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!