Championship Manager

[pineapple stu]

All stories here! Screenshots encouraged

Never really graduated from CM01/02 myself. UCD were a good team in that because there was a lot of good young players and you could actually keep them at the club.

Did have Alan Mahon score a cracker of a free kick in the Bernabeu to put us 1-0 up in the Champions League one year.

Think I had Anelka at Belfield Park too. Stayed one year, but was unhappy by the end of it and couldn't get him to sign on for a second year

[peadar1987]

https://foot.ie/attachment.php?attachmentid=2753&stc=1
Well there's this...

Some interesting things are apparently going to happen to Irish football over the next few years!

[nigel-harps1954]

Christ...do I really have to wait that long?

CM4 was more my thing. It was my first real introduction to the game having only played Fifa Soccer Manager previous to that, which was a bloody fantastic game too.

I've had a few Football Manager titles since, but CM4 was the pinnacle of the game for me.

[NeverFeltBetter]

I remember as a kid when 00/01 and 01/02 first came out, Ireland actually had a hell of team with the right scouting and tactics. The two Keane's, Duff, Given of course, but also Stephen McPhail, Derek Toibin, Martin Rowlands, Alan Quinn, were all way better than they were/would turn out to be in real life. I got to a world cup semi with them once (and a World Cup final with some save scumming...).

I used to play 01/02 with the Champman updates all the time. It was fun, but very open to manipulation, you could sign Messi for 25 million if he was in a slightly sour mood with Barca. I recall that the LOI First Divison had to have 12 teams because of the coding or whatever, so you had Tralee Dynamos and Dublin City in there. Oh, and with Limerick playing at Thomond, you basically had to get into Europe or else go bankrupt after one season.

The game generally used to always drive me bonkers with the long shot goals and the way you could get completely ****ed over by the in-match performance system effect on goalies. The kind of thing I would pick up again for nostalgia's sake, play religiously for a month, get very frustrated with, abandon for years, repeat.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Also, one my favourite CM related things ever, looking up the current crop of EPL managers in CM 97/98: https://thesetpieces.com/the-fm-projects/current-premier-league-bosses-cm9798/

[peadar1987]

I remember as a kid when 00/01 and 01/02 first came out, Ireland actually had a hell of team with the right scouting and tactics. The two Keane's, Duff, Given of course, but also Stephen McPhail, Derek Toibin, Martin Rowlands, Alan Quinn, were all way better than they were/would turn out to be in real life. I got to a world cup semi with them once (and a World Cup final with some save scumming...).

I used to play 01/02 with the Champman updates all the time. It was fun, but very open to manipulation, you could sign Messi for 25 million if he was in a slightly sour mood with Barca. I recall that the LOI First Divison had to have 12 teams because of the coding or whatever, so you had Tralee Dynamos and Dublin City in there. Oh, and with Limerick playing at Thomond, you basically had to get into Europe or else go bankrupt after one season.

The game generally used to always drive me bonkers with the long shot goals and the way you could get completely ****ed over by the in-match performance system effect on goalies. The kind of thing I would pick up again for nostalgia's sake, play religiously for a month, get very frustrated with, abandon for years, repeat.

I had one game where my strike force of Robbie Keane and Lee Trundle, of all people, set the world cup alight. Richie Partridge was also brilliant in it, I seem to remember.

They also had that thing where guys could be "promising young players", meaning the dev team had pretty much no idea what they were going to be like, so they had a random value for their potential ability. Ended up with Wayne Rooney being a lower-league journeyman, and Richard Keogh being a marauding right wind back á la Cafu or Dani Alves.

[osarusan]

I only played one of those types of games ever, can't remember what it was called.

What I do remember is that I was winning everything for years on end, but was always on a tightrope in terms of going broke and getting sacked.

One time I saved the game, and next time I loaded it I got a message from the chairman saying I had 2 games to sort out the financial problem or I'd be sacked.

I loaded it dozens of times, getting the message from the chairman each time. I tried everything to get money in quickly. Sell players, reduce ticket prices, renegotiate wages, everything. But the main problem was that the next 2 games happened to be away, and I could never sort it out, and was sacked after the 2 games every time, until I gave up.

[NeverFeltBetter]

I don't recall CM ever being too buggy: the biggest thing that comes to mind is an LOI season I played once where it became normal for league matches to be scheduled every Thursday and Saturday, and injuries sky-rocketed.

[pineapple stu]

There was a couple of little bugs alright. Getting a LoI team to a European final was a nightmare; the final was two or three weeks after the end of the season and your players would lose all match fitness in the meantime.

I had a forward pairing on 8+ average rating, but they scored less than 10 goals between them all season (same issue for the rest of the team actually). So we'd regularly lose 1-0 with great ratings and you wouldn't know how to fix it.

[peadar1987]

There was a couple of little bugs alright. Getting a LoI team to a European final was a nightmare; the final was two or three weeks after the end of the season and your players would lose all match fitness in the meantime.

I had a forward pairing on 8+ average rating, but they scored less than 10 goals between them all season (same issue for the rest of the team actually). So we'd regularly lose 1-0 with great ratings and you wouldn't know how to fix it.

Yeah there was a bug with the game where all the regenerated players had really high positioning, meaning after a few years every single team had a world-class defence, and results came down to whoever was lucky enough to get the 1 goal of the game. There's a community patch that fixes that.

[Mr A]

There was a couple of little bugs alright. Getting a LoI team to a European final was a nightmare; the final was two or three weeks after the end of the season and your players would lose all match fitness in the meantime.

I had a forward pairing on 8+ average rating, but they scored less than 10 goals between them all season (same issue for the rest of the team actually). So we'd regularly lose 1-0 with great ratings and you wouldn't know how to fix it.

Yeah I had the Euro Final issue. Playing fecking Juve with a squad of players at 67% condition.

[NeverFeltBetter]

I recall the finishing stat was very overpowered back then, compared to everything else. Man Utd had a youth player, Daniel Nardiello, who started with finishing 20 at age 18 (and was a "promising young player" as I recall?), so if you signed him quick you had a 20 goal a year striker at once, and a potential Messi on your hands for the right training, for relative peanuts. The real guy is still playing, with Bangor in the Welsh second tier.

Does anyone remember Saviola too? I think 99/00 edition was the one where he was the new Pele/Maradona/Cryuff. Had to wait on that work permit though.

[SkStu]

I haven't played the game since I left Ireland in 2006 but this thread is giving me some laugh - lots of familiar names.

The only all nighters I pulled in university were playing this game!! :)

[nigel-harps1954]

Freddy Adu is my favourite memory

[Mr A]

Cherno Samba!

[NeverFeltBetter]

Lets not forget Kennedy Bakircioglu (still playing at age 38 in the Swedish top tier) who used to sign himself when playing the game: http://www.punditarena.com/football/jmurphy/kennedy-bakircioglu-signed-myself-championship-manager-live-out-my-dream/

[Eminence Grise]

Had a Cameroonian lower league player with, maybe Cambridge (I used to pick clubs on a whim) who scored 65 goals for me one season in L2 - Guy Ipoua.

Danny Nardiello used to be a cracking signing. Davide Xausa was good for goals from an attacking midfield role up to Championship/SPL level, but never lasted more than an hour. Pat Fenlon was pure dynamite in the LoI.

Don't recall any specific bugs, but with one version you had to delete all the save files every three or four games or the game would slow to an absolute crawl.

[tetsujin1979]

Cherno Samba!
Released his autobiography recently, believe it or not: https://www.amazon.com/Cherno-Samba-Still-Game-ebook/dp/B07K7KJ3X2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544567383&sr=8-1&keywords=cherno+samba

My favourite story is Tonton Zola Moukoko going through passport control in Malaysia, and the officer asked him if he was the guy who used to play for Derby!

There was a rumour that Seamus Coleman was scouted by Everton after he was recommended to them by the game's database

There was a bug for me where a cup replay was never scheduled, so the round of fixtures never completed, and there was no cup games for the rest of that game.

[Fizzer]

Maxim Tsigalko was unreal!

[SkStu]

There was a Victor Leonenko in one of the versions. Quality player.

[NeverFeltBetter]

I remember as a kid when 00/01 and 01/02 first came out, Ireland actually had a hell of team with the right scouting and tactics. The two Keane's, Duff, Given of course, but also Stephen McPhail, Derek Toibin, Martin Rowlands, Alan Quinn, were all way better than they were/would turn out to be in real life. I got to a world cup semi with them once (and a World Cup final with some save scumming...).


Just remembered that Colin Healy was an absolute beast for this team at DMC once Roy Keane retired. I'm getting tempted to bust out the original game and try the Irish national team again.

[Hitman]

http://i63.tinypic.com/qqnwqe.jpg

May as well post my problem child behaviour again.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Some of them were in Team of the Week in fairness.

[IsMiseSean]

Andri Sigporsson. He'd always finish with more goals in a season than games.

[Mr A]

You could get some brilliant players for peanuts from lower leagues in Holland, Belgium and Scandinavia at times. Iceland was a great spot for bargains back in the day. Jeez am tempted to fire this up again now!

Used to pick a country with a decent pyramid and try to get the smallest club I could find that played in Blue and White up through the leagues and into Europe. Or whoever took my fancy really.

Must check up on how Vfr Mannheim are doing these days. And Nuneaton Borough. And Eastleigh. And Pisa. And Northwich Victoria.

[NeverFeltBetter]

And now I'm downloading this again...

[peadar1987]

Strong choice of venue from the MFA there
https://foot.ie/attachment.php?attachmentid=2757&stc=1

Didn't stop a decent enough crowd showing up though:

https://foot.ie/attachment.php?attachmentid=2758&stc=1

[peadar1987]

https://foot.ie/attachment.php?attachmentid=2820&stc=1
Let's see how this plays out...

[nigel-harps1954]

You manager age must be in their 70's by now in that?

[peadar1987]

You manager age must be in their 70's by now in that?

Well I downloaded a patch to have the game start in 2017/18. I've never actually played a game this far into the future before, I wonder how old it will let me get...

[nigel-harps1954]

Ah, that makes more sense. Think the furthest I got was in CM4 when I played 15 or 16 seasons. Only recently picked up FM20, so I've just started a game on that. Interesting to see just how far the game has come in a couple of years as it was 2013 (maybe 14) the last time I really played it.

[John83]

The last one I picked up was FM17, which I found a little too much work to be fun.

I built up Reading (I pick random clubs at times; I have no attachment to Reading) to be more or less what Everton are now, but couldn't solve inconsistency, and was a bit frustrated by want-away players - especially ones I'd developed considerably myself. I had a midfielder I'd taken up from the Championship demand to go to Wolves, who were no better than Reading, and promptly got relegated on their bench the same season I broke into the top half.

I was especially ****ed off that on promoting a number of youth players looking for improved contracts, they no longer counted as youth players and the board criticised me for not giving youth a chance in spite of having several club-developed teenagers in the first team.

Do any of the more recent ones seem like an improvement to ye?

[NeverFeltBetter]

The last one I picked up was FM17, which I found a little too much work to be fun.



This would sum up my feelings of the last decade of FM.

[tetsujin1979]

I think the balance shifted from fun to work about the time the 3d match engine was introduced

[peadar1987]

So this happened...
https://foot.ie/attachment.php?attachmentid=2828&stc=1

and this...

https://foot.ie/attachment.php?attachmentid=2829&stc=1

Only have to wait 20 years before the LOI take our true place at Europe's top table

[BonnieShels]

You could get some brilliant players for peanuts from lower leagues in Holland, Belgium and Scandinavia at times. Iceland was a great spot for bargains back in the day. Jeez am tempted to fire this up again now!

Used to pick a country with a decent pyramid and try to get the smallest club I could find that played in Blue and White up through the leagues and into Europe. Or whoever took my fancy really.

Must check up on how Vfr Mannheim are doing these days. And Nuneaton Borough. And Eastleigh. And Pisa. And Northwich Victoria.

Last time I played it was FM2014,

Decided to go down the International route. Picked Curacao in the Caribbean because of their absolute shtoney-sh!t playing schedule so you would breeze through years at a time.

Great thing about Curacao is that it is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands so you can absolutely pillage youth players from the Mainland at will. A couple of those come to you, and it's a tough sell, but it can happen and you zoom up the rankings!

Got me a job with Croatia as a result. That is slightly more fraught with the ethnic poaching...


Strong choice of venue from the MFA there
https://foot.ie/attachment.php?attachmentid=2757&stc=1

That properly made me calve right there! Bravo.


Didn't stop a decent enough crowd showing up though:

https://foot.ie/attachment.php?attachmentid=2758&stc=1


Nesta wallpaper???

[tetsujin1979]

Football Manager 2020 is free to play on Steam for Mac and Windows for the next week: https://www.footballmanager.com/news/football-manager-2020-play-it-free-right-now

[John83]

Football Manager 2020 is free to play on Steam for Mac and Windows for the next week: https://www.footballmanager.com/news/football-manager-2020-play-it-free-right-now
Oh no, my poor productivity. :eek:

[John83]

10 of the best wonderkids on Football Manager 20:
https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/10-of-the-best-wonderkids-on-football-manager-20-haaland-aarons-tonali/