Naitch

GK: Tony Meola (ex-NY Red Bulls/Kansas City Wizards, retired) RB: Pascal Chimbonda (ex-Spurs) LB: David Addy (Unattached, ex-Vitoria de Guimaraes) CB: Phil Jones (Man Utd, also lol) CB: Federico Fernandez (Newcastle) CDM: Ivan Campo (ex-Real Madrid/Bolton, retired) CM: Davy Klaasen (Werder Bremen, ex-Ajax/Everton) CM: Jem Karacan (Unattached, ex-Reading) RAM: David Odonkor (ex-Dortmund, retired) LAM: Riyad Mahrez (Man City) ST: Giorgos Samaras (ex-Man City/Celtic, retired) Co-Managers: Kumail Nanjiani (Doolittle, Silicon Valley) and Michael McIntyre (Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow) EDIT - This is February 21st birthdays.

Got through my first season with Chelsea last night. It was the winter update, so I only had the transfer ban until December and effectively removed it as an issue by setting the game to no transfers in the first window. The season started off with ups and downs, although I picked up a few injuries to add to the existing long-term ones CHO, RLC, and MVG all had. Ended up having to start Batshuayi for the first few games of the season because Tammy Abraham was one of the casualties. He did a decent job but it was Pedro who really carried the team until Abraham was fit again by October. His performances really started dropping off as the season progressed, however, basically starting when CHO was match fit and only declining further from there. Abraham was still top goalscorer of the season, with 16 goals, despite only being first-choice forward from October till February, enough to make him want his wages doubled for just an extra year added onto his already long contract. I managed to talk him down but my new Director of Football later gave one to him anyway. I did manage to talk Jorginho and Zouma down from contract discussions just by telling them how important I thought they were, however. Rudiger has also piped up about his contract recently and doesn't seem as inclined to drop the subject, so he may be on his way out during the summer. Lost the Super Cup against Liverpool and scraped through the League Cup third round against Middlesbrough but the league was going well until December. I went from competing with Everton for 2nd place to both Manchester teams leapfrogging us and a three team scramble for 4th place with Wolves joining in. Leicester, Arsenal, and Spurs played really poorly and were roughly in that order. My end of season highlight was actually a 5-0 win against Tottenham, who sacked Mourinho and replaced him with Rafael Benitez before Xmas. Watford, Newcastle, and Aston Villa were the relegated but that didn't stop Newcastle from beating us 2-0 on the final day of the season. We could've grabbed 2nd if we'd won and Man City had lost to West Ham, but I wasn't expecting that to happened and they ended up winning anyway. In January I brought in Alphonso Davies and Vinicius Junior for £17m each, plus Erling Haaland from Dortmund for £65m. Giroud, Willian, and Zappacosta left for Dynamo Kiev, Man Utd, and Guangzhou, respectively, whilst Emerson went on loan to Spurs and ended up playing really well for them. Man City knocked us out in the League Cup semis and we got trounced 4-0 on aggregate by Barcelona in the Champions League round of 16, but made up for it by finishing 3rd in the league, behind Liverpool and Man City, as well as a comfortable 2-0 win over Liverpool to win the FA Cup. We ended up with the least goals conceded in the league (20) and the 2nd best goal difference behind Liverpool. I also got hefty bonuses from both Madrid teams because Real won La Liga and Atletico won the Champions League, thanks to the Eden Hazard and Diego Costa deals. Currently trying to decide whether I want to run with Jamal Blackman as my backup keeper for the 20/21 season, since Caballero's gone, bring in a different veteran as backup, or even try for Donnarumma since he wants to leave AC Milan. Pedro and MVG are gone too but I'm comfortable with the amount of depth I have in their positions. As I mentioned in the first paragraph, Rudiger is unlikely to stick around if he continues kicking off about his contract. He was probably 4th choice centre back in the season just gone so I won't miss him if he does leave. Alonso is also likely to get the boot as Davies and Emerson can rotate as starters once the latter returns from Spurs, with Azpi providing cover. PSG are after Jorginho, Arsenal want Zouma, and Man Utd seem interested in Barkley, which I'll only be keen on if they make good offers, like £80m+, ~£50m, and £~35m, respectively, and I can get a good future prospects to replace them in the squad. My DoF failed to negotiate transfers/contracts for Sandro Tonali and Federico Chiesa so I might have to stop him from ruining transfer prospects moving forwards. It's really weird understanding the inflated economy compared to FM12; I'm used to £30m transfer fees and £120k weekly wages being the absolute high end of the market. On this game it feels like that's the cost of a decent rotation/backup player.

Not really sure how server play works but I'm happy to give it a go.

I have to agree with you there. It might be something which improves with familiarity but it almost feels like there's too much going on at times. I've been struggling to identify player condition and fitness before game because it just doesn't seem to stand out as easily. It probably doesn't help that the pitch interface and player list have swapped sides haha. Quick subs during games seem to make up for it quite a bit, at least. Started a season with Chelsea, to get an understanding of the general gameplay before I even consider touching the transfers. Pre-season went ok except for a few injuries picked up. Just beat West Ham 3-0 in the season opener

I'm in the same boat. I won't get much time to play FM20 while it's free because I'm already behind with work whilst working from home. What I've checked out so far seems to cover the flaws I've found with FM12, which I've put 3,222 hours into according to Steam and have at least 6 active saves I've played in 2020 alone, but definitely goes a bit overboard on the depth in places. At least it seems like you can change staff responsibilities to basically make the game as complex as you want it to be.

I didn't know CM 01/02 had the capacity for online play. I'm up for either as I've just downloaded FM20, not sure which one I'd be better at though

I reckon the EFL Cup and Trophy should be knocked on the head for next season. Play the FA Cup but with no replays in any round. I'd suggest shortening the Champions League and Europa League too, but I can't imagine the teams involved would want to sacrifice the paydays. The Nations League and Europa Conference can wait until things are back to normal.

I'm not sure there's a single viable option that everyone would be happy with. Voiding the league and starting again from next season is mostly just a petty anti-Liverpool jab, which even I can't get behind. Resuming when it's safe to do so is the only plan I'd support; depending on how long delays are you could cut one or both cups next season. I've noticed that multiple teams have announced massive price reductions on their merchandise. It'll be interesting to see how paying massively inflated players' wages will work while they're self-isolating and there's no matchday revenue keeping cash flow moving through clubs.

Their defence is usually what gets them through though.

I'd love it if Liverpool tried to win the league by drawing all their remaining games without parking the bus.

I think I'd be fine with it existing as a standalone tournament but it shouldn't provide qualification routes to any other tournaments. How those Euro 2020 playoffs, which still haven't happened yet, work is shockingly silly. I also wouldn't have been able to tell you who'd actually won the overall thing without looking it up just now. In fact, beyond knowing that England won their group and then lost in the semis, I didn't know anything else about the entire tournament.

CM 01/02 should run fine. I've been using DAEMON Tools Lite as my .iso player for a few years which runs the free legal download of 01/02 perfectly. I can PM you about the FM05 crack if you'd like. In theory the same practice works for all of them and if you already have the discs then technically you're just re-claiming access to it

Which one/s are you after? I managed to get FM05 running with a cracked copy after the physical version I bought wouldn't run.

Is that a rib?

Seeing you mention on the previous page that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order plays a bit like Uncharted makes me even more interested in eventually playing it. I also got the Uncharted Collection from PS+ (as well as Uncharted 4 for Xmas) and I'm loving it. I'd previously bought the PS3 versions from a second hand shop but never got round to playing them, partly because my backlog is also pretty big but also because there's only one HDMI port in my monitor and it's usually either in the PS4 or the gf's Switch. Having the games installed on the PS4 makes them way more accessible and I've found myself using the console more in the last month than I had in the previous six. I'm also playing Heavy Rain and finding it... odd. The gameplay isn't great, I've found myself struggling with doorframes quite a lot, but I'm really digging the story so far and the visuals are stunning. It's actually making me want to grab LA Noire again because I don't think I ever completed it. The biggest surprise I've had so far was

I enjoy some of the ones which are actually being played by the YouTuber, sort of like the RPG approach that Niner mentioned. It's the ones that rack up hundreds of thousands of views for "I simmed FM 20 years into the future" videos which are literally just them commenting on what the game did on its own that I find strange.

It's not been long enough since that happened for us to get away with it again

This is where Ollie goes and sets up his own promotion irl, just to make sure he beats you for the World title when you no show the event.

I mean, he's basically also being brought in as a direct replacement for the guy, so those comparison were always going to be there.

Pretty sure most footballers nowadays grow up with a narrow mindset focused mostly on sporting accomplishments over regular education, and the ones at the top are often paid silly money even as teenagers. It's probably not the best environment to learn social values or how to act like a responsible adult.

The Italian Job on PS1, Harry Potter 1 and Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 4 on GBC, and The Simpsons Hit and Run on PS2 have all popped into my mind since my initial post.

Talk of Worms has reminded me that I also had Worms World Party on the PS1. I've also seen a few mentions which reminded me about the Acorn computer I used to have in the early 2000s. No internet, very few functions in fact, but it did play quite a few floppy disk games. Sensible Soccer, James Pond: Robocod, Zool, Chuck Rock, The Crystal Rainforest, and disc 1 of Simon the Sorcerer (because disc 2 was corrupted and rendered discs 3-9 useless) are the ones a quick scan of an Acorn games list that stand out.