Football Manager 23

[Raoul Duke]

PM Mantralux

[John Arne]

Igor Stepanovs - CA 193

[Gray Fox]

Delayed until March. God damn it must be in some state.

1844377892303798752

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

GTA 6 to drop before FM 25.

[Danny]

I think I missed the "delay the game 4 months" stage of the road map.

[Baz]

Should wait til next season really.

[Gray Fox]

A 4 month delay, one week after asking everyone to stump up pre-order cash is very naughty and not in the cheeky scamps way.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

They should just "cancel" 25, re-package it as 26 and just push out some transfer/data updates to FM24 throughout the season.

[Lofty]

Absolute grifters.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Had this coming to them for about 10 years. Chickens, roost.

[John Arne]

Sounds like they need some proper leaders in there. Stop lying to your customers, come clean and say "this is really hard and we fucked it up" and then just fucking can FM25, release a little data update for FM24 and release FM26 on time.

[Raoul Duke]

Sounds like they need some proper leaders in there. Stop lying to your customers, come clean and say "this is really hard and we fucked it up" and then just fucking can FM25, release a little data update for FM24 and release FM26 on time.


[Assertive]: "We've been on a bad run lately, so go out there and impress me"

[Gray Fox]

Is this what happens when you use the encourage shout, while winning?

[Bernanke]

Incredible stuff.

[Bernanke]

Imagine if they had competition.

[Danny]

International Management back in as a new feature?

[Shindig]

"Relive the 24/25 season with FM 25 ..."

[Luke Emia]

It was CM4 they fucked wasn’t it? A year late for the 20th anniversary of that.

[Bernanke]

It was CM4 they fucked wasn’t it? A year late for the 20th anniversary of that.


The original release contained some functional bugs which in some cases rendered the game farcical—the score in matches could randomly change, and lower division clubs were able to sign superstars with ease. One bug had non-league club Northwich Victoria moving to a stadium with a capacity of 850,000.

:D dots

[Gray Fox]

CM4 was my introduction to the series. My form teacher at the time played the previous version and would put it up on the projector to show the lads. I was interested so got on it. It's amazing I carried on after that.


International Management back in as a new feature?

This is going to be key now I think. I would like to think they looked at needing to cut more and wondered what's the point at that stage and so made the calls to higher ups.
If it comes out in March and it's still minus all the things they said they cut already, not a single person should buy it because they've known for months it's in a shit state.

[Shindig]

I might rollback the 01-02 database so I can relive Michael Lamey's £21m transfer. That might be my favourite oversight in all of these games.

[Yevrah]

What I am interested in is that this sort of slippage/games being released clearly unfinished seems widerife these days. Is it a millenial workforce shunning the crunch? Have PLC's rampantly cut costs to maintain aspirations of ever growing profitability? Has the internets reduced the Western working mind to that of a cabbage?

[Ben]

I might rollback the 01-02 database so I can relive Michael Lamey's £21m transfer. That might be my favourite oversight in all of these games.

Class that. Usually PSV end up having to cancel the Robben transfer as a result. :drool:

[igor_balis]

What I am interested in is that this sort of slippage/games being released clearly unfinished seems widerife these days. Is it a millenial workforce shunning the crunch? Have PLC's rampantly cut costs to maintain aspirations of ever growing profitability? Has the internets reduced the Western working mind to that of a cabbage?

I always assumed it was the combination of shareholders demanding profit above all, and dickheads enabling shoddy practise by continuing to pay for shit stuff.

It's basically normalised that for a lot of games, you just assume you're gonna be a pseudo beta-tester for the game if you're insane enough to pay full price on release. We've moaned about this for FM for years and clearly the solution was always to take a year out, hire more staff, and to fix broken stuff rather than to throw NEW FEATURES into an already creaking game built with sellotape and Miles Jacobson's smelly nob cheese, but if you've got a bunch of suckers forking out £30+ every year, why would you bother? Especially with the money men doing the thumb and finger money gesture in the background. I guess this year is critical mass where they've finally half arsed it so much it'll probably cost them more than if they'd just made a game properly, but they had a good run.

[Yevrah]

Indeed. I was actually surprised when they announced they were changing the UI. They have no one even trying to compete with them so not sure how the money men signed that off.

[Gray Fox]

Don't ask questions. Just consume product and then get excited for next product.

Saw WTS suggest that they've built 20 years worth of corner cutting into games just to get them to release and the transfer to the new engine is bringing all of those chickens home to roost. Probably not far off.

[Yevrah]

It’ll be like FIFA won’t it, more broken code piled on top of more broken code, year after year.

[Shindig]

I think there's a lower bar for known shippable bugs. Stuff they can realistically say, "Ah, it doesn't matter that much" or think they can fix in post-release patches. In the case of CM4, I wondered if Eidos put the hammer down and gave them a firm release date. Sega of America clearly haven't been that pushy ... or it's in such a bad state they can't even begin to think about releasing.

I've definitely a reviewed a couple of broken games that slipped out the door whilst the PC version got all the post-release support. Irongate Slipwoks has managed that twice this year with their PS4/5 ports.

[Gray Fox]

Also speculation that they have to release in March due to it being the end of the financial year and Sega/Eidos are promised a game every financial year.

[Shindig]

Yeah, I don't think they can afford to skip a release. Not unless they find a Yakuza game down the back of the futon.

[ScousePig]

I'm quite glad of the delay as i recently discovered 'Fletch the Sauce' on YouTube/discord/twitch and he's transformed the way I set up tactically.

I want a bit more from 24.

[Yevrah]

What’s his approach?

[ScousePig]

Basically to adapt to your opponent! It sounds obvious but how many of us just create a tactic and then stick with it? His argument is that there's no joy in that approach as essentially it just becomes a tactic sim. I think he has a point.

He's made a number of videos highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of different shapes, and ways you can adapt against inferior opponents, superior opponents, and specific areas of the pitch you should exploit and leave.

For example, if a team have a poor right back with no pace, work rate or crossing, then he'd leave his left wing slot empty as that player poses no threat. Similarly if a team plays an inverted full back, you don't need to worry about him. You can double up in another area of the pitch where you need to nullify a threat.

I used to mess around with team instructions but I barely touch those now, focusing more on adapting my shape game by game. A lot of it is common sense but it's good for someone to put it into practice. He's some kind of PvP champion.

[Dan]

I think I saw one of his videos too, but his ‘PvP champ’ thing seemed to basically be that he’s dominating a network game with some other North American streamers, so it’s basically the same as Zealand or Kev saying they’re a PvP champ because they’ve won the streamer showdown.

[igor_balis]

I've said it before, but the big FM streamers are all so shit at the game.

[John Arne]

:D dots

I used to walk past Vics' stadium every day at college - can confirm they did NOT develop a 850,000 behemoth.

Which is a shame.

[Danny]

I think I saw one of his videos too, but his ‘PvP champ’ thing seemed to basically be that he’s dominating a network game with some other North American streamers, so it’s basically the same as Zealand or Kev saying they’re a PvP champ because they’ve won the streamer showdown.

That’s Kevvy 7 times to us normies

[Danny]

Now I’m no women’s football connoisseur (I’m Yevrah) but

https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/2217490/ss_40a7065e21f629dc083216dcec2b80f38872d167.jpg?t= 1727705773

I’m pretty sure that tiny woman Fran Kirby isn’t taller than me.

Someone pointed out on Work the Space video that the section on the right (height, foot preference) is exactly the same as Evan Ferguson. So it looks like a bad fake.

[ScousePig]

I've said it before, but the big FM streamers are all so shit at the game.

That's essentially his argument. He took apart the side that lost that FM world cup final thingy a few weeks ago.

[Raoul Duke]

Yeah, but could he beat DS's latest 0-11-0 inverted goalkeeper trequartista tactic? No.

[Bam]

There's an FM World Cup? :rotate:

[Giggles]

Didn't Championship Manager live on for a while after FM started? I don't know if they were much competition at the time but there's definitely some needed now, presumably the database is the huge stumbling block.

[Baz]

Yeah Sega carried on with the CM name for a few games, I think.

I reckon more still play CM 01/02 than any of the old (non-24) FMs.

[Mike]

With the delay, I’m thinking of starting a journeyman save.

[Shindig]

It was done in-house by Eidos until 2011. Then it was revived from 2013-2018 as Champ Man. Honestly, it shocks me it went on for so long. I .. kinda want to check one of them out.

[Giggles]

I think I actually did play one of them once, probably still on my Steam thing.

[ScousePig]

Yeah, but could he beat DS's latest 0-11-0 inverted goalkeeper trequartista tactic? No.

One thing he recommends, but you'd need to be a pretty hard-core player: start a save and take over all the teams in a league, ideally a league with only a dozen or fewer teams. Download all the top tactics from FM Arena and plug them into each club, leaving yourself to take proper charge of one club. Then try to beat the rest.

What I've been trying is similar but much less time consuming. EBFM has files you can download, and one of them is two identical teams with attributes of 10 playing a one off cup final against each other. I plugged in the top rated tactic, a 4-2-4 gegenpress Knap tactic and played against it.

In my first game I managed to beat it 5-1 with no set piece instructions. We got a bit lucky in terms of the four goal swing, but it shows the possibilities.

[Dark Soldier]

The meta tactics are only designed to beat the fucking awful AI tbf. You could beat a lot of them with a basic 442 if you're semi-competent. All the deep analysis, to me, is a bag of wank and nonsense as the game itself, despite all its complexities, is wafer thin, but glad it's giving you enjoyment Scouse.

[ScousePig]

The meta tactics are only designed to beat the fucking awful AI tbf. You could beat a lot of them with a basic 442 if you're semi-competent. All the deep analysis, to me, is a bag of wank and nonsense as the game itself, despite all its complexities, is wafer thin, but glad it's giving you enjoyment Scouse.

It depends what you class as deep analysis. Now that I'm playing this way, I barely touch team or player instructions, I just change shape game by game. The AI is extremely poor in both recruitment and creating effective tactics (hardly surprising).

At the moment I couldn't imagine just plugging in a tactic and leaving it. It seems so dull.

[Dark Soldier]

I'm fairly convinced its all a placebo effect tbh, but I absolutely love anyone playing this game however they want (I watch a streamer who takes like 10 hours just doing a transfer window as example).

[ScousePig]

This and python coding has helped cut out a lot of the uncertainty for me. I feel like there's more logic and certainty in what I'm doing.

A bit sad, but I find watching the content creators on YouTube very relaxing.

[Baz]

Here’s me who can’t be arsed sorting out staff contracts or even looking at the training screen, and you’re managing 24 teams and making a new tactic every game. :wtf:

[Giggles]

Has anyone ever looked at the training screen?

[ScousePig]

A quick update on my career. I started a new save with AFC Wimbledon, with a plan on playing 'the Ajax way'. This was a Cruyff inspired 3-4-3 diamond with no full backs. First season we were promoted to League One, and then I took over Burton in the same league as their youth and training facilities were much better. I got Burton promoted in my first full season to the Championship, and then took over Crystal Palace who had been relegated. I promoted them first season and began my first Premier League season.

It was about half a dozen games in that I came across the Fletch videos and changed my approach, ditching the diamond and adapting on a game by game basis.

https://i.ibb.co/XsJ6hzn/League-table-28.png (https://ibb.co/0MJ1gf0)

Our media prediction was 14th, and we took the title into the last game. We were top scorers and one of the best defences.

https://i.ibb.co/cgCj0Lx/Schedule-28.png (https://ibb.co/HFxj6dX)

Here's the different shapes I used in the second half of the season. It was fun.

[Mike]

Started jobless with no reputation or badges.
https://i.imgur.com/39256uU.png

Got snapped up
https://i.imgur.com/u6kx7tQ.png

[Dquincy]

Question for anyone who manages a company/is a director in real life, do you still play and enjoy this game?

[Luke Emia]

Question for anyone who manages a company/is a director in real life, do you still play and enjoy this game?

Yep. Why?

[John Arne]

6-6, oooff.

https://gyazo.com/3814e6f38e21047660fa73cc84137db1.jpeg

[Mike]

Got some star pulling power.
https://i.imgur.com/YkTEcD1.png

And just noticed the age of one of my starting 11
https://i.imgur.com/xURE785.png

[John Arne]

Matsui is a legend. He was at Saigon a couple of years ago. Strolled around in central midfield donning everyone to bits.

[Dquincy]

Yep. Why?
My disinterest in playing FM seemed to coincide with a higher position in my career and managing staff in real life. I think it got to the point that I couldn't be arsed to manage moany sensitive players on a computer game when I've been doing it most of the day at work.

Just wondered if this had affected anyone else.

I still follow the game with interest. Just don't play it anymore. The love may come back but we'll see.

[Bam]

Yeah but you're in your 50th season on FM11, its going to get boring.

[igor_balis]

Yeah but you're in your 50th season on FM11, its going to get boring.

I did think that.

[Dquincy]

I was. :( Work bag with laptop got stolen outside a pub a while back.

[Dquincy]

P.s. but I've downloaded FM 24 mobile today to see if bites.

[Mike]

Finished my first season in the third tier in Japan.
https://i.imgur.com/uJ4YNq3.png

[Bam]

:|

[Lofty]

SI claiming they can't do an update for 2024 to make up for the 2025 problems :D

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

How do they keep managing to find ways to fuck things up even worse?

[John Arne]

My stadium is being expanded by a huge 8,000 seats so we have to move out for 11 months.

We are moving to the Newport Community Stadium... capacity 43,700. Wiki suggests this stadium actually has a capacity of some 5,000. Weird.

https://gyazo.com/eceae4ca95a6ce16ec8a3d77744287a2.jpeg

[Bam]

My stadium is being expanded by a huge 8,000 seats so we have to move out for 11 months.

We are moving to the Newport Community Stadium... capacity 43,700. Wiki suggests this stadium actually has a capacity of some 5,000. Weird.

https://gyazo.com/eceae4ca95a6ce16ec8a3d77744287a2.jpeg

I can't even find that stadium in my game, strange.

[Shindig]

Very odd. With a build date of 2025, you'd think it would be a real venue currently under construction.

[John Arne]

Yeah, baffling. I'm using a FMUpdate database, so can only assume it's been added in by some Newport geek, a la To Madeira.

[Dark Soldier]

I think my save is broken. I'm Brentford and just saw this, Jan transfer. No fucking idea what's going on with this transfer, he's the highest reputation player in my save.


https://i.ibb.co/mqNXB5G/1.png

[Dquincy]

I think my save is broken. I'm Brentford and just saw this, Jan transfer. No fucking idea what's going on with this transfer, he's the highest reputation player in my save.


https://i.ibb.co/mqNXB5G/1.png

Does final year of contract have any influence on a reduced transfer fee?

[Dark Soldier]

It would, but considering in the summer he was valued at around 240mil by Real that's a hell of a drop. Only thing I can think is salary cap, and the AI being shit and stupid.

[Dquincy]

Christ alive that's a high transfer value.

When my new laptop arrives this week, I plan on starting a 100 year journeyman save on FM12. This follows my FM11 100 year save prior to my laptop getting stollen. It's time to move on.

[Dquincy]

Got my new laptop, so started a new save on FM12.

Loaded up a load of leagues and started unemployed with no rep. Ended up getting a job in the 2nd tier in Norway with these guys...

https://logotyp.us/file/honefoss.svg

Wow that's a big badge!

I joined Honefoss BK midway through the 2011/12 season which runs April to October.

They were sitting 12th just out of relegation when they sacked their previous manager, and I signed up. We managed to lose our first 3 games and i thought i was going to get the sack too, but then the ship steadied and I managed a mid table finish by the end of the season.

https://i.imgur.com/NFDw5Yo.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/DrxIsUX.jpeg

So i now have a very long off season to offload the shit and try to bring in some new faces. Although we have the 2nd highest wage bill in the league and we're hemorrhaging money every month.

[John Arne]

Nice. Keep the updates coming.

I tried playing FM11 on steam and it didn't work. Some issue with DirectX apparently :(

[Baz]

Why not push the boat out for FM24?

[Bam]

Buys a new laptop and goes all out getting FM12. :D

[Dquincy]

:D

Too much detail in FM24. I want a game where it's not too slow to progress through due to copious admin and data.

That and my previous 100 year career was on FM11, so naturally the next one to do is FM12!

The way SI are going, i'm sure i'll catch up soon.

[Dquincy]

Nice. Keep the updates coming.

I tried playing FM11 on steam and it didn't work. Some issue with DirectX apparently :(
I think i recall having that problem as well with FM11 way back when.

From memory, to overcome it, I think i installed FM12 or 13, which installed what was required to play FM11. Maybe worth a go.

[Dquincy]

Honefoss BK : Midway Season Update : 2012

So the 5 month off season wasn't as busy as i hoped. This being due to having no money in the bank. My main focus was on reducing our wage bill, which i did...slightly. We we went from second highest club salary to third highest, so not that great. Due to us only playing 30 league games a season, with only one cup competition. I was content to have a very small squad. This meant no 2nd team or under 19 squad members.

This meant i only offloaded in the off season, with my only incoming freebie has arrived very recently during the season.

https://i.imgur.com/8ROdfVz.jpeg

Cato Hansen and Ganso Ba were also new comers, but joined at the end of the previous season (you can see them in the squad list below). Both were freebies.

So the start of the season went better than i envisaged, we were much more consistent than last season. It helps that my first team is clearly a top 5 team in this league (Honefoss were relegated from the top tier the year before i joined them).

First half of the season fixtures played out like this. I'm still in the cup as well! Will update on this at end of season.

https://i.imgur.com/WNCVONF.jpeg

This means the league is looking very tight at the top at the halfway point. Sogndal and Aalesund are the two teams who were relegated from the Norwegian Premier league last season. Also, it a potential season defining 2 weeks, my next two games are against Bryne (1st) at home and then Sogndal (3rd) away. 6 pointers galore.

https://i.imgur.com/YwW2qoW.jpeg

My squad is looking like this. My main man is the striker fella, Riski, who is on loan from Cesena (Italy). He was already at the club when i joined and has a 2 year loan.

https://i.imgur.com/uCGozs2.jpeg

Riski. Look at that goals per game ratio.

https://i.imgur.com/jGFTeJL.jpeg

However, the main issue is this club is heading to financial ruin. I'm losing over 100k a month. Not sure how this is resolved unless i get promotion this year. It's make or break.

https://i.imgur.com/Cz8WzdR.jpeg

[Dquincy]

Bugger. That Riski fella's loan contract ends at the start of August and I have no money to get him back on loan. Fucky fuck fuck. Will be playing the majority of the 2nd half of the season without him.

[John Arne]

I think i recall having that problem as well with FM11 way back when.

From memory, to overcome it, I think i installed FM12 or 13, which installed what was required to play FM11. Maybe worth a go.

Legend. This worked, thanks (FM12 didn't, FM13 did).

[Dquincy]

Legend. This worked, thanks (FM12 didn't, FM13 did).

:thbup::thbup::thbup:

[Dquincy]

Honefoss BK : Near the End of Season Update : 2012

Turns out losing my £1.5m on-loan striker meant my team could not hit barn door and their morale dropped like a stone.

Just as Riski was leaving us, we had the double 6-pointer with first place and third in the league. Amazingly we won both games which meant we took a 5 point lead at the top after winning our next game. But then the crisis arrived with only 2 wins in 7 games (inc a cup game).

https://i.imgur.com/vbX44ME.jpeg

This means, with 5 games to go, we have dropped back down to 2nd place with 3rd place close behind. Top 2 get promoted, so it's a case of steering the team out of this crisis and salvaging 2nd place for promotion.

https://i.imgur.com/i0Q4W0K.jpeg

[Dquincy]

Safe to say we're not yet out of our crisis. We've played a further 3 games and amassed a measly 4 points from 9. Luckily, neither Sogndal or Aalesund have taken massive advantage of this with them swapping 1st and 3rd, whilst i remain in 2nd place...just.

2 games to go to not fuck this up.

https://i.imgur.com/IlrNFaJ.jpeg

[Dquincy]

Penultimate match of the season. We bottled it. We had more than enough chances to win it.

https://i.imgur.com/q9BsOJV.jpeg

Our draw has caused us to drop out of the promotion places. With the final game of the season to be played, we play at home to Asker, and the top two play each other. I think they only need to play out a draw and hope I don't win by more than 1 goal. If so, they both gain promotion instead of me.

https://i.imgur.com/7Q4Pz44.jpeg

[Dquincy]

Final game of the season. Can we beat Asker and will the other result go my way?



:dance:

It was tighter than it looked, our 2nd goal came in the 85th minute as again we were pummelling them but so wasteful in front of goal. The other match as you can see was a foregone conclusion in the end.

https://i.imgur.com/sJA5H7Y.jpeg

So we win promotion on the last day.

Here are the season results. We got quite far in the domestic cup, but lost to Valerenga. No surprise as they were high up in the Norwegian premier.

https://i.imgur.com/Ojt4GFp.jpeg

The squad and their end of season stats.

https://i.imgur.com/Bjxys3c.jpeg

Some of my star men.

https://i.imgur.com/kcPEU4b.jpeg

This fella came in on a free from Africa to replace on loan Riski. Whilst he scored quite a few, he wasted so many more.

https://i.imgur.com/C7a6olX.jpeg

Our star centre back, was here when i arrived. Whilst quite old, he is clearly too good for this league.

https://i.imgur.com/jkTL4uG.jpeg

Solid dependant midfielder. Was here when i arrived, but also getting on a bit.

https://i.imgur.com/OZItGyT.jpeg

And finally, the finances. Half a mill in debt despite prize money and a good cup run.

Now that I've won promotion, it remains to see if i stay here for 1 more season.

[John Arne]

90th minute equaliser to win the title :drool:

https://gyazo.com/3b30e3beec462a6c5890580e8cf10263.jpeg

Also, the board have been incrementally increasing our stadium...16k->20k-->24k and now 28k. However, now they are looking a new site to build a new stadium... 33k. If we end up spending hundred's of millions for 7k new seats, will not be happy.

[John Arne]

Brentford, who were 2nd, managed to give up a 1-0 lead at home to Ipswich.

https://gyazo.com/8e28ca3367dbe19a5374dcd28da462f0.jpeg

[John Arne]

Ah, here we go. £95m for an extra 10k seats. Hmmm...

https://gyazo.com/57051054c30cc537cce36b3dac7fd277.jpeg

[Gray Fox]

You're only actually paying about £44m for it to be fair. I bet it's also got some expansion potential too.

[John Arne]

Yeah, I'm guessing expansion will be easier, fingers crossed.

[Raoul Duke]

I'm just setting this up - I need the Real Names fix, and anything else? Is FM Scout the place to get it or SortitoutSI?

[John Arne]

Get the latest FMInside transfer update - That seems to be one of the best - available through Steam.

[Dark Soldier]

What a game

https://twitter.com/nocontextfm1/status/1856377457739227212

[Baz]

What a game

https://twitter.com/nocontextfm1/status/1856377457739227212
lol.

Here’s a video by a really charismatic chap from the midlands:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh8CyFS1NBU

[Lofty]

Good to see Mellin's doing well.

[Bam]

What a load of agg just to cheat the game.

[Dquincy]

2012 Update

I called it a day at Honefoss. Wanted to move onto bigger and brighter things. Then i remembered i have little reputation.

You will be aware of Standard Liege? Well they didn't want me, but a shitter team called, RFC Liege, did want me.

They are languishing in the Belgium 3rd division and are currently part time. This is arguably a step down from Honefoss, but i've already accepted the job.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/21/RFC_Li%C3%A8ge_logo.svg/195px-RFC_Li%C3%A8ge_logo.svg.png

This is their current situation.

https://i.imgur.com/cIWZGu0.jpeg

We have 70k in the bank and some spare salary. There was only one thing to do, go raid all the YTS rejects from English premier league clubs who have been released. This led to this transfer activity. Team cohesion could be affected for a while.

https://i.imgur.com/Fr0fACF.jpeg

[Clunge]

I’ve been meaning for years to do an RFC Liege save - like saves where you can pit yourself against the established order in a city. Plus, they were once a big side in Belgium.

[John Arne]

I seem to remember Jordy Hiwula being a decent player on either this version, or one near it.

[Dquincy]

I seem to remember Jordy Hiwula being a decent player on either this version, or one near it.

He's a bit part player in my team currently. I doubt he'll amount to much long term for me but we'll see. I've played a season or so further on so here is what he looks like in Jan 2015.

https://i.imgur.com/W1LtGK1.jpeg

[Dquincy]

Liege : 2012/13 : End of Season

So the plan to dominate the lower Belgium leagues with premier league YTS rejects worked relatively well with us climbing the table, albeit took some time to get the team going. Probably not unreasonable as i bought a completely new squad. But, once the players started gelling, the form came, as you can see below.

https://i.imgur.com/0uc5EGO.jpeg

This meant the league was looking like this with 2 games to go.

https://i.imgur.com/4izBVHm.jpeg

The weird thing about the Belgium lower leagues is they split their season up into three periods. The winner of each period automatically goes into the playoffs at the end of the season. Clearly we were no where near in the first two periods in the season, but fortunately our end of season form meant we won the Third Period and booking the last slot in the play offs. It went down to the last game of the season, which we won 4-2 against Ronse.

https://i.imgur.com/0a4FjHk.jpeg

Overall league table. You can see how a short burst of form in the season can allow a mid table team to get into the play offs.

https://i.imgur.com/bpody5e.jpeg

This meant three play off rounds to win promotion...

The first two rounds were dealt with in a relatively straight forward manner.

https://i.imgur.com/F4gBpZs.jpeg

This set up a two legged final against one of the teams facing relegation from the league above.


A last minute equaliser for us grabbing us promotion in my first season!

https://i.imgur.com/UEkDff1.jpeg

With promotion came this message. Which is ultimately good, but the premier league YTS gang are mullering my finances. I'm losing 100k a month and am -500k in the bank.

https://i.imgur.com/bsSbywi.jpeg

On to next season in the Second Division. Need to sort the salary bill and cut my ridiculously large squad.

[Manc]

What attributes do people value the most when it comes to a pure goalscorer?

[Clunge]

I’d have thought finishing, composure, off the ball, anticipation and first touch, and then maybe determination, bravery and stamina to determine how keen they are to snaffle chances. I guess you could also then make a case for strong physicals to either aid their movement (pace, acceleration, balance, agility) or ensure they win battles and are good in the air ( strength, jumping, heading, etc). Latter two points might be dependent on whether you’re loooking for a midgety poacher or a beefy target man.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Finishing doesn't really matter.

WTS has a striker with 5 finishing (Stephen Gold) on one of his Park to Prem saves and he was lethal.

[John Arne]

I'm so confused... just had my new batch of youth players coming through... and they already have Newgan faces... what????

https://gyazo.com/3c5d3696b66fc2a4b92c982af854460c.jpeg

[John Arne]

A quick Google suggest that this batch of regens probably just been generated with same ID's as previous saves.

[Lofty]

Is there any point upgrading from 23 to 24 if the latter gets a deep discount? I have all the graphics packs and skins installed on my 23 copy so only up for the faff if it's significant.

[Clunge]

I vastly prefer 23 to 24. I'm still on it. It'll do me until 25 or, in all likelihood, 26 when they fix the inevitably horseshit FM25.

[John Arne]

Agreed. 23 better.

[Lofty]

Thanks chaps.

[Baz]

You can cut and paste your 23 graphics folder into 24 and it will work. Would need to download a skin though.

[Manc]

I actually prefer 24. The most varied ME ever produced, imo.

[John Arne]

I think my first team squad needs trimming...

https://gyazo.com/f0403d1342a6b30a0d3a1cebdfe9d311.gif

[Dquincy]

Is your salary budget not buggered with all those players?

[Dquincy]

Liege : 2013/14 : End of Season

Completed our first season back in the Belgium Second Division. I forgot to get many screenshots, so will share what i have.

Firstly the transfers in and out. Last season you may recall my strategy was to hoover up the English premier league YTS rejects. This year, we focused on the Belgium premier YTS rejects. Honourable mention for the loan signing of a young Leonardo Trossard.

Yoo'll also see we sold players where possible to try and balance the wage bill. Not to much success tbh.

https://i.imgur.com/06RIH8P.jpeg

A very topsy turvy season where we struggled for any consistent form. We were never in danger of going down, but likewise we did not threaten the top echelons.

https://i.imgur.com/xFdQoyb.jpeg

This left the end of season standings looking like this. A safe mid table finish is fine for our first season back, but will look to push on next season as i feel some shrewd signings in this league can set you apart from the rest.

https://i.imgur.com/MqpvN6p.jpeg

[Dquincy]

Liege : 2013/14 : Mid Season Update

Transfers in and out. Turns out leaking 150k p/month means we cannot afford to sign many players. We released a few to lighten the wage bill, but again nowhere near enough to make any real difference.

https://i.imgur.com/klq60CZ.jpeg

We are just past the halfway mark in the season and things are going very well. Clear daylight between us and 2nd place, and because we won the First Period, we are already guaranteed a play off place if things go tits up in the 2nd half of the season.

https://i.imgur.com/WHssgSu.jpeg

The main reason for a decent start to the season is the two signings of Jefferson at CB and Benitez upfront. Here's the squad and my two star players.

https://i.imgur.com/t2nJF1p.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/d0JR3Ia.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/fr0icTY.jpeg

Aim is to keep the daylight at the top for the rest of the season.

[Dquincy]

It's gone a bit tits up. The below game has ended an 8 game streak with no win. 3 points from a possible 24 points.

https://i.imgur.com/pOZR4bk.jpeg

Two games to go...

[Dquincy]

Liege : 2013/14 : End of Season Update

Despite the late season collapse, we managed to secure promotion and winning the Second Division with some daylight having won the last 2 games of the season. The penultimate game was against 2nd place, which we won 6-1 away!

https://i.imgur.com/MubyS8d.jpeg

Liege are back in the Pro League for the first time since 1996.

https://i.imgur.com/yMiDPUd.jpeg

Results from the season. Look at that form towards the end of the season. Morale absolutely collapsed.

https://i.imgur.com/hUWS4k7.jpeg

Transfers in and out. Due to the debt we are in, not much came in, and all loans were on 0% wage.

https://i.imgur.com/50si9oN.jpeg

End of season squad and stats. Whilst we won the league, our young team is very inconsistent. Our average squad age is 21 compared to the league average of 25.

https://i.imgur.com/7PNrykq.jpeg

Special mention for Vandewalle, who was one of my first signings when i joined Liege. Was the stand out player this year.

https://i.imgur.com/n5Kuov7.jpeg

As we enter into the summer period, despite being £1.4M in the red, the board decided to spend £2.4M installing underfloor heating to the pitch. This is now the state of our finances. Not good.

https://i.imgur.com/dnL3SBq.jpeg

[Dquincy]

I have a decision to make. In the summer, i have just been offered a job by Charlton, who have been relegated from the Championship this season. They have poor finances but are worth £9M, compared to Liege who are valued at £1.2M. Charlton are the bigger club despite the league standings.

Do i accept their offer and try my hand at League 1 in England, or do i continue my journey with Liege in Belgium?

[John Arne]

You're only actually paying about £44m for it to be fair. I bet it's also got some expansion potential too.


Yeah, I'm guessing expansion will be easier, fingers crossed.

Fucking ay.

https://gyazo.com/b643bf7ea3bd13029ed57316747fe039.jpeg

[John Arne]

Something I had to do on this save was use the in-game editor to turn down the Argentina and Saudi Arabia youth rating. Argentina currently generating like 10-20 superstars every year, with clubs, including me, snapping them up for just $6m-$8m. Saudi also producing way too may wonderkids considering real life shiteness.

[John Arne]

Today is the official FM25 release date :drool:

https://gyazo.com/7a16649cbf428d06b7d39ce51325fe26.jpeg

[Giggles]

#tobeannounced

[John Arne]

Ok gents, why can't I get this guy performing? If I remember correctly he was just a right midfielder, but I retrained him as a left sided inside forward.... however, he just it doing it this year. He played well last season and seemed to be really developing, but this season has been pretty terrible.

https://gyazo.com/e2ef1209955f7416d0c76bfc22090406.jpeg

https://gyazo.com/7025a57dc62f725b723bbe3ebd1131da.jpeg

[Gray Fox]

So he seems to be performing exactly in line with his xG, though not so much his xA. The latter one is less on him though so I'd worry less there. He seems happy, high morale, match sharp and is one of the dressing room leaders, also has been there long enough to know the language. Also trains well.

4 goals in 13 starts also seems about right for a LW in the PL at what I assume by you being in the CL, is a good club. As a real life comparison, Luis Diaz has 5 in 13 so far this season.

I look at his attributes though and wonder if he is going to be much better than that 31/32 season. Where did he play that season? For me he's a RM/RW.

It's been a while since I played, but if I remember right, retraining a new position and intensely training physical stats sucks up a lot of the potential of a player. It might just be that this is his level now. I also note that he has 0 in 19 for a good country too. Check where they are playing him?

[John Arne]

Amazing scout report - thanks :)

He played LW last season, too. I am perhaps just expecting a bit too much from him. My right winger has 8 goals and 7 assists in 15.

[John Arne]

His next game :drool: :D

https://gyazo.com/a218f4876df566380eae8ad9b6fc796c.jpeg

[Bam]

I'm now on a MacBook Pro but bought FM24 on windows steam, is there anyway I can use my copy of FM on my MacBook? It seems Apple no longer supports Steam.

If I have to buy it again, where do I buy it from on the Mac?

[Dark Soldier]

You're definitely autistic.

[Bam]

Worked it out, thanks for your help.

[John Arne]

There's a new update... that removes all of the expired licenses :D


https://gyazo.com/4f0b94a1948a508ab5450a6bbdf3339b.jpeg

The updates seems to have affected lots of people in different ways. For example, Lecce and AC Milan haven't changed for me, but seem to have done for some.

SI have also graciously confirmed that FM24 will continue to be available until the release of FM25. Bless their kind hearts.

1864342578369581349

[wullie]

I had Blu-Neri appear but Milan stayed as they were, just went into whichever folder it is and deleted anything from 4/12 and back in business.

I assume this game gets more stupid the longer you play right? As Cov I'm into 33/34 or so and I've got a Champions League final left to add to a season where I've won the Club World Cup, Charity Shield, Carabao, FA Cup and Premier League, including at least four games where I've scored double figures. Or is it super realistic and Frank Lampard's about to show he's actually the greatest manager in the world?

[John Arne]

I'm about 10yrs in with Wrexham and it's getting a bit easy.

[Dquincy]

How long does it take you chaps to get through a season on FM24, and do you play it with highlights/commentary/instant result?

[John Arne]

About a week for me. Playing for 2-3 hours each for 2 sessions a week.

Instant result scummer.

[Dquincy]

I updated the laptop to Windows 11 and it's fucked my FM12 game. Every time I go to load it via Steam it says 'updating executable' and doesn't load. Ffs.

Have subsequently just bought FM24.

[Mike]

My first full season in the lower leagues of Japan have started well
https://i.imgur.com/aNRUPIe.png

Just turned down a new contract, going to try take them up and leave.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I updated the laptop to Windows 11 and it's fucked my FM12 game. Every time I go to load it via Steam it says 'updating executable' and doesn't load. Ffs.

Have subsequently just bought FM24.

Your head is going to explode.

[Dquincy]

Your head is going to explode.

:( It fucking mental. Why do they need that much information on a screen. I might load up FM11 again, see if that works. I'm gutted.

[Ben]

Can you not just run in compatibility mode?

I have to run 01/02 in XP mode for it to work properly.

[Dquincy]

Can you not just run in compatibility mode?

I have to run 01/02 in XP mode for it to work properly.
Thank you. Sorry, how do I do that?

[Shindig]

If you've got a desktop shortcut:

Right click and go to properties. There should be a compatibility tab. You can select a version of windows from there.

[Dquincy]

Thanks.

Sadly it did not work. Still says 'updating executable' on Steam when loading it up.

[Baz]

Thanks.

Sadly it did not work. Still says 'updating executable' on Steam when loading it up.

Fully close STEAM: a. Find steam in your system tray, not your task bar, the system tray in the bottom right, by the windows time. b. right click and close.

Re-run Steam as admin.

Start FM12 and it should now actually install all the files required.

Fully close STEAM again.

Restart steam normally (NOT admin) and your game should actually work.

[John Arne]

I've had a proper clear out this summer :drool:

https://gyazo.com/847687ad760b579d41e7f22747203fa4.gif

[Dquincy]

Fully close STEAM: a. Find steam in your system tray, not your task bar, the system tray in the bottom right, by the windows time. b. right click and close.

Re-run Steam as admin.

Start FM12 and it should now actually install all the files required.

Fully close STEAM again.

Restart steam normally (NOT admin) and your game should actually work.

Thanks Baz. Unfortunately, it did not work. I opened Steam in Administrator and it just continues to say 'updating executable'. Then it just doesn't load. So weird as FM11 and FM24 load just fine.

https://i.imgur.com/Vmn0uMb.jpeg

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Sorry, are they all the games you have in your Steam Library?

[Dquincy]

You are correct.

[Gray Fox]

Mines not too far off that.

https://i.gyazo.com/f605223153d815789153a1ee4c386906.png

There'd be more FM titles but post 2019 they've all been on the Epic Store.

[Dquincy]

Could I buy FM12 on Epic Store if that has a different launch platform?!

[Gray Fox]

Could I buy FM12 on Epic Store if that has a different launch platform?!

Sadly in recent years SI has taken the decision to remove previous titles from stores. I don't even think you can buy FM23 on any of the legit sites right now, for example. They do leave the editor up to be purchased for a few years but that's it.

The only way to get pre-2024 FM now is to go to key selling websites, or find a physical copy somewhere.

[Dquincy]

Ah fair point. Thank you. Looks like FM24 is going to get a run out. Everything is getting delegates to the Ass Man. Which is going to be a struggle for my semi pro Malaysian club that I've started at.

Looking at your Steam library... is Hogwarts Legacy any good? I've seen adverts/trailers for it which look impressive.

[Gray Fox]

That was a for the Mrs/kids purchase. I'm not much of a M+K player. They say they enjoyed it a lot though.

[Ben]

Sorry, are they all the games you have in your Steam Library?

Not bad compared to mine. :D

Cricket Captain 2020
Cricket Captain 2022 Demo
Football Manager 2012
Football Manager 2013

[John Arne]

1.4m from Hoffenheim.

Ridiculous.

https://gyazo.com/7321218792ce2e0a72b20a3b24959d37.jpeg

[John Arne]

https://gyazo.com/b2cb93f6606681c8b17137bfb7502a4f.jpeg

His recent form...

https://gyazo.com/bb26176af848400a4bcaf9c0f683b622.jpeg

[Bam]

My 19 year old superstar right winger has come out as gay, then I got a message saying about a huge increase in merchandise sales. :D

Never seen that before in the game. :wtf:

[John Arne]

#Woke :D

[Spikey M]

My 19 year old superstar right winger has come out as gay, then I got a message saying about a huge increase in merchandise sales. :D

Never seen that before in the game. :wtf:

He doesn't sound very right wing.

[Bam]

He can play on both sides. :gay:

[ScousePig]

https://fm-arena.com/board/15-guides-researches-and-hints-for-football-manager/

Some interesting finds with regards to training and developing attributes, if you have a read over the threads at the top by Harvest Green. It appears that if you play around a little you can boost important attributes like pace and acceleration really quickly, whilst giving your players lots of rest and recovery.

It's useful to me because it potentially brings alive a part of the game which often just gets ignored or plug and play something generic and left.

[Theyous]

Well, while we all await for whatever mess FM25 will be (which is par for the course honestly), I'm gonna try a journeyman on FM23 - I kinda missed the boat on the freebie FM24 :(

My Profile:
https://i.postimg.cc/nz60yyNX/0000-Profile.png

After a round of interviews, I'm going to:
https://i.postimg.cc/m238n6jr/0004-CACerro.png

Oh the joys of Dynamics! I honestly dislike this mechanic, but alas is something I have to deal with. The board wants playoffs and I have no money, so I'm basically doomed.
https://i.postimg.cc/nrbGRvQ7/0011-Dynamics.png

The table as it stands:
https://i.postimg.cc/ZKLxHvYB/0014-Table.png

https://i.postimg.cc/kgXFpMDj/0015-Avg-Table.png


https://fm-arena.com/board/15-guides...tball-manager/

Some interesting finds with regards to training and developing attributes, if you have a read over the threads at the top by Harvest Green. It appears that if you play around a little you can boost important attributes like pace and acceleration really quickly, whilst giving your players lots of rest and recovery.

It's useful to me because it potentially brings alive a part of the game which often just gets ignored or plug and play something generic and left.

It is interesting finding out the details, but I also fear it ruins the fun if we dig too deep though. So I kinda avoid reading too much into it. Knowing SI, we're bound to run into some shaky coding that would break the game.

Take this with a grain of salt as I have no dataset on the matter, but from what I remember from FM13, training is divided into pools (position, trait, individual attribute, and role) and each pool receives a percentage focus, with the role acting as a fallback pool. The PA then gets shifted into the pools based on the percentages until it hit some sort of hidden threshold. Over time, SI mostly just changes the UI, but the underlying system is still the same I think (the players moaning about being overworked is a hint). So, if you want to abuse the system all you have to do is create a focused set that shifts the percentages towards the attributes you want by having them do only one pool each time.

The new system has a few more interesting options when it comes to the distribution of said percentages, so it is somewhat fun fidling with it. Still, as I mentioned, I'm absolutely no expert on the matter, the above is just something I noticed back when I used to play FM13 (thus I could be entirely wrong). Just thought it would be worth mentioning as I've seen this topic being brought a lot on recent times.

[Bam]

You look like Mike with a beard.

[Clunge]

That skin font is an abomination.

[Shindig]

Welcome to the board. We're like this all the time.

[Mike]

You look like Mike with a beard.
Proper fit then

[John Arne]

Not seen this often. I generally let my U21 manager sign some players for around $500k-$2m... then suddenly he offers this geezer an 8 week trial... and he good :)

https://gyazo.com/362bc4679c6984928679f5ad871d1fed.jpeg

https://gyazo.com/622d4743f7b1bf73e52598f507c3a302.jpeg

[Dquincy]

That skin font is an abomination.
Seconded. Absolutely horrendous.

But, also, welcome. Everyone here is really nice and welcoming.

[Clunge]

Welcome, indeed, to whatever this is :groove:.

[Theyous]

That skin font is an abomination.

I just can get used to sans-serif fonts. I tried. It would look better on a lighter skin (a more newspapery motif), but I just could find one that I liked. If you know of one I'm open to sugestions.


Seconded. Absolutely horrendous.

But, also, welcome. Everyone here is really nice and welcoming.


Welcome to the board. We're like this all the time.


Welcome, indeed, to whatever this is :groove:.

Thanks!


Not seen this often. I generally let my U21 manager sign some players for around $500k-$2m... then suddenly he offers this geezer an 8 week trial... and he good :)

https://gyazo.com/362bc4679c6984928679f5ad871d1fed.jpeg

https://gyazo.com/622d4743f7b1bf73e52598f507c3a302.jpeg

Is that a newgen face? Looks quite good. FM24?

--------------------------------------------------

On other news, it took me quite a while to wade through all the finance fixing friendlies I had to arrange to keep the boat from sinking too hard.

https://i.postimg.cc/DzpPBh5V/0028-Fixtures.png

Still, a last game disappointment against Miramar Misiones saw us miss the playoffs on the last match day. The board is naturally unhappy, but, for the moment, I'm still safe against sacking.

https://i.postimg.cc/VkRR0nCk/0029-Table.png

Because of how relegation works around Uruguay, next season should be another safe one against the fall.

https://i.postimg.cc/nLh14r4Y/0030-Avg-Table.png

That said, I have found some additional league files I've tested and didn't break, so I'll use this opportunity to restart the game with new leagues and proceed to pretend that was the plan all along

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It's been a while but I loaded up the Hitchin save the other day for the first time in ages.

We're struggling in the Prem but we've just done this:

https://i.imgur.com/SDHKNgM.png

:cool:

Our first win in 9 games and somehow, we've actually done the double over City as we won 1-0 at the Etihad earlier in the season.

[Dquincy]

I
On other news, it took me quite a while to wade through all the finance fixing friendlies I had to arrange to keep the boat from sinking too hard.

The amount of friendlies. :D Imagine if that was attempted in real life.

Also, Mahow, glad you're back on it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://i.imgur.com/0eimgKl.png

Fucking robbed. We should have had another huge scalp.

[John Arne]

"Ioanis Peeters, he's one of our own"
#YNWA #RAWK #JFT97

[John Arne]

Is that a newgen face? Looks quite good. FM24?


Yeah, it's from the NewGAN Manager thingy meebob.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Hitchin Town 2046/47 Season Update:

League:

https://i.imgur.com/qgwjjvL.png

That was close and really we should be down as Brighton were docked 9 points. However, I don't feel bad for them as they were saved last season from relegation by Southampton getting docked 9 points and taking their spot.

The xG table shows how screwed we were by the game though:

https://i.imgur.com/YSDqOzQ.png

We should have been so comfortable.

https://i.imgur.com/OpEE2Ev.png
https://i.imgur.com/F07etXk.png

Last 3 games (bar the final) saved us but the City double was so fun.

Cups:

https://i.imgur.com/5xZUdp9.png

Meh.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/f1OvnzK.png

A down year for Ioan sadly but we've played some good football despite the squad being pretty weak. We've got a new backup keeper who was produced this year who looks pretty nifty and is now our hot prospect. Massive props to Deri Woan, he was produced last year and he's been a mainstay pretty much since then, came up with some big goals and assists down the stretch.

[John Arne]

Neer seen this before. FYI, I had over 1bn in the account.

https://gyazo.com/8f8fcca715d40717bfa4580f76d06d3d.jpeg

[Bam]

That's gone straight into the chairman's pocket.

[John Arne]

Won't fucking build me a new stadium though. Canadian prick.

[Dquincy]

Won't fucking build me a new stadium though. Canadian prick.

Planning limitations?

[Shindig]

Netflix won't pay for the naming rights.

[Dquincy]

My neighbour managed to get FM12 working on my laptop over Christmas. Happy days. Have got Liege into the Belgium top flight. Now need to break the big 3 (or 4). Which is difficult when you can only purchase freebies.

[John Arne]

2038 Champions League final. Couple of weeks prior my #2 gets injured for 8 weeks. No sweat.
3 days before the final, my #1 keeper breaks his arm.

Up steps Ben Humphreys, grand total of 3 league games for me in 7 years at the club....

https://gyazo.com/b3f7425745ef6bbc6987b09ac9a31977.jpeg

And he does this...

https://gyazo.com/4481a726aae063b759a7da54f75cde33.jpeg

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Hitchin Town 2047/48 Season Update:

League:

https://i.imgur.com/EFq0JLV.png

https://i.imgur.com/VDXqxnC.png
https://i.imgur.com/wx3NVr8.png

We equalled last season's point total with 8 or 9 games to go and it looked like we'd be completely free of the relegation battle but then we went to shit at the end. The draw against Leeds finally secured our survival at a time I was getting worried we'd have to fight on the last day. Very happy with 42 points though, an 11 point increase over last season.

Cups:

https://i.imgur.com/MOpiP8S.png

Reserves did well, especially beating Arsenal, just a shame they fucked it against Exeter in the next round.

Squad:

https://i.imgur.com/wHcnvKK.png

For the first time since becoming a starter with us, Ioan was not our top scorer. He's not up to scratch at this level (none of our strikers are really) which is sad and we've got no one coming through that could help us on that front right now.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

For those that might be SHOCKED at Everton winning the title, don't be:

https://i.imgur.com/B3w1hHW.png

They're a fucking force in my save.

[Dquincy]

Nice updates chaps. Keep them coming.

[wullie]

I think I've peaked

https://i.imgur.com/fuA2DNt.png

[John Arne]

Liverpool 16th :(

[Dan]

I've been playing a new save lately & just finished the 2025/26 season, so thought I'd drop an update. I've got my own massively customised database with most of the summer transfers etc in, as well as ratings/rep changes etc, so holidayed that forward to December 2024 & started a Director of Football save, but I've properly committed to the bit & made a spreadsheet with measurable targets for all the club vision goals, which I then grade performance against & if the manager falls below the required number of points he's gone - also have separate targets for myself, and if I fail those I'm out too. The club vision determines my general approach to hiring the manager, the way we play etc, but the manager picks the side & the player roles & I instant result the games.

Anyways, I got to the end of the year & had a look to see if there happened to be any teams that actually had a DOF vacancy. Turned out there were only two - Dorking, and the team I settled for, Bordeaux. I was a bit disappointed, as they're an obvious choice, but they had the vacancy & an under pressure manager, so it made sense to roll with them.

The AssMan is effectively the manager, so I had to get someone in quick & build a staff around them that matches their playing philosophies, as well as the club's. In the end I had a choice between Xavi('s brother) & Fabio Cannavaro, who actually has managerial experience, so he got the job. When we took over Bordeaux were 10th in Ligue 2, but somehow still overperforming as they should've been 15th according to the xG table. We made a few transfers, but mostly just tried to get a staff together & identify which players were worth sticking with, however despite our performances improving we still ended up finishing the season in 10th place.

Cut to the summer, and we cleared out some of the dead weight (including Andy Carroll), bringing in a mix of players (https://imgur.com/a2mgizK) that had been identified through data & those found by the scouts, as well as a couple of young players the head of youth development spotted as he's in charge of finding players for the second team & youth squad. We had a frustrating first half of the season, as we reached mid-season once again sitting 10th despite being top of the xG table, however down the back half we started to deliver on our potential, going on a run of 11 straight league wins to fly up into contention for the promotion playoffs. A defeat to Metz, who were sitting third at the time, pretty much killed our chance of automatic promotion, but we returned to good form straight after & entered the final round of games with a huge double-header. We sat in 4th & played Red Star, who were 6th, whilst Metz (3rd) played Paris FC (5th), and whilst the playoff spots had been secured, all three of us sat on 63pts.

The structure of the promotion playoff means that whoever finishes third has to play one game less (4 vs 5, then winner vs 3, then winner vs Ligue 1 side), so we were very happy to see off Red Star 3-1 & even happier when we saw that Paris FC had beaten Metz 1-0, giving us the third place spot (https://imgur.com/yiEpZkZ). Metz & Paris played each other again in the QF of the promotion playoffs, with Paris once again coming out on top, only for us to send the straight home with a 4-1 win. That meant we were in the playoff final, where we would face Auxerre from Ligue 1 in a two legged tie.

https://i.imgur.com/JFoE3xw.png

Away goals :cool: Great rule, always liked it.

We were without our January loan signing Bertug Yildirim, who had completely turned around our issues in front of goal, resulting in him being called up to the Turkiye squad for the World Cup & buggering off midway through the playoffs despite the tournament not starting for another month, so when we drew the home leg 0-0 I wondered if that might be the difference maker, however a late goal in the second leg salvaged a draw, and apparently away goals are still a thing in France so we're going up!

The decisive goal being from a set piece was a cool moment too, as we'd been horrible from set pieces over the first half of the season, scoring only 1 goal & conceding 5, which doesn't sound that bad until you discover we'd only conceded 11 goals in total by that point. I was just about the sack the set piece coach when someone else came in for him, which was handy, but as soon as he was gone we saw a (small) improvement, and the new guy came through when it mattered most.

I'll probably do a more in depth look at the squad in the summer once I've done transfers, but so far the key players have been Sonny Laiton (https://imgur.com/DvmECtb) in goal & Paul Arano (https://imgur.com/H9LDk28) in midfield, as well as this season's loanees Bertug Yildirim (https://imgur.com/2zv7pFj) & Mathis Lambourde (https://imgur.com/OVrb1uj), who were the real stars of the side, so hopefully we can get them back for next season.

[John Arne]

Still wondering whether we are going to see the light of day for FM25... I think they want to get it out in March (licensing, financially etc.)... but the continued lack of updates still is concerning... although, perhaps no news is good news.

In other news, 100 unbeaten at SToK :drool:

https://gyazo.com/dbf0bdf086cd5e4b2575cb91156c749b.jpeg

[Raoul Duke]

Reddit says some listings have it down for March. Expect they're not saying anything because they keep fucking it up

[Gray Fox]

So the theory is that they are contracted to release a game every financial year. For SEGA their year ends in April, so if this is true, they must release whatever product they have in March. Likely in early March so some of those sales count against this years takings.

They did also say they would be showing us the game in January, so they don't have long left to keep that up.

The talk at the time said that because they spend so many years building on top of the same engine, covering bugs with other bugs, quick fixes over overhauls etc, they are having to do the entire thing from the ground up as trying to port over as much as they could has bricked it.

Their problem is two-fold now though. Why should we buy this game considering the absolute mess it is likely to be? We're once again in the position we were in September. The release date is a similar amount of time away and if it was going well, we'd be seeing loads of content showing off their shiny new thing. I could be wrong, but I'm certain we'll just get a text reveal or another version of THE ROADMAP, without actually seeing the game.

The second part of this problem is that once this mess does come out, they're surely going to be patching it to make it work for weeks to months after. If this is so, then FM26 is also going to take a big hit.
The other option is to dump it on the table, walk away and concentrate fully on 26.

[John Arne]

I'm almost certain they'll cancel it. Come March, it still won't be ready - and there is no point releasing a product that is so bad, they'll cancel it, face up to Sega and just promise a mega FM26.

[Clunge]

Heads surely must roll, though? I mean this is a massive, massive fuck up. An unprecedented fuck up in the series' history. It has literally no rivals at all, yet they've still fucked it up. They could have spent years working on a new engine version of FM in the background, but no, they spunked their load and went all in on it and fucked it. It's times like this I wish there had been a genuine rival in the market. I really do desperately hope a savvy developer has quietly had a team working on a spiritual successor / streamlined version of the game and can get it match ready to capture the market. Would be amazing. I said it a few months ago, but look how Cities Skylines swept up when EA fucked the Sim City reboot. You'd love to see it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The problem will be licences.

The vast majority of people wont play a game with every team having a fake name.

Yes for the more savvy of us we'll use an edit but those who just buy the game and play as their favourite team? No chance and I'd imagine that makes up most of the fanbase.

[John Arne]

Many eyebrows were raised when we dropped $66m on a 17yr old Daniel Clywd from Arsenal.

3 goals and 2 assists on debut :drool:

https://gyazo.com/2795add5a0f210bdefb009ecf1a697bf.jpeg

The 8 work rate is a slight worry, but everything looks great.

https://gyazo.com/2fe6ab5942bbe94f77b966c13a49f950.jpeg

[Clunge]

Have you bought him as a striker or MC? If the former, no prob imo. If the latter, I'd want more work rate.

[John Arne]

AM...

[Clunge]

Probs fine then.

[Dan]

I've been playing a new save lately & just finished the 2025/26 season, so thought I'd drop an update. I've got my own massively customised database with most of the summer transfers etc in, as well as ratings/rep changes etc, so holidayed that forward to December 2024 & started a Director of Football save, but I've properly committed to the bit & made a spreadsheet with measurable targets for all the club vision goals, which I then grade performance against & if the manager falls below the required number of points he's gone - also have separate targets for myself, and if I fail those I'm out too. The club vision determines my general approach to hiring the manager, the way we play etc, but the manager picks the side & the player roles & I instant result the games.

Anyways, I got to the end of the year & had a look to see if there happened to be any teams that actually had a DOF vacancy. Turned out there were only two - Dorking, and the team I settled for, Bordeaux. I was a bit disappointed, as they're an obvious choice, but they had the vacancy & an under pressure manager, so it made sense to roll with them.

Just got to midseason in Ligue 1 & we've done our best to work with the very limited budgets at our disposal. We started the summer with a wage budget half the size of the next lowest team (https://imgur.com/XZiWkx7), and PSG's is 40 times bigger, so not exactly ideal, particularly given the only way I'm allowed to increase it is by asking the board - no adjusting the budgets for some extra difficulty. We did still manage to make some transfers (https://imgur.com/Z2nZ7eM) though, largely aided by a few sales for surprisingly large fees, and me realising I could pay bigger loan fees to cut down on wage contributions just in time to nab a couple of extra recruits. Lambourde & Yildirim coming back permanently after their loans was the main goal, but we've made decent upgrades across the board, so despite the media predicting us 17th I felt okay about us avoiding a proper relegation battle.

We've only had the league to focus on so far, so there hasn't been too much pressure on our tiny squad - currently 22 players, but that includes a backup GK that hasn't played & 3 other guys with 0 starts, which still only left us £10k under the wage budget. Annoyingly, we've drawn Nantes in the first (ninth) round of the Coupe de France, so we might not be in that for long. It's gone okay so far though (https://imgur.com/4yrR5aX), with us currently sitting 10th with a nice cushion on the relegation spots. We've also managed to wrangle a £50k increase to the wage budget, so hopefully I'll be able to make a few signings in January that can help push us on a bit more.

[Danny]

Today is supposed to be the reveal. Not looking great.

[Luke Emia]

You'd imagine Sega are losing their minds at this point.

[John Arne]

I'm likely in the minority nowadays, but the annoying thing for me is that the graphics never bothered. I'm a instant result/commentary only player, anyway. FM should never be about graphics, but I appreciate that's not what new fans probably want.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Fucking boomer.

[John Arne]

:D

When I was a lad playing CM97/98...

[Danny]

https://i.imgur.com/SgZmZYv.jpeg

[Pleb]

Lads.

There's no news.

[Ben]

:D

When I was a lad playing CM97/98...

I actually still only play 01/02. :eyemouth:

[Dquincy]

I actually still only play 01/02. :eyemouth:
01/02 was a belter of a release for CM. The only thing that bothered me with that one was it being in the era of the two phase group stage for the champions league. A lot of games.

[John Arne]

This is genuinely astonishing. Just completely ignored their previous date and not even released a fluff piece PR statement. Thins must be worse than we ever imagined.

[Dan]

It's gone okay so far though (https://imgur.com/4yrR5aX), with us currently sitting 10th with a nice cushion on the relegation spots. We've also managed to wrangle a £50k increase to the wage budget, so hopefully I'll be able to make a few signings in January that can help push us on a bit more.

We've hurried through to the end of the season, and it's gone rather well.

https://i.imgur.com/5iBfSXP.png

Just kept climbing over the second half of the season, and ended up pipping Rennes to the final Champions League spot on the final day when they drew with Marseille & we beat Lorient 4-0 - fully deserved too, according to the xG table (https://imgur.com/2vvs6j0). Fabio Cannavaro has done a great job, and fully deserved coach of the year, but PSG went unbeaten so obviously Xabi Alonso won it instead. We didn't really have any standout players (https://imgur.com/x7pHcg9), with only Louie Barry (https://imgur.com/undefined) averaging over a 7, but he & Marcos Leonardo (https://imgur.com/hpPQHCV) both finished with 11 goals & we had solid seasons from skipper Sonny Laiton (https://imgur.com/pqFGTk1) & vice captain Paul Arano (https://imgur.com/JTO8RI9).

We've also had a takeover (https://imgur.com/Nk8o9KB), although it hasn't really changed much other than the club becoming a PLC, and with the club now settled back at the top & our transfer budget for next season still under £20m I'm thinking it might be a good time to look for a move elsewhere. There are a few interesting jobs available - Arsenal, Villa, Atalanta, Betis & Osasuna being the most notable - so we'll see whether I'm actually still here next season.

[Mike]

Starting to think, more and more, that we won't get an FM25 and they'll hold out until '26.

[Dan]

There are a few interesting jobs available - Arsenal, Villa, Atalanta, Betis & Osasuna being the most notable - so we'll see whether I'm actually still here next season.

I am not.

https://i.imgur.com/Qdcwy7i.png

They finished 7th last season, which sounds great unless you were looking closely at the text in the announcement.

https://i.imgur.com/vODNJce.png

They're in the second division, having been relegated the previous season.

The squad needs a proper overhaul, with maybe two players in the squad that look like they could be building blocks, but we have about £70m to spend & £300k p/w free in the wage budget, so it should be interesting to see what I can do with about 6x the budgets I had at Bordeaux. I've also made Cannavaro the actual manager there now, so hopefully he'll continue to keep them going strong.

First things first for Betis though, gotta go find a manager. The board want attacking football & a focus on young players, so I've had a look at some available coaches & also put an advert out. There are a couple of interesting names that could be towards the top of my list though...

[Lofty]

Amazon has a listing for FM25 physical copies stating it will release on 31st March: https://amzn.eu/d/aNISUnc

[Dark Soldier]

Just a placeholder.

[John Arne]

Are you fucking kidding me? Chelsea keeper scores a 92nd minutes equaliser to make it 4-4 :D

https://gyazo.com/7a5d685c98d248d4d0a86f42c2442ff0.gif

[igor_balis]

The FM subreddit is being really weird, a lot of "simping" as the kids would say. The internet has plenty of whiney crybabies that need holding to account (myself included!!) but this ain't it - it's basically people rightly saying SI and Miles are a shambles and people getting weirdly defensive.

[Ben]

Anyone tried this (https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/comments/1iebla1/community_created_physics_engine_update_and_match/)?

[Lofty]

If I had to guess the SI simps harbour dreams of becoming an FM youtuber who gets soapy titwanks from Miles and co so don't want to scupper any chance with some dodgy post history.

[igor_balis]

FM YouTubers are so shit that I have genuinely considered giving it a go myself

[John Arne]

:sherlock:

1886888030071611526

[Jimmy Floyd]

FM YouTubers are so shit that I have genuinely considered giving it a go myself

Do it, you've got the voice for it.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://i.imgur.com/8k7Gxb1.png

Liverpool are in serious trouble here :drool:

[Pepe]

What's a Man UFC?

[Bam]

Liverpool an United both going down in the same season. :drool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

What's a Man UFC?

My real name fix stopped working.

It's not as bad as fucking Casciavit (AC Milan) and Blu-Neri (Inter) in Serie A :sick:

[Clunge]

Wayne Rooney's Plymouth on the warpath.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

They were third a few games ago but they've only gotten 6 points in their last 5 games.

First season ever in the Prem in my save too, so it's insane.

[John Arne]

Just thinking about FM25... one thing I will credit Miles with - he has clearly built a massively loyal team. Not one iota of a leak from the team working on the game - like it's impressive that someone hasn't leaked at least an update or excuse.

[Ben]

There's no FM25 leak because there's no FM25, I reckon.

[Gray Fox]

There's no FM25 leak because there's no FM25, I reckon.

This is what I'm thinking. Complete radio silence since the delay announcement, save for furthering the bad news with a no data update announcement.

If they had got on top of it they'd be showing us their shiny new thing they're really proud of.
This way though is still the better way to go. A delayed game will frustrate people, but releasing a broken mess might turn people away for good.

[Giggles]

The whole saga is more interesting than the last 3 or 4 editions of the game I've played at least.

[Jimmy Floyd]

You're still able to pre-order it on Steam and have been for months, surely that would be such a catastrophic non-event that they'd lose an unacceptable shit ton of money.

[Lofty]

One of the FM Youtubers was saying he still thinks it will be released because they are still taking payments for it and it would torch their reputation even more if they were taking money for a game at this point when it was obvious there wouldn't be one. Then again he also said it could just be an issue with the new licencing needing signing off but that doesn't really explain why they have said nothing or shown nothing since the delay announcement.

Maybe they tried to rebalance the women's game after the lol screenshot and their brains melted.

[Manc]

Do it, you've got the voice for it.

And the imagination.

[Dan]

First things first for Betis though, gotta go find a manager. The board want attacking football & a focus on young players, so I've had a look at some available coaches & also put an advert out. There are a couple of interesting names that could be towards the top of my list though...

Hit the midpoint of the 27/28 season with Betis, so it's update time.

The first job was to hire a manager who fit with the club vision to play attacking football & focus on younger players, so after putting some feelers out there we settled on Cesc Fabregas (https://imgur.com/Xre5KUN), who narrowly edged out Frank Lampard because I felt the squad suited a 4231 more than a 433.

The next job was transfers. We had £70m to spend, plus £400k p/w in available wages, which is way more than I had at Bordeaux, and more than enough to put together a good side:
https://i.imgur.com/h2oC7ID.png

We've reunited with Marcos Leonardo, who will rotate up top with Max Moerstedt, and I'm expecting Eyüp Aydın to run games in midfield, but we've mostly just scooped up talented young players who haven't broken through at bigger clubs & are now going cheap. I'm hoping we can find a few who will push on & become long term squad players, then we can flip the rest for a bit of profit.

We obviously shouldn't be in the second division, and we're just way too financially dominant compared to everyone else - after digging into the warchest our annual salaries are almost double the size of the next highest team in the league. We were the odds on favourites to go up, despite the club only asking for playoffs, so you can probably guess how the first half of the season has gone...
https://i.imgur.com/3acTGCT.png

It's gone exactly as it should have, at least until we fell on our faces in the last game before the break & lost our first game of the season to Andorra, but I don't think it's going to do too much to derail our title charge. Should be pretty straightforward down the home stretch, but it would be nice to see us tidy a few things up because we're actually underpeforming both xG for & xG against. We're still beating our xPts though (https://imgur.com/zBpEGsI), which is one of the targets I'd set for the season, so that's good enough I guess.

We're on track for basically every target I've set - the only ones that could be close are the targets around homegrown at club players as we're reliant on one or two players for the bulk of the HGC minutes, but even if we fall short there we should tick everything else off the club vision, so we should have everything in place behind the scenes to allow us to build for on pitch success.

Quick update on Bordeaux while I'm here. I'd set Fabio Cannavaro as their actual manager once I left, with him having led them to the CL in their first season back in Ligue 1 last season. This year has not gone quite so well for him though. (https://imgur.com/oZT4nZG)

[Lofty]

FM25 officially cancelled.

[Giggles]

How do you fuck up something so badly, especially when it's something they've done fuck all work on for over a decade.

[Lofty]

Home working I bet.

[John Arne]

Daaaam.

1887691360217579847

[John Arne]

Probably the right decision.

Releasing the statement at 2am is a final fuck you to some.

[Bernanke]

lol. lmao even.

[Giggles]

Home working I bet.

All they had to do was change the skin a bit, lob in the womens game, a few more pointless questions in the 'interviews' and it'd have sold as well as any of them have with nobody batting an eyelid.

[Ben]

All they had to do was change the skin a bit, lob in the womens game, a few more pointless questions in the 'interviews' and it'd have sold as well as any of them have with nobody batting an eyelid.

They've been lazy like this for years and could have kept getting away with it, but this move means they really have to pull it out of the bag for FM26 now. If it's bug-ridden or hardly an improvement over FM24, then a lot of fans could be turned away.