Football Manager 2013

[Dan]

Getting somewhere:

[Hobo]

Pretty sure Linker will get banned for that.

In other news, failed to get Bohs out of the group stages but we did beat CSKA Moscow and as such qualified for the Europa League! Although Feynoord did get revenge on us by destroying us at De Kuip. We suck away from home in Europe.

Celtic in the Europa League is our next competitive match, and Celtic are stuck behind a newly promoted Rangers team in the race for the title (this is updated FM12 data apparently! I forgot).

Jordan Rhodes is my new striker though. So there is that.

[brenchill]

It is 2027. Manchester City and Chelsea play their football at the Mancini Arena and the Terry Arena, respectively.

[TCO]

Probably unlikely but I'd love if they added a huge database of real life corporate sponsors of varying sizes so when teams build new stadiums, they'd get an appropriately assigned sponsor for the stadium. Add another level of realism and I wouldn't have to play in the Perryman Arena with Spurs anymore.

[Herr Matzat]

This game has the strangest cup draws ever. I honestly have at least one draw per season were i am faceing the same team in a league match within one week of the cup game against them. This season it´s especialy brilliant... getting Chelsea three times in a row. PRM, Capital One Semi, FA Cup and two PRM matches later again in the Capital One Semi second Leg.

PRM 1-1

Capital one 4-1

FA 3 - 1

Wow, thats working out a lot better than expected.

[King Ellis]

Probably unlikely but I'd love if they added a huge database of real life corporate sponsors of varying sizes so when teams build new stadiums, they'd get an appropriately assigned sponsor for the stadium. Add another level of realism and I wouldn't have to play in the Perryman Arena with Spurs anymore.

That reminds me of a letter to the old FM magazine where someone suggested they should add shirt sponsors and have a list of fake sponsors that would get assigned instead of just 'Shirt sponsorship for X years worth £Y per annum'. The reply was basically just 'We have enough to do without making up a bunch of fake sponsors. :/'

And speaking of facing teams in close succesion, somehow my fixture against Arsenal got re-arranged so I'm playing both the H and A matches in the Prem back to back. Don't recall ever having that happen before.

[Herr Matzat]

They have licenses. You don´t just put dildo advertising on Arsenals team dress.

[ROC]

They have licenses. You don´t just put dildo advertising on Arsenals team dress.

Wait, what?

[Berober]

Are you the only one who doesn't see dildos on Arsenal's dress?

[Hobo]

It's practically made of dildos.

[Lineker]

They are a bunch of cocks.

Also: Paul Connolly is the Wolves manager, Jay Bothroyd is the Wigan manager, and Martin O'Neill has just replaced Pep Guardiola as Sevilla manager.

[brenchill]

I've pretty much built the perfect team with Man Utd. I've been at the club for 10 years (I'm in 2027) and won 9/10 league titles. My entire squad, and every other team in the game actually, are regens. Perhaps I've been playing this one a bit too long...

[stokeriño]

I'm into my 3rd season of my "Blue Dynasty" Chelsea game (objective: stay for 10 seasons plus, which I've not done with any one club since my Rangers game in CM00/01...). Have been playing the transfers a bit fast and loose just to have some fun with it - for example, buying Falcao for £45m whereas I'd normally stick with Torres and Lukaku forever. With that said, he's having a bit of a shaky second season after topping our scoring charts with ~30 goals last year. Perhaps the Chelsea Expensive Striker Curse will take hold...?

But yes, I'm not generally one for selling players for much so the fact I managed to get £16m for Demba Ba and £20m for Marko Marin (?!) frankly stuns me. I also sold Kevin De Bruyne for £15m and was forced to let Ashley Cole's contract expire due to his wage demands.

Oh, and Torres is now on loan at Atletico Madrid. Nyuck nyuck.

Players in (since game start):

James Rodriguez - £16.5m

Keisuke Honda - free transfer

Falcao - £45m

David Alaba - £17.5m

Abel Hernandez - £16m (effectively a direct replacement for Ba)

Trying to nurture Chalobah into the first team as well, while Nathan Ake will hopefully get a look in once Lampard eventually retires.

[Jimmy]

I'd love to play a game where I basically nurture a team of home-grown talent, but my academies rarely produce enough potential players to even give it a shot. In my Derby game (which is going well, sitting mid table in february of my first season in the prem, third season in charge, four years in) and there's one 4 1/2 star potential player coming through, but otherwise I have to buy the rest of my young talent. I guess you'd have to pick a club with great facilities, but still, it'd be nice if you get a few more promising players.

Also, a complain of mine would be that loan spells don't develop players as well as they should. Maybe other people's experience is different, but it's not quite happened for me.

I also have 2 centre backs who have averaged about 7.5 - 7.8 average rating for the last two seasons, and they're still rated at two and a half stars. Surely this kind of consistent performance would have them rated as better, with other clubs sniffing around. I'm okay with the fact they are still 2 1/2 as long as they play well, I just find it odd.

[brenchill]

I'd love to play a game where I basically nurture a team of home-grown talent, but my academies rarely produce enough potential players to even give it a shot.

I think this is something that needs to be addressed for future games. It's very rare a star comes through from the youth team.

In my Man Utd game, which is now in 2027, I have the best academy around and the club is #1 in the World in terms of money and image... yet I've only produced 2 first team players in 10 years that have come from my youth team. And one of those I sold to Fulham as a 20 year-old and later bought him back for £20m.

[stokeriño]

The main problem is that, for me, the training system is still completely opaque (short of maxing out your coaches' star ratings). I have no idea how to utilise it (nor really any desire to do so, simply because I know I'll break my players somehow). I have no idea when I should be training a young player versus sending them out on loan. Hence they just lurk around for a few years and suddenly the 4.5 star potential rating they had aged 16 is no longer valid and they're doomed to be average their whole career.

AI clubs manage to spawn wunderkinds fine, but not me.

[brenchill]

As you get later into the game, the Brazilian clubs produce all of the top players in the world.

[ROC]

So I've been trying to get into this series, but I just can't. My comp's not great for loading things anyway, but everything else just seems too dense even from the limited knowledge I've learned from the FIFA games. Is there either an earlier installment that feels less dense or is FIFA Manager just going to me more my thing?

[brenchill]

If you're knowledge of the game is only based on what you have picked up from FIFA then you probably aren't going to enjoy this game all that much. In fact, it will be quite a chore to play.

[stokeriño]

Maybe CM01/02 (if that's the freeware one) would be simple enough? It pretty much boils down to a) buy and sell players, b) pick formation and basic tactical instructions, c) play.