Your game discussion thread in retro FMs?

[jawzy]

With Marsh and I seemingly going back in time, guess we can post here rather than creating a seperate thread

[Marshdweller]

I've been umming and ahhing about starting a new thread with FMT17 but not got around to even making a decision! This will make it easier.

[mrcool]

I sometimes play Championship Manager 01/02

[Marshdweller]

Half the problem now is choosing which version to play! On the one hand I'm enjoying Touch much more, but then I read an FM blog and I get the urge to play full FM so that I can build a proper coaching team or have more control over the scouting.

I also get over-confident regarding how easy things will be tactically and then get cranky when the relegation candidates I've chosen don't immediately go on a 15 match unbeaten run. I have to keep telling myself that just because the newer versions are harder doesn't mean the older versions are automatically easy.

[jawzy]

I recently loaded fm12 and fm13, but didnt choose a side, is choosing the game/version/full/tiuc the new choose club stage

[Marshdweller]

Yeah, we're gradually edging ourselves away from FM through sheer indecision.

[Marshdweller]

With all the flipping back and forth between versions and formats, I've realised just what a different kettle of fish Classic/Touch is. Certainly as far as things like scouting is concerned. With Classic/Touch, you can be much more reactive and careless (or at least, less careful) with your recruitment and get away with it. I typically find myself stockpiling players and then trimming the squad, but if I were to do that in full FM, I'd have half the existing squad moaning about too much competition etc. and the Dynamics would rapidly be the end of me.

At the moment I am thinking of going for Forest in FM15. Full version, in the hope that I can use this to teach myself about scouting and squad management. I might spend a little time with the editor updating the attributes of some of those who have gone on to establish themselves (e.g. Matty Cash, Ryan Yates, Joe Worrall) but I'm wary of handing myself a very strong youth team and skewing the game that way.

[Marshdweller]

The full version Forest save lasted as long as it took for me to get bored of team-talks, which was about five matches into the competitive season.

After much faffing about, I have settled on FMT17. Now to choose a club.... (though my thought processes are tediously unoriginal!)

I'm tempted by Volendam, but I still have my massively succesful FMC15 save which churns out wonderkids faster than I can develop and sell them.
Sticking with the Netherlands, I like the idea of FC Utrecht as I really liked the city when I visited three years ago.
I'm tempted by another Sicilian club and this is probably the version with the most. I already have a good save with Trapani on this version, so my choices are really Palermo from Serie A (not my style to take over a top-division club - a potential issue with the Utrecht save too), or Catania, Siracusa, Akragas or Messina in Serie C/C. Or I replace one of them with a made-up Sicilian club
I'm thinking about Sweden, but the first good save I have with this version was with GAIS and I'm in a lose-lose situation: either I try with them again and it probably won't be as succesful, or I pick a different side and feel like I'm betraying GAIS...

I'm tempted by Forest, but they start off with a handful of key players out with injuries that will see them miss at least 4 months. I'd also forgotten what a shower of shite Forest had in the latter days of Fawaz Al-Hasawi's ownership. Ageing journeymen, random loanees, people who were once vaguely highly rated at Arsenal but are now 27 and are just shit. And no money to spend. Actually, the more I think about this, the more appealing it is!

Going against all of that though is a general sense of footballing burnout after the last 18 months or so. I've got a bunch of other things I want to do with my time and so I'm thinking of maybe getting a save established over the next couple of weeks and then having an off-season of my own.

[jawzy]

FM Burnout. lost motivation, even my old version dabbles like yourself have come back fruitless

[Marshdweller]

May 22, 2021 21:32:23 GMT jawzy said:

FM Burnout. lost motivation, even my old version dabbles like yourself have come back fruitless

I've failed to get into a new save but I have picked up my FMT17 Trapani save again and have played half a season there. In some ways it's easy because I have a very strong squad and can win 80% of matches without really trying, I have a sugar daddy for a chairman and most of the facilities are top notch. To give myself something to think about, I'm tinkering with the tactics (who knew dropping the tempo would make them so much more effective?) and trying to upgrade and deepen the squad while also slightly trimming the wage expenditure. In the long-term I would like to work out why a top division club with the facilities we have has only produced one first-team player in ten seasons (I think it's because the chairman is happy to spend money so doesn't want to invest in youth recruitment and junior coaching when we can just buy the finished article).

I'll finish this season and then give myself a few weeks off in the hope of rediscovering my FM mojo. I hope you find yours too!

[jawzy]

I ended up reinstalling FM Mobile 19 on a phone.
as I had a long train journey but I didnt touch it at all. ah well its there should I get bored on any long train journey

[Marshdweller]

I've picked up my FMT17 Trapani save again and had a quirky happening:



Two newgens at the same club in the same save about ten seasons apart.

[Mikey]

Football Manager 2011

Brief History:

The San Marino national football team has the smallest population of any European side. The country of San Marino has a population of just 30,000 people, so it's no wonder they haven't set the world alight in football terms, or any sport for that matter. The country has just one win to their name; a 1-0 friendly match against Liechtenstein in 2004. The only winning goal the country has produced was by their talisman forward Andy Selva, who scored a beautiful free kick in just the 5th minute.

Unfortunately for San Marino that's the only time the country has won and they have only ever not lost in three other matches. The first time they didn't lose a game was against Turkey in 1993 drawing 0-0, they have also drawn with Latvia 1-1, which actually resulted in their manager Gary Johnson resigning! In 2003, a year before they beat Liechtenstein they drew with them 2-2. So, no draw or win since 2004, not great is it?

Key Players:

Andy Selva is a San Marino legend, as mentioned earlier - he's the only San Marino player to score a winning goal for his country. In fact, he's actually the only player to score more than one goal for San Marino! As you can see his finishing and free kick taking is brilliant, I just hope he doesn't retire too soon!



Aldo Junior Simoncini is the countries best Goalkeeper by a mile, the only down side for me though is he's in Cesena's reserves. A 40 year old and a player on loan are ahead of him, making Simoncini their third choice keeper. I'm hoping he leaves and even if he joins a team from San Marino at least he will be playing first choice football. He's only 23 so could be our first choice Goalkeeper for years and years.



One of only two professional footballers Mirko Palazzi will be playing an important part in my bid to not get beat by more than 5 goals every game! Recently coming out of international retirement he will be in the starting 11 for every game.

[Mikey]

PS: I'm aware I did post this earlier but didn't realise there was a thread for retro FM. I was actually looking for one before I posted in the FM22 thread. Will continue to update in here!

[80slovechild]

Mikey Good opening post bro 

[Mikey]

Football Manager 2011

Season 1 (2010) Review

For the first few seasons my aim is to keep the scoreline as low as possible and maybe snatch a goal. My first save I unfortunately had crash dumps after a respectable 3-0 defeat to Holland so I had to replay that game. This time we conceded double the amount of goals, but still, 6-0 isn't too bad against Holland, we then lost 7-0 to Sweden with Zlatan Ibrahimović scoring 5 goals. Aldo Junior Simoncini played remarkable in goal to keep the scoreline from reaching double digits. We even had a few chances against both sides with us hitting the side netting against Holland! The next two qualifiers were against Hungary who were clearly hungary for goals, yes a terrible pun, sorry! They smashed 7 past us before playing Moldova. Moldova aren't a good side at all, but they are much better than us and we actually played pretty well and scored a goal! Yes, managing San Marino is so bad that if I can somehow score a goal I will sit in front of my laptop celebrating as if I've won the World Cup! Moldova scored right on the stroke of half time to put us 1-0 down, I said F**K it and went for a attacking mentality and it worked, we actually scored. It started from a corner and my young centre back who's name I can't remember flicked it on and at the far post Michele Marani headed against the crossbar but the ball fell nicely for Matteo Vitaioli to head home into an empty net to score his first goal for San Marino and the first goal since I took over as manager. We ended the year with a 4-0 defeat to Finland.

As expected; defeat after defeat after defeat. But I was actually really impressed with some of our play, having a few chances against each side and scoring a goal which is nice. 2011 starts with a couple friendlies that I'm hoping I can win or at least draw to push us up the world rankings. Sadly SI haven't added San Marino's 1-0 win over Liechtenstein as their record win so currently we have never won a game according to FM11 so it be nice to beat Liechtenstein or Aruba to fill in that blank. The Liechtenstein friendly is already setup and I didn't see the point in cancelling it as we have a chance of winning that, I decided to arrange a few friendlies against countries from North America - Aruba, Belize and Bermuda. I see the Aruba and Belize matches as winnable but the match against Bermuda we may struggle, I mainly arranged it as I remember managing them on an older FM, Khano Smith what a legend. Hopefully a win or draw pushes us up the world ranking as we currently sit dead last out of all the FIFA recognised countries in 208th.

As my match against Liechtenstein isn't for over 80 days I'll be keeping a close eye on the San Marino domestic league and the San Marino club in Italy. I may even post a update showing how that is going.

[Mikey]

I've been really busy with work and family recently so was looking forward to sitting down and playing some more of my San Marino career, but I keep getting crash dumps at the same date, every time...

Tried retiring the manager and going past the date and everything I can think of and nothing works. Gutted tbh, was hoping to have a long term save. I had lost 2-0 to Liechtenstein but beat Aruba 4-0 to set a record of biggest win.

Not sure if I can motivate myself to start as San Marino again. I might start a save in Oceania maybe with the Cook Islands. Will see...

[Mikey]

As I can no longer play my San Marino save due to crash dumps I was going to manage a country in Oceania but it's so bugged in Oceania. Random teams qualify for the Oceania Champions League, you could finish last in New Zealand and get relegated and still be randomly picked for the Champions League. I spent hours in the editor trying to fix it but couldn't.

I've now decided as I don't fancy managing a European country I'm going to manage a club in Wales, but with a twist. I'm going to add all the English based Welsh clubs back into the Premier League. Swansea, Cardiff, Wrexham, Newport County, and the team I'm going to manage Merthyr Town. I'm thinking this will be a fun and difficult challenge with Swansea and Cardiff clearly being superior and The New Saints being a force as well. The only question I have will get answered when I start a save and that is - Will the Premier League/Championship quality players be unhappy playing in the Welsh League?

[jawzy]

Dont forget about colwyn bay too.

I did this once on an older fm.

Top 3 sides never changed order.

Top 2 became very rich. While wrexham in 3rd would tread water financially. And be slightly better than tns

[80slovechild]

May 1, 2022 9:53:28 GMT Mikey said:

I've been really busy with work and family recently so was looking forward to sitting down and playing some more of my San Marino career, but I keep getting crash dumps at the same date, every time...

Tried retiring the manager and going past the date and everything I can think of and nothing works. Gutted tbh, was hoping to have a long term save. I had lost 2-0 to Liechtenstein but beat Aruba 4-0 to set a record of biggest win.

Not sure if I can motivate myself to start as San Marino again. I might start a save in Oceania maybe with the Cook Islands. Will see...

Oh man that sucks. Have you got 17? The San Marino league file was always stable for me on that. I did the SM challenge and got at least 60 years into it.

[80slovechild]

May 2, 2022 6:20:12 GMT Mikey said:

As I can no longer play my San Marino save due to crash dumps I was going to manage a country in Oceania but it's so bugged in Oceania. Random teams qualify for the Oceania Champions League, you could finish last in New Zealand and get relegated and still be randomly picked for the Champions League. I spent hours in the editor trying to fix it but couldn't.

I've now decided as I don't fancy managing a European country I'm going to manage a club in Wales, but with a twist. I'm going to add all the English based Welsh clubs back into the Premier League. Swansea, Cardiff, Wrexham, Newport County, and the team I'm going to manage Merthyr Town. I'm thinking this will be a fun and difficult challenge with Swansea and Cardiff clearly being superior and The New Saints being a force as well. The only question I have will get answered when I start a save and that is - Will the Premier League/Championship quality players be unhappy playing in the Welsh League?

Didn't see this reply before I replied to your other comment mate.

Good idea that. I can't see TNS becoming anything more than fodder to the higher placed teams to be fair. Colwyn Bay will need adding to it as well. 

[Mikey]

I have a habit at the moment where I get into a save, and then get really busy with real life stuff. I finally get round to playing again I have no motivation for that save. Played FM11 today for the first time in weeks and just couldn't find the motivation to continue my Welsh League save.

I started a save earlier with a non league side but was sacked. I've come to the conclusion now that I actually (unfortunately) suck at FM. When I was younger I would only manage teams predicted to get relegated and done pretty well, now I either get sacked or struggle really bad.

I still like a challenge when playing FM though so I've decided to manage Athletic Club. They're a top 10 side on FM11 (possibly top 6) but still going to be challenging with Barcelona and Real Madrid dominating and the main appeal to me only signing Basque players.

Hopefully I can get this one to last!

[Mikey]

I had been struggling to get into a save on FM11 since my San Marino game ended due to crash dumps. I tended to start a save, sign some staff, sort a tactic out and then after hours of doing that loose interest and quit. While using the Editor to change the competition names to what they are in 2022 - so for instance; the Blue Square Premier and North/South are now called National League and National League North/South I decided to swap the team with the lowest reputation in the National League South (Boreham Wood) with a team I really wanted to manage in Cray Wanderers.

Cray were a local side to me growing up, my dad played for them when I was younger and I watched them play a few times. One memory that sticks with me is when I went with my dad to watch Cray play Metropolitan Police. It was a really cold day and not much was happening bar a early goal for Cray, my dad decided we were going to leave at Half Time due to the poor weather and game, as we started leaving just before half time a Metropolitan Police striker shot and it went over the stadium and into the car park, my dad told me to be quick and I took the match ball home with me! I actually still have it.

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster save so far. We started the season quite well picking up a couple of wins and sitting in 8th place and then disaster...

As you can see by the screenshot we lost 12 matches in a row! Towards the end of that poor form I changed tactics from a basic 4-4-2 to a defensive 5-4-1 hoping we could snatch a point and it almost worked, however we conceded late winners in the 80th + minute in 5 of our last 6 defeats. Thankfully for us, Dartford and Dorchester had also had terrible starts to the season, even worse than ours! Neither had won a game at this point and were both tired on 1 point with my side sitting one place above the relegation zone thanks to St Albans starting the game on -10 points. With a game against Dorchester next I went back to the 4-4-2 tactic as I didn't feel like we needed to go defensive against them and it worked... we finally won a game and done it in style. 5-0. Our first clean sheet of the season and back to winning ways. We are now on a nice unbeaten run of 6 games, so much better then the run of defeats.

My aim for the first season is to survive relegation. I don't sign any players for the first season on FM, it's a rule I set myself. As I don't have any playable leagues below if I did get relegated I would be sacked which will suck. Let's hope I can keep this run of form going and survive.