Football Manager Live Release Date Set

After so long beta tests, Football Manager Live will be launched in January next year, according to a report on this website. The retail version of the game will cost £29.99, and you can also purchase from the official webiste subscription packs which are pretty cheap (less than 20p per day!).

Share your thoughs here: will you "move" to Football Manager Live, will you stay with Football Manager 2009 or you will try to play both games at the same time?

Andria Challenge: Second Season First Report

A new half a season has passed and the Andria Challege is finally starting to look promising for me - at least following the poor past season when I only managed to get Andria to the 10th position.

For the new season I have created a brand new tactic - went for a 442 diamond tactic playing with wingers and a direct passing style and, thanks to the new signings as well as some luck with the tactic which proved to be great, we find ourselves now on the 2nd place in the Italian Serie C2/C at mid-season, with high hopes for promotion.

Actually, as you have seen above, if it wouldn't had been for Gela and their amazingly great form, Andria would've been far above everybody else and heading to decisively win the league. Hopefully things will remain the same after the break.

Now, player-wise, I must admit that I am quite impressed with Yann Schneider, the French football player I was worried he could disrupt the good harmony in my squad. Not only that he did not, but he also managed a great first half of the season and he's a stone in my midfield and a player I'm extremely satisfied with.

Also, as you can see from the ratings above, 19 years old right winger Sorin Ciobanu and previous season's great player Luigi Di Simone performed quite well. I must admit I also liked how my forwards played this season, especially Eugen Nita, even though their ratings are low.

I have actually noticed that generally strikers are graded the worst in Football Manager 2009 and there are indeed games where they seem to not exist. However, I must admit that with this current tactic, they do appear in the game more often. At least compared to last year. :)

So, half season gone, my Andria Challenge looks pretty well and I must assure we'll win promotion - the club, even though I keep the wage budget in control, is still spending too much and we're starting to lose money. Which means that my budget for next season will be close to zero, so I will also have to sign free players. Hopefully for a better division!

Special Football Manager 2009 Arsenal Edition Announced

Sports Interactive and SEGA can today announce that they have signed a deal with Arsenal Football Club to release an exclusive Arsenal Special Edition of Football Manager 2009.

The Special Edition will be fully skinned with Arsenal colours and club logo, and will feature all of the official Arsenal player photos. Set for release before Christmas and available through Arsenal.com and the club’s official stores, the Special Edition will offer Arsenal fans a unique way to experience the fastest selling version of the Football Manager series, which is currently No.1 in the UK PC charts.

“To be able to team up with one of the largest football clubs in the world, and the closest to our studio, offering a special edition of Football Manager is a great honour for us,” said Miles Jacobson, Studio Director of Sports Interactive. “Arsenal is an incredibly forward thinking team both on and off the pitch, and this deal once again signifies how seriously our football management simulation is taken by the football world.”

“I’m sure that many of our supporters are also big fans of Football Manager so we’re delighted to be able to offer them an Arsenal special edition of this year’s game, and to enter into a partnership with the world’s leading football management title,” said Adrian Ford, Commercial Director of Arsenal Football Club.

How to create a player in FM2009

As you probably know, Football Manager 2009 comes, just like previous games in the series, with a "Data editor" which also allows you to create a player of your wish (so you can be a football player in the game!). Below I have created a tutorial on how to create a player in FM 2009, in a few easy steps.

1. Locate your install folder of the game and double click on the "tools" folder, then "data editor"

2. After the editor opens, press "Ctrl+O" and a new pop-up window will appear where you have to select the database you want to edit (the default or updated one). Make your selection, press OK button and wait a little while for the actual data to load.

3. In the upper toolbar, go to "Edit" and select "Create Person". A pretty self-explanatory window will pop up, allowing you to create your player. Simply enter his name, choose the stats, club and prefered move and you're ready to go. Navigation is done by clicking on the various tabs - both on the left on the window, and on top.

4. Before quitting and enjoying your created player, make sure you Save the database by pressing "Ctrl + S".

Andria Challenge: Season 1 Over

The first season is over and things didn't go too well, nor too bad - with the media predicting the 16th place, Andria Bat managed to finish the season mid-table, at number 10.

We had a pretty nice season, it started incredibly well, but following some struggles with the tactics where nothing seemed to work, we went and recorder 9 losses in a row - I was fearing for the worse. Hopefully, after lots of tweaks and, to be honest, up to a point, random tactical decisions, I found a tactic that works partially at least and we started to go up again.
Andria's best player was Luigi Di Simone, as I had anticipated during my first look over the team, with Miguel Rebosio (a Peruan international defender I snapped out for free) proving to be a great signing. I was really disappointed by Salvatore Rizzi - he got the lowest rating, but has some really great stats. I'll try to push him up front next season, his main possition is Striker, not attacking midfielder.
I'm eagerly anticipating for my second season with Andria Bat to kick off, since I have made a few good transfers (or at least so I hope) with the highlights being this Slovenian Striker, Bostjan Rozman, who looks simply amazing for an 18 years-old playing in the fourth division :)
Also, the french Yann Schneider appears to be a good player (my assistant manager says he's the best player in the squad), but I'm afraid he might be an idiot and distrupt the harmony in the dressing room, since instantly after arrival he stated that I should rebuild the team around him. Hopefully he was not a bad call.
We'll see what happens in the second season of my Ultimate Football Manager 2009 challenge: my plans are to promote, but the media will probably have another opinion. Will I be able to find a good tactic and produce a surprise? Stay tuned with Everything Football Manager to find out!

Football Manager 2009 Editor Gets Patched

This is really interesting news, I don't remember Sports Interactive to release a patch for the game's editor, but now it happened: the FM 2009 PC v1.1 Editor Patch (as well as WSM 2009 PC v1.1 Editor Patch for the US players) has been released and can be downloaded here.

So go and download the Football Manager 2009 Editor Patch now! There is no word of note regarding the changes brought by the patch, but it can certainly do no harm!

Sports Interactive also announced that the same patch will be made available for Mac users soon.

Longest Extra Time in Football Manager?

I am playing the games in Football Manager series ever since there was not even the 2D engine, but I never remember to have had such a long extra time. But I got it now and I think it's the longest extra time period in a football game in FM2009 - 8 minutes!!! Check and see for yourself (click the image, it's to small now) and tell me if you had similar long extra time periods in the game.

Ultimate FM 2009 Challenge: Andria First Season

I announced my Andria ultimate Football Manager 2009 challenge and, naturally, I kept playing. Although my team was dubbed for relegation (media predicted I will finish 16th), I still hoped deep inside for a great season and a promotion challenge, especially after two great signings.

But two players don't make a team and, even more, I still can't find a tactic to be satisfied with - no matter what I do, my forwards get very low ratings and barely score any goals. I even tried the good 532 tactic for FM 2009 I created during my Steaua Challenge, but it did not work.

However, I managed to get out of the Italian Serie C Cup group stages and the first round but I lost in the second round. However, my board was excited and the 3,000 EUR we won will be highly valued.
In the league, however, things are not looking very good. Most likely next season will see my Andria Bat team in the Serie C2/C once again, since the team is placed at number 11 after 26 games and the promotion candidates are 15 points ahead. And following a poor run of form from my team and some annoying tactical struggling where nothing seems to work, I doubt I'll have more luck by the end of the season and all I can hope for is a mid-table safe position.
However, during the season break a few quality player will join on a free transfer and hopefully next season I'll be able to promote with Adria, as planned. I only need to find that great tactic now :)

Wonderkid Update: Keirrison

I have found another great youngster to place on the ever growing list of Football Manager 2009 wonderkids. He is a 19 years old Brazilian player Coritiba named Keirrison, he valued at less than 4 million EUR, but I only took the screenshot after he signed the contract and his value increased. He looks like a solid, really good young player. Here is an image with Keirrison's skills.

Ultimate FM 2009 Challenge: Andria

Just like I announced yesterday, I kicked off my latest Football Manager 2009 challenge. After creating my profile I set myself to unemployed and let luck decide: I was not too lucky, since I got chosen as manager for minnows Andria Bat, Italian Serie C2/C relegation candidates.

However, according to the information screen provided by Football Manager 2009, this Andria team was the club where football legends like Cristiano Lupatelli, Gianluca Petrachi or Nicola Amoruso started their career! I hope I'll have at least a few youths in my setup to develop into players as good as these mentioned!


For now, I didn't even get to finish my friendlies with Andria since I kept searching for players and bargain buys - with no scouts, abysmal knowledge of the world and a "hefty" transfer budget of 11,000 EUR, I do not find myself in the best position ever. :(

However, I managed to snap for just 5k EUR this little jewel that performed well in training matches. Marco Malgioglio is really a great player but unfortunately his pace and acceleration stop him from being better. However, for the division I'm in, he's a jewel!


I was also impressed by this left winger I started with. He's the team captain and he's the best rated player for now, following the friendlies. Unfortunately Luigi Di Simone is 30 years old and I don't see him improving over the following years...


Now, let's get back to playing. Will my team manage to avoid relegation? I truly hope so, I plan to promote next season at most!

Back with a new challenge!

I am terribly sorry I could not update the blog anymore, but some horrible problems with my computer (a big bad virus) made it impossible for me to save anything. I had tried to create a backup of my save game with Steaua Challenge but unfortunatelly Football Manager 2009 kept crashing with the game loaded - I have no idea why.

So, even though disillusioned and ready to call it quits, I have decided to come back with the Ultimate Football Manager Challenge - I will start a game unemployed in Italy and try to bring the club that will want me to the first division. It will be an awesomly difficult job since I have no experience with playing in lower Italian leagues whatsoever and the wonderkids I found will certainly not accept joining my team.

I will play and keep you updated - probably no longer with wonderkids and top players, but with great players to buy for smaller teams. So tune in and let's keep it rolling. I hope that this time tehre will be no virus to stop me!

Best Football Manager 2009 Young Players

Instead posting every time I find a handful of new players, I decided to create a special post and update it permanently. So, here are the Best Football Manager 2009 Young Players. These are true FM09 wonderkids or just youngsters with bags of potential. As soon as I will have a solid database, I will sort them in different columns. So remember to visit Everything Football Manager 2009 for more best FM 2009 youngsters!

1. Tom Ababio - cheap DC (semi-pro club Dulwich Hamlet, less than 5k EUR)
2. Maurício – Brazilian AML, starts unemployed.
3. Gianluca Palmiteri – Italian SC, starts unemployed.
4. Kayke – Brazilian SC, starts at Flamenco.
5. Razvan Ochirosii - AML (Steaua Bucharest, 1.5M EUR)
6. Bogdan Stancu - SC (Steaua Bucharest, 1M EUR)
7. Alexandru Iacob - DC DMC (Steaua Bucharest, 500k EUR)
8. Marvin Angulo Burbon - D/WB/M Right (Herediano, less than 500k EUR)
9. Javi Garcia - DMC (Real Madrid, transfer listed - 3.5M EUR)
10. Celso Borges - (Saprissa, 500k EUR)
11. Mario Balotelli - AM RL (Inter, 7M EUR)
12. Chris Malonga - AM L (4.5M EUR)
13. Nampalys Mendy - 16 years-old MC from AS Monaco
14. Keirrison - 19 years-old FC (4M EUR, Coritiba)
15. Alberto Paloschi (SC)
16. Sergio Asenjo (GK)
17. Bartosz Salamon (AMC)
18. Mascio (MC)
19. Vincenzo Fiorillo (GK)
20. Haris Vuckic (AM/FC) *NEW*
21. Marco Martina Rini (MC) *NEW*
22. Nordin Amrabat (AM RLC/FC) *NEW*
23. Kyriakos Papadopoulos (DC) *NEW*
24. Vaclav Kadlec (AM/FC) *NEW*

Have you found a wonderkid or great young Football Manager 2009 player that is not listed? Share it with the world by commenting below!

Steaua Challenge Mid-season Update

Things are looking promising for my Steaua Bucharest side at mid-season, although it's nothing to impressive happening. I am still searching for the best players in FM 2009 and still adjusting the tactics, but overall I am pleased by what I got.

So, here's the mid-season analysis. We'll start with the most important part, the Champions League. After I managed to defeat a stronger Galatasaray side, I got a hot group with Inter, Werder Bremen and Rapid Wien. Unfortunately, I was not able to provide any shockers and only coasted over the Rapid side, being defeated by both other teams, so I'm going to play in the UEFA cup next:
Interestingly, the title challengers CFR Cluj who got a much worse group (with Real Madrid, Juventus and Celtic) managed a surprising away draw with Real and won their home game with Celtic. However, they did not manage to qualify further.

The Romanian First League Standings provide no shockers either except for title favorites Rapid Bucharest being somewhere midtable and showing no signs of improvement. On the other hand, Dinamo Bucharest has an incredibly strong team with high quality players and they managed to defeat me while playing at home, but still I am one point ahead of them and my team Steaua Bucharest finishes the mid-season at number 1. Hopefully the things will remain the same for the future, too.Lastly, I should brag with two great signings I made and I'm quite proud of. First of all, I managed to snap Marvin Angulo from Herediano, a world class youngster with bags of potential and ability and, coming this January, Javi Garcia who strangely accepted my offer and will leave Real Madrid (indeed, he was transer listed there, but still). With these two players I hope I'll manage an even better performance next. I'll keep you updated.

Freddy Adu - get it!

Just a quick update: if you have the money and a strong enough team to make him want to move, grab Freddy Adu, he's a great player as ever to see come out the USA soccer camp. I just saw the guy and was impressed, I'll try to buy Freddy Adu myself. Screenshot coming soon, now I need a little nap since I've been playing like a mad man this wonderful Football Manager 2009.

Visit back for new good players to buy and updates on my Steaua Challenge!

How to Fix Football Manager 2009 errors and problems

There are a few aspects which can make the Football Manager 2009 copy you have malfunction, but we have the answer via the official FM 2009 website. So if you have any of these problems with your Football Manager copy, we have the error fix:

Problem #1: "I installed through Steam and cannot start the game or create a shortcut, or running without Steam being active"

Fix solving: If installed via Steam, you can find the game executable (exe) at the following location: C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\Common\Football Manager 2009. If you double click this the game will launch, you can also create a shortcut to this location on your desktop.

Problem #2: "I installed through Steam and now I get an annoying block of colour on my screen (bottom right hand corner)"

Fix solving: In steam click the icon "settings", click the tab "in game" and untick the "enable steam community" and you have fixed it.

Problem #3: You are receiving the error: "FM2009 could not run as ‘facegen’ was unable to initialize!"

Fix solving: Please install the Patch, and ensure your graphics drivers are up to date

If you are having other problems with Football Manager 2009, see how to:
- Fix Failed to set up graphics system message
- Fix Application Error problem
- Fix Football Manager 2009 installation problems

Fix Application Error problem in Football Manager 2009

If when launching the game you receive the following Error: “FM.exe application error. The application has failed to initialize correctly (0xC0150002). Click on OK to stop the application” we have the problem on how to fix that from happening.

It's not a big problem, it is just that you have to update your Microsoft Dot.Net framework in order for your Football Manager 2009 copy to work. Download and install it from the official website here.

If you are having other problems with Football Manager 2009, see how to:
- Fix Failed to set up graphics system message
- Fix Football Manager 2009 installation problems
- Fix other Football Manager 2009 errors

Fix Failed to set up graphics system message in Football Manager 2009

On rare occasions it might happen for you to get a message "Cannot run game: Failed to set up graphics system" in Football Manager 2009 but that is easy to fix.

The first reason why you get this message could be that your DirectX version is outdated. Unless you are 100% sure you have the latest DirectX version installed on your computer, download it from the official Microsoft website (click here).

If this does not solve your problem and you still get the same error when you start the game, make sure that you have the latest raphics driver, you can do this by visiting the computer manufacturer website, or by visiting the graphics card manufacturing website. Updating these will make your FM 2009 copy work if not DirectX was the problem.

If you are having other problems with Football Manager 2009, see how to:
- Fix Installation problems
- Fix Application Error problem
- Fix other Football Manager 2009 errors

How to fix Football Manager 2009 installation problems

There are a few reported problems when the Football Manager 2009 installation does not work as it should. If you get errors while you are installing the game and you can't fix that, here is what you have to do in order to solve the problem:

1. Download the official FM 2009 fix file from the SI website here.
2. Unzip the contents of the archive to your desktop.
3. Double click the FM09Fix.exe file.
4. Extract the files anywhere, pressing Install will place them on the desktop, this is the default behaviour. Two files will be extracted – Launcher.exe and Activator.exe
5. Double click Launcher.exe and you will see a dialog box prompting you for your license key.
6. Enter your license key into the dialog.
7. Press OK - then wait 30-60 seconds and you will receive a second message.

If your message reads: "Activation completed successfully. Please try to run the game." Open the game and run it.

If the activation fails, you will have another message. For example, in case the number is -1003 indicates that your license key is invalid. If the error is -1003 enter your license key into the form at here.

If it is another error, try sending users Muzchap or JMordetsky a personal message via SI Games official forums.

If you are having other problems with Football Manager 2009, see how to:
- Fix Failed to set up graphics system message
- Fix Application Error problem
- Fix other Football Manager 2009 errors

Good 532 tactic

As I said, in my Football Manager 2009 challenge I recorded some good results and I decided to share the tactic for you. It is a good 5-3-2 tactic, pretty offensive one and I am satisfied with it. Here is how players should be placed:

Here are the team instructions for my Football Manager 2009 tactic:

It's very important to have your central defender (the one in the middle) set as following:

Other notes:

Left and right central defenders should man mark. Be careful to change that if oposing team plays with just one forward. Central midfielder should have a slightly defensive setting and HOLD UP BALL (this is very important otherwise your wingers won't have time to go up the pitch) Your best forward should be set to run with ball and forward run, and also set a more offensive mentality. Everybody else stays with default instructions, as posted.

Please let me know if my 532 FM 2009 tactic worked for you. For me it sure did a good job!

Remember to visit Everything Football Manager 2009 in the future for more tactics!

Steaua Challenge Overview

Even though very early in the season, I am very proud with how my FM 09 Steaua Challenge has started: in six league games my team was never defeated and only one draw was snatched from us, which gives Steaua the top spot in the league! Here is the standing so early in the season.
Even though pretty unbalanced this Romanian League with teams generally having much weaker players than my own team, there are a few high fliers: CFR Cluj, last season's winner has a very good team and lots of money, while challenges can be made by other teams like Rapid, Dinamo Bucharest, Unirea Urziceni and FC Vaslui, as you can see.

However, as I said, I am really pleased with how things are going so far: I have defeated CFR Cluj and Unirea Urziceni in away matches, which is really good. Also, my team's defence seems really well placed, with just 2 goals scored against Steaua in the first six matches! However, the biggest feat was qualifying with Steaua in the Champions League group stage after defeating a stronger Galatasaray Istambul team. (1-1 draw at home and an incredible 2-1 win away). So far I am very pleased with my tactic (changed a 4-4-1-1 I used during pre-season because, well... it sucked :D) even though my forwards Stancu and Dayro Moreno still grab very low ratings. They will need more than that in the incredibly hard Champions League group stage:

FM09 Good Young Romanian Players

I just realized after writing the Football Manager 2009 Wonderkids list yesterday with six great players that I omitted a few players of my own. As I have stated before, I have started a Football Manager 2009 challenge with Steaua Bucharest, a Romanian football team. And, while searching other clubs for players, I forgot about mine!

Steaua Bucharest begins the 08/09 season with three great youngsters I'm really satisfied with until now. Check their stats now:

Razvan Ochirosii - AMLBogdan Stancu - FC
Alexandru Iacob - DMC (but he can also play as Central Defender)
The only problem about these three good young players is the fact that they are pretty expensive, after all and they don't have sky rocketing stats. But if you have the money or ever find yourself in trouble, they will do a great job!

First Football Manager 2009 Wonderkids

After playing for two seasons my first Steaua challenge in Romania in the recently released Football Manager 2009, I have managed to create a list of wonderkids. These great Football Manager 2009 young players do have the ability to transform into super players in a few seasons and they definitely worth a try. Check the list below for the first Football Manager 2009 wonderkids I have found (and with a promise of more to come!)

The first are two no-brainers I could not buy. If you can, try getting them:

Francesc Fabregas (MC)
Lionel Messi (AM RLC)

Now the few real wonderkids I have found in Football Manager 2009 are:

1. Tom Ababio (very cheap DC, has all the main features needed for a central defender: 18 work rate, team work and jumping, 19 heading and tackling. It has poor marking bravery and pace: just 12, but it is dirt cheap at semi-pro club Dulwich Hamlet. Can be purchased for less than 5k)
2. Maurício – Brazilian AML, starts unemployed. Great stats, free to get. 18 years old
3. Gianluca Palmiteri – Italian SC, starts unemployed. There is barely competition for his signature, promises to turn into a good player.
4. Kayke – Brazilian SC, starts at Flamenco.

For the moment these are the wonderkids I have found until now, I will be searching for more.

Please note: the players are in the 9.1.0 database update, so if you have not installed it, do it now!

Football Manager 2009: Steaua Bucharest Challenge!

I am really excited since I have finally purchased Foorball Manager 2009 and started playing! I have started my first Football Manager 2009 challenge: managing Romanian team Steaua Bucharest, I have to make them reach the final of the Champions League in four seasons. Of course, this means that the last Burton Albion challenge I started will be abandoned, even though it is unfinished.

It will definitely be a pretty hard job to do since the Romanian team does not have too much power up front and it generally holds pretty old players, but it will be a nice spell that will make me ready for further challenges.

Another problem will be the fact that I am still marking my debut with Football Manager 2009 so I don't know all the tactical tricks yet. However, you should stick with the blog since I will post all my progress, all the findings and all the best tactics I create along the way. The best thing? I will post lists with great Football Manager 2009 players for all of you to enjoy (and share!)

So visit again for more, including screenshots!

Football Manager 2009 Sys Reqs

Do you wonder if your computer can run the recently released Football Manager 2009? Here are the system requirements to play the game:

OS: Windows XP or Vista
Processor: XP: 1.4GHz or Faster / Vista: 2.0GHz or Faster
Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4, Intel Core, AMD Athlon
Memory: XP: 512MB RAM / Vista: 1.0GB RAM
Hard Drive Space: 2GB
DVD-Drive: 4x Speed
Video Card: 128MB *Supported Chipsets (see below)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Directx: Version 9.0c (included)
LAN: TCP/IP compliant
Input: Keyboard, Mouse

*Supported Chipsets - Nvidia FX 5900 Ultra or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 or greater; Intel 82915G/82910GL or greater.
Earlier cards may only display 2D Match Viewer Mode and are not supported. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported.

Football Manager Challenge: Season 1 Over

It's been a lightning fast season for me and my bunch of Burton heroes and, the most important thing of them all is that we've managed to win promotion! It was a very hard job, especially on the defensive end but I am now happy, the first step has just been made :D Now at Burton we're tougher, we're more mature and, yes, fully pro! Good bye, Blue Square Premier!


As you can see in the screenshot above, we were just one point behind the leaders, Rushden. Actually, except for Oxford, all the teams were one point behind the leader. It was a really, really mad season, let me tell you that!

However, in the playoff final my side triumphed against the more powerful Oxford side thanks to a wonderful Clare who scored a hattrick - his first of the season, and what a time he chose to do it! Also, the wonderful defender Tony James has to be mentioned in this post, since he did a great job back there throughout the entire season (and scored a handful of goals since he was my penalty guy).


So... we're off for some greater glory - hopefully we'll be able to promote again if we manage to sign some quality players... and we just might since, at the beginning of the game I randomly chose three more nations to load players from and one of them is Romania - there are lots of cheap players (2-5 thousand dollars) who can handle the Coca Cola League 2. Let's hope I'll be able to find the best.

Go, Go Burton!

Yesterday I played my Football Manager 2008 Challenge like a mad man and I managed to go through three quarters of the really busy Blue Square Premier season. It is quite tougher than what I was anticipating, but at least I'm not losing yet :) With 14 or so matches left 'til the playofs, The Brewers were placed 6th but there's a huge battle for promotion, with the first place having just four points ahead of me.

Strangely, during these games I played with my Burton Albion, my defence failed to rise to the standards, while the attack was top notch (and I was anticipating it to be otherwise :D). So, as you can see in the screenshot below, this Shaun Harrad guy can do some wonders even though his stats are pretty low:
On the other hand, I have managed to snap a BIG loan from a Romanian club, FC Bihor and got a pretty good winger, Jozsef Lorincz, who became my goal creating machine, as you can see in the snapshot below. Of course these two are not the best players in Football Manager 08, but they helped The Brewers and my job quite a lot.
So I had some pretty good matches I totally dominated:
But I was also killed by York in an away game, even though my team didn't play badly. Just looking at the number of corners we had makes me want to apply the "corner cheat" - but this challenge will be done with no cheats, so I'll have to do my best in the future.Burton was always somewhere in the 3rd - 6th place during the matches, with a very tight battle being held for promotion:During my spell at Burton I have signed a total of 10 player (including 3 loans) for the impressive amount of $8,000. I also managed to sell four players for a good sum of $14,000, all of them over-valued, so I am pretty happy. The Brewers were eliminated in the first round of the FA Cup (but I reached the goal! :D) and we also lost to York in the fifth round of the Setanta Shield. On the bright side, we've reached the fourth round in the FA Trophy and we have a relatively game at home against Histon. The board will be pretty happy with this. Wish me luck and check back for more updates.

The Football Manager 2008 Challenge

Well, since waiting for Football Manager 2009 to get released and doing nothing during the wait is not my type of thing, I have decided to start a quick Football Manager 2008 challenge and end it until the next FM gets released :). I'm talking about a really important and difficult challenge, as you will see below in the details (I just hope I have enough time to actually play the whole thing).

So, here's my Football Manager 2008 Challenge: I start by managing Burton Albion FC (aka The Brewers), a semi-pro Blue Square Premier team and I have exactly seven seasons to get Burton qualified in an European Competition (via league placement). Really tough quest, even though the team is pretty highly valued.

According to the media, Burton is slated to finish #7 in the Blue Square Premier. The team, as I said, is highly valued, with only 4!!! full time players in the squad: 1.1 million US dollars (sorry for those used with pounds, you've got to get used with my $ here).

After promising the board promotion, I received a hefty $22k transfer budget and exactly $20k per week per wages. Which is not at all bad. The only problem is that I need to sign basically a full team since the one I have is below par - but I won't do that due to lack of money and players willing to join. Well, at least they do have a pretty good defence. However, I will take up for this challenge and keep you update. Wish me luck and please feel free to ask any questions you might have.

Grab Football Manager on Steam!

If you haven't pre-ordered yet your copy of Football Manager 2009 or you're just waiting for it to be released and see if it really worths your money (and why shouldn't it?), I've got some great news for you: Football Manager 2009 will be available on Steam.

If you pre-order it, you'll be one of the first to get your hands to it, as you'll be allowed to play it as soon as the 14th of November launches. So go ahead and visit Steam for full info on the game. God, I can't wait for it to hit my HDD :D

FM 09 Woderkids

I am so excited about the upcoming release of Football Manager 2009 that today, while I was playing FM 08 as usual, I was unable to focus and do anything right: my mind kept flying and thinking about the wonderkids in FM 2009. So I started to edit some pictures and I came up with the logo above which is only 5% my work but anyway... at least it makes the pain a bit more easy.

So, as you can see, I have created this page and it will feature, as soon as the game gets released, links towards my posts with FM09 wonderkids. But until then I am 100% sure I'll find something else to do - maybe predict a few of them? Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter!

As promised, here is the first small list of Football Manager 09 great youth players:
First Football Manager 2009 Wonderkids
FM09 Good Young Romanian Players

Be sure to check back for more!

Football Manager 2009 3D Match Engine Screens

Although we don't exactly know until now how the game will really look like, we do have a bunch of screenshots released, presenting us a few "work in progress" images of the 3D match engine we'll get in FM 09. In case you haven't seen them yet, here they are, at their full beauty. Just remember to click on each image in order to enlarge it.

Check back regularly, as I will post more Football Manager 2009 screenshots presenting the 3D Match Engine as they are released to the media. And I must admit that I can already feel my heart beating fast in anticipation of the game!

The Facts

Below I will keep updated all the facts/improvements we should expect to receive with Football Manager 2009, when the game is released. All these details about FM09 are from official sources and official website, so you can be sure they are all correct. So, without further ado, let's see what will FM2009 bring us anew:

3D Match Engine – This year’s match engine has seen more testing than ever before having been extensively beta tested in Football Manager Live for the past year. It is undoubtedly the most important change brought to FM games in recent times. The Football Manager matches can now be viewed in full 3D with motion captured animations. Sports Interactive has been working on the 3D match engine with the support of SEGA Japan’s football development team who provided the motion capture data and some of the animations. You can now watch your matches in 3D from multiple camera angles and re-watch any part of the match by fast forwarding and rewinding the action using a new match time bar that flags the key moments in the game.

TV View – Watch your matches in new full screen TV view and customise your match day screen with widgets to view the information you need as a football manager, be it player performance, match action zones, pitch radar, latest scores and many more.

Assistant Manager Feedback – Pre-match and in-match feedback from your Assistant Manager on how the team is performing and your player’s motivation levels, as well as hints on how your tactics are working and how you could outwit the opposition’s tactics.

Improved Media – SI have worked hard to reflect the greater impact the media has been having in recent years on the world of football, in the in-game dealings with the press. The game now features more news stories, more detail and greater media interaction than ever before, creating an even more realistic simulation of the football world.
Press Conferences – Attend pre-match and post-match press conferences with local and national journalists and build up relationships with them over time, but choose your answers carefully because they could come back to haunt you in the media at a later date.

Transfer System – Completely new and re-written transfer system code, providing an even more realistic simulation of real-life football transfers.

Transfer Rumours – View the latest news on what players are being speculated on, and who’s said to be interested in securing their services. This time rumors are stronger and have solid backup. Or not.

Board Confidence – Following on from its addition in Football Manager 2008, board confidence has been expanded and improved. In addition, the board will now also offer feedback to you on your squad harmony and the club’s stature in the football world.

Preferred Moves – Train your players to learn ‘preferred moves’ to add to their game. For example, train central defenders not to dive into tackles, or wingers to do stepovers before crossing the ball.

Female Manager – For the very first time you can now play as a female manager. All of the text in the game now also has a female gender so the game represents female managers and staff in the game in the correct gender.

Realistic Finances – SI have listened to feedback from all of their researchers to try and model every single financial area of the game correctly for each country, including transfers, staff wages, budgets, ticket prices, season tickets, competition bonuses and club sponsorships.

Updated Competitions – Fully updated for the new 2008/09 football season with all the latest league, club and player data, featuring over 5,000 playable clubs from over 50 countries, and around 350,000 players and staff from around the world, drawn fresh from the famous Sports Interactive database.

Widescreen Support – As a result of usability testing on Football Manager 2008, this year sees widescreen support for the game for the first time, as well as lots of tweaks to the user interface for easier navigation.

For now these are the only new features announced for Football Manager 2009. Check this page regularly for more news, as I will post them as soon as they are told by official staff. FM09 will clearly rock!

About Us

Hello everybody and welcome to my Football Manager blog! As you probably imagine, I am a huge fan of this game (been playing it since CM 2 was released) and I have decided that, starting the release of Football Manager 2009 I will share my experience playing it, along with tactics, training schedules, player suggestion, tips hints and everything a manager should know. I know that every little bit helps and I'm here to do my best.

Also, I will try to keep my eyes open for the latest news, reviews and everything related to this great game and post links to that stuff here. So we can say that I am planning to create a true Football Manager portal here, so you should consider checking back regularly.

I know it's pretty obvious but just to make things clear: all the games in this world only exist because a community of fans surrounds them and I want you, the community, the Football Manager fans, to write all your thoughts, tips and advice on the game here. So let's become a big, happy family and share our experience, too.

I know that having my own website, hosted on my own server would've been better than a laggy blog here, but having in mind that my finances are entirely spent on all sorts of other things, having my own website is not possible at the moment. Hopefully better days will come for me and until then, I hope you will be able to live with me and accept this blog as it is. Thank you and please have fun!

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