

https://www.pcgamer.com/why-i-love-the-surprisingly-tactical-thrill-of-cheating-in-football-manager/

Made me laugh cause I took away City's sugar daddy status, Chelsea's, and did so much to United they're in League One

[OsirisMVZ]

I've been doing a really fun game this year, taking me forever like. I started it just before the Jan transfer window patch.

I started up as Monaco to try and break the PSG monopoly on French football. It has worked out for me trophy wise but PSG still sign Haaland, Greenwood, Pedri etc for hundreds of millions. Haaland will score 70 goals a season for PSG in all competitions but they'll somehow drop lots of silly points each year and I'll win Ligue 1 by 7-10 points. They even nabbed Ben-Yedder from me on a free but I have a pretty excellent squad. Satriano from Inter being the crown jewel, cost me £11m and now has an in-game worth of £100m two seasons on. Touchameni as a Mezz with my best player, a Colombian regen CM called John Garcia dominate the midfield and the all-french CB pairing of Badiashile and Omar Solet is the Ligue 1 version of Virgil and Matip. I'm in summer 2026, we've since got a new stadium being built, 36k (where did they find the room in Monaco though?) so that's nice. The new stadium is named after Jean-Luc Ettori, who I hadn't heard of before but with 755 appearances for Monaco you can't go wrong there. I had a game on FM21 where I decided to build Wolfsburg up, and they built "The Edin Dzeko Arena" which was cringe as he was still playing and my squad had won more for the club than he had!

Since the success started rolling in, I decided to take up some "nation building" projects around the top leagues in Europe. I've been controlling a manager at Malaga, Viktoria Koln, Cambridge Utd, Beira-Mar and Pisa who are now all into the top divisions after a few seasons of trying. The plan was that seeing as there's no money in the Portugese league to have Beira-Mar be the new supplier of South American wonderkids to the rest of Europe. I started up at B-M in the 4th division, somehow getting Diogo Nascimento on a free who is now the club captain and has charged them up into the big time in Portugal.

I lost the Championship playoff final as Cambridge to Swansea I think but then absolutely destroyed the Championship in the next season to finish 1st with 100+ points. Suddenly you then have to discard the group of overachievers that got you there because the game's AI doesn't favour your underdogs. That's always a bit sad. I got a £25m budget as Cambridge entering the Premier League for the first time but Pisa were given fuck all for getting into Serie A, and my top striker retired (Iemello I think his name is) meaning I then had to sell a few other of their best players to raise some funds elsewhere.

I've found on FM that you can coast through the lower leagues with the same squad playing aggressive attacking football but the big time hurts. I finished top half as Viktoria Koln in the first season up in the Bundesliga but we had easily the worst goal difference in the whole division after getting smacked for 6-7 each game against Bayern, Dortmund, and Leverkusen. It was the dodgy 2-1s at home and 3-3s away here and there that kept them safe. We also have a tiny new stadium (Viktoria K start off with a 10k ground and the Bundesliga minimum size is 15k). The new one is actually being expanded to 23k which is amazing for where we started, however each time work is done the club rent out the 30k BayArena so we make more money being there anyway

Finally, Malaga, who are absolutely brilliant. I made a Congolese manager called Yorick N'Zinga, and come top 4 with them a lot now even though the squad is a bit low on quality (Atletico suck and I can't compete with Barca/Real), but I have the B and U19 team full of high potential Spanish and African kids and I think by the time we hit 2030 in the game they'll be the best team in Spain. Really can't wait to show off that.

Somehow I manage to do this, put 170 hours into Elden Ring and work the full-time job IRL too. Maybe I should buy my partner some flowers soon...

[klopptopia]

bought the mobile version as i have a few flights upcoming to pass time.
Won the league cup but messed up the CL group and fell out of the EL to napoli after winning the first leg 3-0. Lost the FA cup semi final to Arsenal as well. However my crowning glory was being unbeaten in the league after 33 games with an 11 point lead on Chelsea. Lost game 34 again to Arsenal and went on holiday in disgust forgetting i hadnt actually won the league. Whilst on holiday we took 1 point from the final 4 games and lost the league on goal difference.

whacked £170 on Haaland to soften the blow.

[JerseyKloppite]

bought the mobile version as i have a few flights upcoming to pass time.
Won the league cup but messed up the CL group and fell out of the EL to napoli after winning the first leg 3-0. Lost the FA cup semi final to Arsenal as well. However my crowning glory was being unbeaten in the league after 33 games with an 11 point lead on Chelsea. Lost game 34 again to Arsenal and went on holiday in disgust forgetting i hadnt actually won the league. Whilst on holiday we took 1 point from the final 4 games and lost the league on goal difference.

whacked £170 on Haaland to soften the blow.

That hurts.

[67CherryRed]

Finally started playing FM21 this weekend, I bought it in the early May bank holiday in 2021 but never got round to starting a game. Deleted all of the official kits and faces and i'm good to go, York have been selected and I plan on taking them to the Champions League within 10 years.

[proudred]

Difference between Fm21 & Fm22.

[Garrus]

Match engine is better in 22 for me but if you have 21 it's not all that big an upgrade. If you're still playing an older version, you should go for it.

[Solomon Grundy]

I think this game has lost its way. It's become far too in-depth which has taken away some of the fun. I mean who really enjoys having to deal with players moaning about playing time every two-three games? I don't. Who is really arsed about player analytics? I'm not. It needs to get back to basics. That is what was so good about CM 01/02. It had the balance just right. It was fun to play and It was brilliant. Now I know they won't do it, but they just need to strip it back a little and concentrate more on the match engine. I mean Top Elevens 3D match engine is better. And that really shouldn't be the case.

[Flaccido Dongingo]

I just play the Mobile version on my phone now, stripped back without all of the unnecessary guff on the PC version nowadays.

[JerseyKloppite]

I think this game has lost its way. It's become far too in-depth which has taken away some of the fun. I mean who really enjoys having to deal with players moaning about playing time every two-three games? I don't. Who is really arsed about player analytics? I'm not. It needs to get back to basics. That is what was so good about CM 01/02. It had the balance just right. It was fun to play and It was brilliant. Now I know they won't do it, but they just need to strip it back a little and concentrate more on the match engine. I mean Top Elevens 3D match engine is better. And that really shouldn't be the case.

There was a more basic version (Football Manager Touch) but they binned it off for some reason.

The XBOX edition, which you can play on PC, is less involved. I really enjoyed it when I had a brief free trial of gamepass.

[[new username under construction]]

I just play the Mobile version on my phone now, stripped back without all of the unnecessary guff on the PC version nowadays.

Really weird how the "desktop" version doesn't have a million options for removing stuff from the game, I'm totally fed up of press conferences and there should be an option to just remove them completely! Sending assistant is fine but it still hurts your rep! just let me turn them off

[stoa]

If anyone has Amazon Prime, they're giving away FM22 on Amazon Prime Gaming among other titles. You get a download key for the Epic Store.

[Garrus]

I think this game has lost its way. It's become far too in-depth which has taken away some of the fun. I mean who really enjoys having to deal with players moaning about playing time every two-three games? I don't. Who is really arsed about player analytics? I'm not. It needs to get back to basics. That is what was so good about CM 01/02. It had the balance just right. It was fun to play and It was brilliant. Now I know they won't do it, but they just need to strip it back a little and concentrate more on the match engine. I mean Top Elevens 3D match engine is better. And that really shouldn't be the case.

I agree. The Touch version on PC should have been a solution to this but they binned it off pretty much. I don't think I've completed a whole season in this year's game. I'm halfway through a season I started nearly a month ago. Just too much time even if you delegate stuff.

Release announcement for FM 23 dropped. No news on features yet but they're bringing the console version to PS5. Plus they managed to secure licencing for UEFA competitions. Good news for those who don't play on PC or who don't use licence fixes.

[stoa]

I agree. The Touch version on PC should have been a solution to this but they binned it off pretty much. I don't think I've completed a whole season in this year's game. I'm halfway through a season I started nearly a month ago. Just too much time even if you delegate stuff.

Release announcement for FM 23 dropped. No news on features yet but they're bringing the console version to PS5. Plus they managed to secure licencing for UEFA competitions. Good news for those who don't play on PC or who don't use licence fixes.

I played one of those versions (either Touch or Mobile) some years ago and it was perfect to get through a whole season per day. If that's what you want, it was the perfect game. It also felt very much like the early FM or even the CM games.

Having said that, I think they've gone in a better direction recently with the FM series. I've been very critical in the past of how in depth, but also how broken the whole game was in some areas. Like you had to basically do real scouting and adjust your tactics for every single match. I absolutely hated that. There were also serious issues in my view with player morale and having to interact with them on a regular basis. If you couldn't be arsed with that, sooner or later things would go tits up. Both those things have gotten better in recent versions. It's possible to create a tactic that works most of the team with limited tweaking (which you can take advice for from your assistant or some other coach). It's also much easier to deal with players even when they're unhappy about something. The game is still very much in-depth and it takes quite a long time to complete a season, but I think compared to some older versions from five years or so ago it's much more fun to play at the moment. Having said that, I think it wouldn't be a mistake for them to take a year off and do a complete overhaul in terms of what features they have, what engine they use, what the GUI looks like and in terms of usability. As it is, it's all kind of a clusterfuck, because essentially they're still using the same menus from the old games, but have over the years added five million additional features and it's a chore going through all the menus.

[Garrus]

I played one of those versions (either Touch or Mobile) some years ago and it was perfect to get through a whole season per day. If that's what you want, it was the perfect game. It also felt very much like the early FM or even the CM games.

Having said that, I think they've gone in a better direction recently with the FM series. I've been very critical in the past of how in depth, but also how broken the whole game was in some areas. Like you had to basically do real scouting and adjust your tactics for every single match. I absolutely hated that. There were also serious issues in my view with player morale and having to interact with them on a regular basis. If you couldn't be arsed with that, sooner or later things would go tits up. Both those things have gotten better in recent versions. It's possible to create a tactic that works most of the team with limited tweaking (which you can take advice for from your assistant or some other coach). It's also much easier to deal with players even when they're unhappy about something. The game is still very much in-depth and it takes quite a long time to complete a season, but I think compared to some older versions from five years or so ago it's much more fun to play at the moment. Having said that, I think it wouldn't be a mistake for them to take a year off and do a complete overhaul in terms of what features they have, what engine they use, what the GUI looks like and in terms of usability. As it is, it's all kind of a clusterfuck, because essentially they're still using the same menus from the old games, but have over the years added five million additional features and it's a chore going through all the menus.

I agree with your post.

Touch had its limitations but I really enjoyed the speed at which I could go through a save and the fact it shared the same match engine and AI as the main game(even without ever using instant result), I just wish they could have kept working on it but I suppose it didn't really make them much money.

I still enjoy the game for what it is but it's very frustrating if you don't have all that much time to spend on it. Completely agree with the GUI and user interface. I got into CM/FM quite early but if I were to get into it now, I'd probably be overwhelmed.

[tubby]

I think this game has lost its way. It's become far too in-depth which has taken away some of the fun. I mean who really enjoys having to deal with players moaning about playing time every two-three games? I don't. Who is really arsed about player analytics? I'm not. It needs to get back to basics. That is what was so good about CM 01/02. It had the balance just right. It was fun to play and It was brilliant. Now I know they won't do it, but they just need to strip it back a little and concentrate more on the match engine. I mean Top Elevens 3D match engine is better. And that really shouldn't be the case.

I gave up on FM a fair few years ago because it just felt like tactics were getting prioritised over players and the match engine was representing that in really stupid ways.  Like if you had a great team but tactics that weren't what the ME thinks are solid tactics, then you'd get really erratic behaviour from players, stuff like players just booting it off the pitch, missing easy passes or strikers with great stats whiffing chance after chance after clear cut chance.  Was really stupid.

[Lycan]

I really hope they've spent a bit more time with the match engine this time around.

Also, another issue I have with the game is once you've built an all-conquering side, the game becomes a bit too easy. Swatting teams 3, 4, 5-0 every week. Racking up ridiculous GD and finishing 15-20+ points ahead of everyone each season. I'd like the AI to give me a bit more of a challenge than that because it can become boring for me.

[ToneLa]

This is free to claim on Amazon gaming



https://gaming.amazon.com/loot/footballmanager2022?ingress=amzn&ref_=SM_FM2201F_P1_CRWN

[leinad]

Does Brexit mean that I can't sign foreign U18 players in England? and if so can you still turn it off in the editor?

[Solomon Grundy]

Beta version is now available.

[Hedley Lamarr]

This is going to be on Gamepass, both console and PC version, which is a pleasant surprise.

[stoa]

This is going to be on Gamepass, both console and PC version, which is a pleasant surprise.

Yeah, last year's version was on PC Gamepass on release day as well, which is great. Would be really interesting to know the maths for that in terms of how much money SI games makes compared to just releasing the game normally and people having to buy the game.

[gerrardisgod]

There was a snippet recently (I’m assuming from the Activision deal), where a deal for a game being on Game Pass was mentioned, sure it was around £6m.

I’ll have a dig around and see if I can find it. Might have been on a podcast actually. Or I dreamt it.

[ScottScott]

MS paid $2.5m to the Ark developers to get Ark on Game Pass. They've also signed a deal with them for Ark 2 whereby they pay $2.3m to get it on Game Pass for 3 years

I imagine SI are getting a good amount of money seeing as it always seems to be around the Steam charts for the entire year

[Lycan]

Has SI been basing their GK animations on Jordan Pickford? Because they keep diving after the ball has already gone past them on this Beta version.

Would be a nice little touch if the other players went over and celebrated with the goal-scorer too.

[Max_powers]

I always play FM 2012 even though I have 2016 and 2019.

But goddamn sometimes the older games can be frustrating. This just happened to me.

- Playing as Nocerina in Serie B
- Sign a Brazilian center back from Portuguese second division
- He is really good at Serie B level so make him my captain.
- Team gets promoted
- Couple of seasons later, the team making the CL spots and win the Italian cup.
- Captain is still a starter for my team, but wants to leave to join a bigger club.
- I am ok with him moving as I got bunch of elite wonderkid CBs coming up
- Transfer list him for a reasonable price of 4 million euros. No bites.
- Drop the price to 2 million still no one wants him
- Drop the price to 500k, still no one wants him

What the hell! the man is 26 years old and a starter for a CL level team on a very reasonable wage. 
 

[CheshireDave]

Can't you just transfer list him for his value? If he sells he's happy. If he doesn't you get to keep your man and he should understand no bids came in.

[Elzar]

I bought the new one recently, quite impressed with the updates and changes. It feels a lot better transfer market wise, and as always I leave all the finer details to other staff members - Nobody wants to run training.

I have just started a game with Athletic Bilbao, always a good challenge. Oihan Sancet is an absolutely incredible midfielder and the academy has so many 4 star+ players.

[Max_powers]

Can't you just transfer list him for his value? If he sells he's happy. If he doesn't you get to keep your man and he should understand no bids came in.

I did but in anticipation of him moving I had some CBs added to my team too, now if he stays I have one too many.

I had to loan him out.

[RMG]

Playing as Chelsea at the moment.

They have so many players it's hard to keep up, feels like every week someone is demanding game time, a new contract or a move away.

Got lads in the reserves worth 30-40m.

[LiverLuke]

Finding it quite easy as Liverpool, might have to change.

[Riquende]

https://www.pcgamer.com/why-i-love-the-surprisingly-tactical-thrill-of-cheating-in-football-manager/

Made me laugh cause I took away City's sugar daddy status, Chelsea's, and did so much to United they're in League One

Of my favourite files way back in the day was me playing as Luton, a mate as Watford (both in the 2nd tier at the time). We planted managers at Blackburn (recent champs), Man Utd & perhaps Arsenal, free-transferred the entire squad then joined with with everyone else scrabbling around for these suddenly available top class players. I remember ending up with James Beattie leading the line, maybe one or two others.

I haven't played the game in a decade probably, no doubt you can't get away with stuff like that now.

[Elzar]

I bought the new one recently, quite impressed with the updates and changes. It feels a lot better transfer market wise, and as always I leave all the finer details to other staff members - Nobody wants to run training.

I have just started a game with Athletic Bilbao, always a good challenge. Oihan Sancet is an absolutely incredible midfielder and the academy has so many 4 star+ players.

Bilbao can be turned into a champions league qualifier, especially with their current and youth talent. Pushing them on is going to be so hard though. I'm basically giving my youngsters every chance to play I can in the hope they all develop to their max potential.

I get results vs Real and Barca every now and then, but really struggling to do the business in the knockout rounds in Europe.

[naYoRHa2b]

Just having a bash on this at the moment, subbed to pc Gamepass for a month.

Started off at Southport, came second in my first season, wage budget wasnt great though and it's seriously difficult to get decent players in never mind scout them. Ended up at Accrington halfway into year 2 and saved them from relegation, 24th when I took over in late October and ended up finishing in the last playoff position. Got knocked out but good run, gegenpress seems to work well.

It's not as much fun getting players in at the lower league teams as it used to be, very limited by scouting knowledge and also more work permit issues.

Decent though

[Jake]

We're into season 8 now. It took three seasons to get promoted from the conference national finishing 2nd and winning the playoffs (so thats the end of season six) but somehow we tore it up in League Two immediately and got promoted from League Two finishing second again (80 odd points as opposed to 100 odd points the season before). Except for a mid season wobble in January we were the best team by miles.

So here we are in League One. This is going to be tough. We have sponsorship income of £50,000 per season. Burton have £5m. Our wage budget is less than 60k a week. We are still only getting 1200 or so per game.

There is no way we are going to be able to get past teams like Hull, Sheff Weds and QPR. On the other hand, I wasn't expecting instant promotion from League Two, so as long as we stay up, a few seasons of building isn't so bad.

Over a year later and the journey continues.

League One wasn't as hard as I thought - first season we finished 5th and the next season 4th, bagging promotion to the Championship via the playoffs.

The Championship was tough - 15th then 4th, lost the playoffs and went down to 8th the third season. Thankfully the 4th season we hit our groove and some of the young lads I'd signed had a great season and we won the Championship. So thats 2022 to 2034 it took to get from VNL to the Prem.

The Prem was a complete different kettle of fish. Finished 13th in both our first seasons but I didn't buy many players and with the extra prem money we built a nice bank balance - went on the hunt for wonderkids and we then finished 4th x 2, then 3rd x 2.

Then season 7 we won the league! And season 8! However Spurs seem to be billionnaires and signed a few hundred quids worth of players, we finished 3rd and then 2nd. Thankfully the last two seasons we've won the league and we are top again in November 2046.

Unfortunately the club built a new stadium, finishing it in 2036 with the prem money but it has a max capacity of 29k. We've been there for 10 years now and still get outspent left right and centre which stops us dominating. I'm hoping that the 20 year limit between building new grounds is real as we need a 60/70k stadium and I don't have the editor so can't speed the process up.

18 months, 24 seasons, 4 leagues, 4 Champs Leagues, 2 carling cups but not yet won the FA cup. Good value for money this game!