Talking about Football Manager 2010

Tough economic times meant that it took me a while to get the spare cash to purchase Football Manager 2010, but I eventually managed and played one full season of testing, as I always do before starting the "real" game. I felt sad that I only managed to purchase the game about one month after it got released, but it made me value the importance of enjoying a product to its complete value: I kept playing FM2009 even though I did not update this blog anymore and I managed to end my Andria challenge pretty well, in the Italian First Division, battling for a spot in the European Cups.

I first started Football Manager 2010 with Newcastle United, one of my all time favorite teams - the same I started to manage back in 1996 when I played the first game in the series (named Championship Manager back then) and I realized that it's always better to manage a lower-league, low profile club - I never liked to grab a top club like Manchester United, like Real Madrid or AC Milan, but instead I love to grab a low division club, strive to find the best players for that level and slowly make my way to the top spot, with the plan of challenging European glory...

With Newcastle United was a bit different - being new with Football Manager 2010 I didn't do all the things right, especially tactics-wise I was a complete failure (and only after a few months into the season I fount the "Advanced" button on the team instructions, to set up the Corners...) I failed miserably to go up to the Barclay's Premier League and I almost got myslef fired after a poor finish at number 9.

What I didn't like about the game was the fact that each time I managed to score, just seconds afterwards most of the teams would score back and tie the game - that drove me mad and I couldn't find any solution to this problem, even though I tried changing tactics immediately after a goal, substituting players and whatnot. I don't really like the new tactics menu because I was used with the previous one, but I do understand that a change was needed and, even though in theory the game got a lot easier with the highlighting of the most important stats for the players on specific positions, I do realize that it gets even harder to create the perfect tactic for Football Manager 2010.

And that will be the quest with my new challenge, alongside many others, like promoting to the first division (this time I will start in England with a low profile English club, most likely in the Blue Square) and becoming a glorious manager. I consider myself a newcomer to Football Manager 2010 since I have only played it for several hours, I have no shortlists of players, no tactics - nothing. I will be a real manager this time and I hope you'll enjoy the ride.

Also, I will focus more on "story telling" aka my challenge rather than tons of posts with tactics, lists of players and so on. I doubt that I could provide much value with my sub par scouts, anyways :)

I will set up the game right away and start playing my new Football Manager challenge - remember to check back soon to find out everything about it and I hope you'll find the stay as enjoyable as you did in the past with Andria.

Everything Football Manager Is Back!

Hello, friends! After a pretty long period of time in which I've left this blog rot and get piles of dust over its shoulders, I am back to update it as regularly as possible - if such a word is possible.

I have made the leap from Football Manager 2009 to Football Manager 2010 and I have already started a new challenge there - but more about it in the future posts.

The most important thing is that now, as you can see, Everything Football Manager has become Football Manager Fanatic and I am planning to turn this site into one of the best Football Manager 2010 fansites out there. See you soon and stay tuned as I will be tweaking this theme and give you something really unique and useful!

Football Manager 2010 Features I'd Love

Even though it's still early and I still didn't get enough Football Manager 2009, I think it's time I let you know (and maybe you let me know, too) which features you'd like to see implemented in Football Manager 2010 - a game which we know is in the works at Sports Interactive.

Therefore, on my wish list for Football Manager 2010 are:

- a better, improved 3D match engine with less stupid movement from players and so many misses.
- improved rating system of the players
- More detail in 3D, and more cameras
- Some new improvements to the tactics screen (I don't know what, but I'd like to see something new - but not something to completely change the game)
- less repetitive and boring press conferences and press interaction. Make it as varied as possible!
- Some more "personal life" aspects to our manager lives, but without trying to do too much. A few touches won't hurt, after all.

I can't think of much else right now. What do you say, though? What features would you like to see in Football Manager 2010?

It's been a while...

Hello again everybody! It's been a while since I have last updated this blog - I haven't done it because of major time-related problems and I'm doing my best to get back on track with cool Football Manager 2009 updates, but I can't promise anything :) To be honest, I barely had time to continue my Andria challenge either, but I still have some info I would like to share with you. So stay tuned - I'm not dead yet, I have time problems. You'll hear from me pretty soon!

Back for business!

Hello again, Football Manager fans all over the world! After some great Christmas and New Year holidays, I am back home and ready to carry on with my Adria challenge. But until that happens (with updates, of course) and other goodies like players, tactics and more will be posted, let me wish you all the great things for the new year.

So, may 2009 make all your wishes come true and be an overall better year than the previous one. And, of course, let's hope that this year we'll all do great and achieve everything we have wanted. A happy new year, my dear visitors!

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.

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!

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:

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.