cool tidbit of news following a come from behind win:

We were indeed down 0-1 at the half after a fluke goal in the 30th minute. pregame talk was "you can win this" and halftime talk was simply "sympathise with the team". My star forward got on fire and scored a hattrick with goals in the 78th, 79th and 90th minute. I got nervous when they scored right after his last goal to make it 3-2, but we held on...

Pierre-Fanfan was named captain only this season and it looked like it made the best of impression when I named him. Something like 7 or 8 of my starters saw huge boost in morale after that nomination and we've been having a much better season this year than last year...

FM

Jose'-Karl Pierre-Fanfan is one of the best names I've ever seen.

ok ive encounted a problem. i just took over a german 3rd division team at the start of a new season. but once the season starts all my players are inelidgable to play for them, all of them. it says none of them are registered, but ive never been given a chance to register anyone for a competition

Trying simming thru the one day

im over 12 seasons into the game, and ive been at the german club for a month, this just happened once the first league game was about to be played

still...try. Odds are the computer will automatically fix it. I once upon a time had to do the same thing (don't remember when).

speaking of that, it's time I put the CD into the drive for the weekend-binge.

Honestly I bought the game the second it was available on Amazon. I dont know what it is about 2008 but I havn't been able to get into it. I played the past 3 years of the game to death but just not this year. I think I just need a break.....hence my FOF addiction has taken over.

ok ill give it a try. the problem was i was on match day and i had to pick my team and they only allowed mr to select a bunch of greys, none of my guys under contract. odd thing was i played the german cup game a few game days before and had no problem

Ok, this is annoying....I dislike the "*player A* is returning to the field for the first time, how do you feel about it" I look at when he played for my team, 15 seasons ago when he was 16 and 17...

lol...classic

It looks as though the game has the Dutch league's, AZ, down to a team. They have been notorious for cracking under pressure in the real world and they're doing it again in FM. Last season, as Ajax, we were down five points in the table to AZ with two games to go so all they need is a win in one of those games to clinch the title. They lose in the first of those games against Feyenoord, a game they might not necessarily be expected to win. We win against Roda JC. So AZ have the last game against at home against 16th place NAC Breda and they're up two points on us. Sure enough, we win and AZ fold again.

This season, the same thing is happening. With nine games to go, AZ were up 10 points on us and leading the table. Four games later and we've taken all 12 points without AZ taking one. So we are up two on them with five games left. I would love to read the comment under their fan confidence meter. "The fans are concerned that the team is choking away the title again."

ok discovered my problem. theres a little button at the bottom right side of the screen that lets you give # to players, and the players need a # to register. unlike in the english league where if you have a player without a # they automatically make you give him a number.

now i have to find 3 damn germans under 21 to play each game, i only have 3 on my first team >:(

These clowns better NOT let my contract expire after everything I've done.

How long are there training facility upgrades supposed to take?

I got mine approved by the board at the end of August/begining of September. They said I would get a message in a few months when the upgrade is done. To me, a few means 3. I am in January now and nothing.

Training facilities take awhile. I forget how long, but it did seem like quite awhile (definately longer than 3 months).

major calendar error

the 2015 European Super Cup conflicts with a European Championships Qualifying match.

it's inconcievable to me that the European Super Cup wouldn't be moved.

And now as a result of that I'm going to lose the European Super Cup and piss my board off, since I have 4!! first team players who didn't get called up by their countries for the match (not even 4 starters. Just 4 players who aren't "reserves" or "u20")

LOL....and for all my bitching I won 4-3 on PK's

Ouch. That is bad. And to think I have league matches moved all the time because I have two players called up for U21 matches and 1 of those guys only plays part of the time.

yeah. Just got lucky that my guys who were south american didn't have a fixture, so I still had Lucas, and Leo Messi, and my 23 y/o Spanish GK (somehow!) isn't the first choice for Spain, so I had a decent core there.

The following sounds like another calendar error. Can anyone confirm?

To make a long story short, I had six of my players named to a friendly "all-star" type game and thus are ineligible for that day's league game and I have no way to remove them from the friendly squad. Has anyone lost players to a friendly squad during a competition season? Is this just a bug or do teams deal with this in real life outside of international squad recalls?

is it in the MLS? nothing suprises me with thier real life schedualing

Damnit - my Solihull Moors just got relegated from Conf. Premier (by 1 point). :mad: :mad: I'm still not sure if I'm gonig to get fired, but even if I don't it'll be hard to continue playing the game back down in Conf. North.

Code:

---

| Pos  | Inf  | Team          |      | Pld  | Won  | Drn  | Lst  | For  | Ag    | G.D.  | Pts  |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 1st  | C    | Hereford      |      | 46    | 28    | 11    | 7    | 93    | 41    | +52  | 95    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 2nd  | Pl    | Dag & Red      |      | 46    | 25    | 13    | 8    | 77    | 44    | +33  | 88    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 3rd  | Pl    | Dorchester    |      | 46    | 24    | 11    | 11    | 86    | 57    | +29  | 83    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 4th  | Pl    | Wrexham        |      | 46    | 22    | 13    | 11    | 69    | 49    | +20  | 79    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 5th  | Pl    | Halifax        |      | 46    | 22    | 11    | 13    | 67    | 49    | +18  | 77    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 6th  |      | Woking        |      | 46    | 21    | 10    | 15    | 71    | 53    | +18  | 73    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 7th  |      | Ebbsfleet      |      | 46    | 19    | 15    | 12    | 74    | 58    | +16  | 72    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 8th  |      | Cambridge      |      | 46    | 20    | 10    | 16    | 76    | 66    | +10  | 70    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 9th  |      | Shrewsbury    |      | 46    | 19    | 13    | 14    | 61    | 51    | +10  | 70    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 10th  |      | Billericay    |      | 46    | 20    | 9    | 17    | 62    | 56    | +6    | 69    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 11th  |      | Kettering      |      | 46    | 17    | 15    | 14    | 50    | 45    | +5    | 66    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 12th  |      | Rushden        |      | 46    | 19    | 8    | 19    | 94    | 95    | -1    | 65    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 13th  |      | Salisbury      |      | 46    | 18    | 10    | 18    | 71    | 63    | +8    | 64    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 14th  |      | Chester        |      | 46    | 15    | 17    | 14    | 51    | 47    | +4    | 62    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 15th  |      | Forest Green  |      | 46    | 18    | 6    | 22    | 66    | 71    | -5    | 60    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 16th  |      | Crawley        |      | 46    | 15    | 12    | 19    | 56    | 72    | -16  | 57    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 17th  |      | Weymouth      |      | 46    | 15    | 11    | 20    | 47    | 59    | -12  | 56    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 18th  |      | Kidderminster  |      | 46    | 14    | 9    | 23    | 57    | 88    | -31  | 51    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 19th  |      | Newport Co    |      | 46    | 14    | 7    | 25    | 68    | 95    | -27  | 49    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 20th  |      | Grays          |      | 46    | 11    | 14    | 21    | 63    | 74    | -11  | 47    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 21st  | R    | Altrincham    |      | 46    | 11    | 14    | 21    | 43    | 61    | -18  | 47    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 22nd  | R    | Solihull Moors |      | 46    | 11    | 13    | 22    | 48    | 68    | -20  | 46    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 23rd  | R    | Hednesford    |      | 46    | 11    | 6    | 29    | 48    | 105  | -57  | 39    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| 24th  | R    | Matlock        |      | 46    | 8    | 12    | 26    | 34    | 65    | -31  | 36    |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

---

If anyone wants a challenge, play as Solihull. You've got the worst training and youth facilities, have one of the lowest team net-worths, and have no parent or feeder teams (and the board never approved any new ones). Not a good choice for a crappy player such as myself.

Had it mentioned by a guy I had on loan a few years ago as backup in case on of my main guys went down. Asked if I thought he was a thread. Too bad there wasn't a "Dude sucks" button :)

No, it is the Irish Premier Division.

Still having a problem with international jobs not showing up on the job listing page...I check the page regularly and today I looked, saw no international jobs, and then I get an email the next day talking about the new manager for the Argentina side being appointed...

Now, I'm still only known as a "national" head coach (Southend in the Championship in 2009)...not sure if this has something to do with it...but I'm worried I'm missing out on some lower-tier national jobs???

Ideas? or has anyone else seen this? I remember seeing international jobs advertised often in the 06 version...

Thanks.

Play with the filters--the international jobs are not there by default, but they show up if you do something with the filters. I don't have the game open, so I can't tell you exactly what.

They show on Job Security, not Job Centre

This is killing me. I just got offered the Aberdeen job. They are sitting at 7th in the SPL right now.

I am sitting in 1st in the SD1, but a 7 or 8 game winning streak has me only 1 point up on St. Jonhstone and my team is currently riddle with injuries. I have something like 7 guys injured, 3 of them for pretty much the rest of the year. The fact I have kept winning is amazing to me.

I would love to take the Albion Rovers to the SPL, though I don't know if I would be able to keep them there with the current roster.

Aberdeen gives me 10x my current transfer budgey with over 5 million. They would give me 16x my current salary budget at 160+ k a week.

I really wish this offer would have come in another month or two when I knew for sure what would happen with my team. With 10 matches or so to go it is killing me.

Crap, I am a bit surprised by my own team right now.

I knew I was on the best winning streak (league games only, as I lost a cup game to SPL team Hearts in the middle), but I guess I haven't been paying attention to just how well my team has done. I went to count how many wins I had and ended up seeing that I have an 18 game unbeaten streak going on in league games. I haven't lost since October, and it is now March.

I guess I was so focused on St. Johnstone and managing my roster because of good cup play in the first half of the season that I didn't notice.

Aberdeen job update already: I played St. Johnstone the same day I got the job offer. I figured I would delay a week and see how I did in the big road game which could cost me 1st place. I noticed I could delay until the end of the season!! Very cool. I had no idea you could do that. So I chose that option, then went out and won at the Saints 3-1. 4 point lead, 9 games to go.

That's cool. I'm in somewhat of the same boat with Gillingham, I won the League One title with them, but the key players were loan signings who didn't return. We had a miniscule transfer budget and a rapidly aging team, things haven't gone well in the Championship and we are in the relegation zone, the board won't give me more money and won't do anything like expand the stadium or fund youth development. Pretty tough to survive with gates of around 9k, so I'd like to keep them up this year, but can't see how I can take them forward.

good fer you. but will you be able to take the Aberdeen job next year or will you feel to attatched to your old team?

Well, I jinxed myself by posting about the winning streak and my 18 game unbeaten streak.

After the big win at the Saints I visit Stirling. A team I have always done real well against. They are sitting in 4th though and playing better then they have since I have been in SD1. They crushed me. They were up 4-0 at the half and won 4-1. My whole team took a crap on me. St. Jonhstone won 4-0 at home. Back to a very shaky 1 point lead. Damn I wish those bastards would just fade away like the others had started to do.

I am very attatched to the Albion Rovers, especially since my whole strategy has been the only real one open to me. Sign 18 and 19 year olds and train them into better players. Over the last 2-3 years while in SD1 I have been able to bring in 1 impact guy a year, out of about 50-60 offers to guys a year I would say. So even the impact guys I have brought in are still young, getting better, and big parts to my team.

The problem is that Albion starts so low that they are also very slow to want to change anything. They start with the lowest attendance in SD3, and a stadium with only 1200 capacity or so. After over 4 years and 2 in SD1 I finally got them to agree to upgrade the training facilities at the begining of this year. IIRC, a promotion will force them to upgrade the stadium to meet the SPL minimum. Atleast that used to be something that happened I think. I also think they would officially switch from semi-pro to a full pro team, which would be good. The problem is I am not sure if any changes will be made if I miss promotion, so if I miss it this season I am strongly considering moving on.

best of luck mr. cringer!! i'm pulling for you!!

Notts County ready to finally try and promote in their 3rd season of L1. We really were on track to do it last season, but the lack of a dominant striker (our uber striker abandoned us) killed us in the end.

2.8 million dollars and an insane contract later, Ross McCormack is ready to do some rockin'.

My team got cold feet. Just went through 3 more games and ended up losing another one which has given St. Johnstone a 2 point lead. That was a rough streak though I guess, with 4 out of 5 games away, and the road games were against top teams for the most part.

5 games left, 4 at home thankfully. This includes a home game against the evil empire known as St. Johnstone in the second to last game of the year.

To add to my nerves, Dax Hoogerworth (or Hoogs as I call him) has for some strange reason decided it is time to move on and requested a transfer. This is my original, team owned, star. I got him before my first season and he has started and scored more then any other striker for me. We joined me in SD3 and has grown with the team. He is a big part of my attatchment. Perhaps a sign, I don't know.

It's a sign. Flee. :)

Ok, I need some help. I just upgraded to a computer running Vista, and I can't get any add-on logos/facebacks/backgrounds to load. I've followed all the usual steps and nothing. Is there something that needs to be done on Vista that I'm not aware of?

Not a sign. He requested to come off the list.

And I won!!!!!!!!! SD1 is mine. In crappy, stressing fashion. Before we face off against each other in the second to last match of the year, the Saints LOSE 2 of 3 matches! YES! Oh crap, I lose both times they do. NO!!

They end up choking it more them I though, as they come into Coatbridge and I take them out 2-0. One game left at home against now 3rd place Livingston. I get a goal in the first minute, then get a RC. Ended up winning 2-0 again.

The Albion Rovers are going to the SPL baby, and I am staying on as their manager.

My contract was nearing an End at Crystal Palace and the board was thinking they might go a different direction now (I'm the greatest manager in football history at this point) because I basically met my expectations in year one, fell short in year two and met them in year 3. I told the media that I was possibly looking to leave due to my relationship with the board and the next week I had a contract offer. :) The front runner for the job was my current assman so I fired his ass. I wish I could say that he was fired for probably trying to orchestrate my demise at the club.

On the sorta same note, I think that there should be more Assman being promoted to manager then there currently is. I see examples of coaches holding down 8 different head coaching positions while my previous Assman was the second in command for 16 years and saw all of the great times come to fruition. I wish I would actually lose them to other coaching positions. I rarely lose my Assman other then to contract demands. My coaches get poached rather quickly to smaller jobs. Though, I think it is realistic to see my youth coaches getting "promotions" to coaches at other jobs.

Another strange occurence is that I'm seeing Super Physio's in the year 2035. They are nearly maxed out in most of the categories. It's bizarre to say the least. I also wish that more players who express an interest in a future outside of football would actually become coaches/scouts/physio's.

Just some thoughts I had is all

my MC's are getting some quality chances from ~ 18 yds. I had a MC with 15 goals last year, and just had another score 2 goals this past game.

Scum. :)

Well, his contract was almost up anyways He had a month to go..:)

I agree to some extent, but I think you have to recognize that in football/soccer, the assistant heading up path is a lot less comon that it is in American sports - more often than not, the sheer volume of former players means that you pick a manager from there and go with it.

In fact, I was annoyed in my game with Arsene Wenger left Arsenal, he was replaced by Pat Rice. There's no way in hell one of the top teams in England would ever higher a first-time manager.

But even Pat Rice is a former player. It's not so much that I care about who is the manager, I just wish to see some of the former Assman get the job once in a while. It seems that coaches are always coaches, Assman are generally Assman, and Scouts are generalyl scouts with no way around it. Some of the coaches have seen more jobs then Amy Winehouse has seen drugs

I hate to jinx us, but we've started off on fire.

9 wins, 2 draws, no losses in league play, and our new striker is doing exactly what I had hoped, both creating goals and scoring them, with 8 goals, 3 assists, and 4 man of the match awards.

Well in case anyone was worried, I didn't get sacked despite getting relegated. :) Instead got a 2 year extension (and a small raise).

But now my board's long-term expectation is to 'survive in Blue Square Premier', which i guess means get promoted this year, and not get relegated next year.

I am wondering how many seasons in a row someone has had the same guy on loan before? Even though I am now in the SPL and I can no longer be the feeder club for Rangers, I still went back to them to try for two of their players again. The L/R back whom I had last season, and and the forward I have loaned the previous two seasons. Both agreed to come back, which is nice because it means I don't have to try to buy the defender.

This is going to be my 3rd straight year with this striker on loan though. Last season he was the first guy I ever had come back for a second. If he wasn't out of my transfer range I would try to make him mine for good, but heck, I won't argue because it is cheaper for me this way. :D

Good to hear you didn't get the axe. Good luck getting back up to the BSP.

I've sent guys to the same club many times and in the rare instance when I'm a LLM, I try to get them again if they were good enough to have on the team.

Most of the guys I have loaned over these 5 seasons I have played I have tried to get back. They just usually don't want to come back. Of course the first guy is now a star for Celtic, so I can't say I blame him. One of the others I am trying to sign right now but I don't think I will get him.

Too bad you couldnt get a fee attached to the player last year. I've often found, like you seem to be finding out right now, that after one year on the team, they are done. Of course, now that you are promoted, he might be more open to it.

Couple of things that are strange:

- penalties -is anyone converting? My 20 rated penalty taker is something like 1-in-5, and I'm just seeing many made - at all.

- Strange subs. Reading have signed a striker for 10 million pounds - he starts every game, but is always subbed-off for a midfield. Meanwhile, their star striker (kevin Doyle) starts the game at Right Wing, and moves to striker upon this sub. What the hell? In 11 games, he has been subbed before the 30th minute - that's ridiculous, and I wonder if there's some strange bug going on.

not quite as bad as yours but i've had multiple high penalty rating people having significant issue with penalties. including eduardo (16 pen/15 fin/15 comp) completely missing the goal.sub logic has always been a bit . . . iffy. i've seen odd subs like this for multiple versions now. although not always quite this consistent.

My best guy is 5 for 5, the two that have been taken when he is not in the line up have both been missed however.

I missed all 4 in the FA Trophy final shoot-out last night, which sucked. None of the guys was rated better than a 9, but still a bit ridiculous.

In regards to penalties, mine have seemed to be just about what one would expect. My main shooter is a 16. He's 9 for 11 on penalty kicks. I've seen roughly 85-90% success by the opponents, so it seems spot-on for me thus far.

Yeah, I've been largely fine on penalties. My taker last year missed maybe 1 or 2 that I can remember, my taker this year is 2 for 3 thus far.

Wild ride of a season for me right now in my C1/B Italian team. The previous year, we came one game short of 2 promotions in 2 years as we lost in the playoff final of C1/B. That was well above our pre-season goal of avoiding relegation. At the start of the year, I stuck with their suggested goal of a mid-table finish. They offered a salary increase of 10K to 37K/week. At that time, the club had a debt of 375K with a stadium capacity of 6K (no seats).

Just before the season was to start, the board decided to add 4000 seats to the stadium (8K capacity). For the 6 months that my stadium was being renovated, we were to play in a different stadium. As a result, the team's debt skyrocketed from 375K to 1.6M. Thankfully, my team got on a great run to start the season and we were drawing crowds of 9K or more at the temporary stadium, resulting in 150K/match in revenues. That's much more than we ever could have made at the old stadium.

We're now in February and with 10 matches to go in the season, we stand in 4th place and appear to be headed to the playoffs again this year. Due to the large crowds in the first half of the year, we've cut 1.2M of the debt off of the finances and are only 450K in debt at this point. We're likely to move the team close to break-even by the time the season is finished, which should allow a much better salary number (and actual transfer funds for the first time in 3 years). We have a few bad players with large salary numbers that fall off the payroll in June. All of my superstars are signed for another year, so with a few additions, we should be in great shape to promote next year (assuming the board doesn't put us behind the 8-ball with another stadium expansion that cripples our salary number yet again).

Penalties are fine for me I think.

The best showcase of this was watching my team go to penalties in the Scottish League Cup against Hibs. He missed his first two, then I missed kicks 3 and 4. No one wanted to miss after that, which meant my crap penalties takers were not missing at all. We won 9-8.

Well, I'm still experiencing semi-regular crashes but I believe they are all memory related. I'll have to look at getting some more RAM.

For now, I'm saving daily with rolling saves just in case...trust me, it's been necessary for me!

I started my career as an unemployed manager and finally got offered a contract to manage my first club eight months later in February 2008.

Interestingly enough, it is Cambridge City in the Blue Square Conference South division, which I believe is one of Marc Vaughan's favourites.

The team is in decent shape on the table, sitting in 13th position and only 7 points away from 5th, which would get me into the playoffs for promotion. With 6 or 7 of our remaining 10 fixtures at home, I feel that we're in a comfortable position and relegation shouldn't be an issue.

However, finances seem to be problematic, as we're over $120,000 in the red. I may have to sell a few players off and reduce the wage bill before the end of the season.

Any tips Marc? ;)

By the way, dunno if this will help, but, I don't just look at penalty taking when I am assigning them. Age (I'll take an older player with less penalty taking ability over a 19 year old kid with uber ratings every time), various mental attribs, and overall offensive technical skills play a big part.

Yeah no doubt - this guy is a striker with a finishing of 17 and good ratings of playing under pressure (from blurbs) - 26 year old star. That's why its so surprising - he's basically the text-book penalty taker. Oh well, sample size and what not.

i had a run of missed penalties at one point. but they've evened back out.

unfortunately, the sample size argument (and the inability to quick sim) make fm free from being able to be scrutinized and criticized as much as other games such as ootp.

No, you're right - its more of a gripe. :D The substitution thing is more like a bug though as has been pointed out, FM's had some wierd substitution issues for many iterations.

I just learned a lesson. Took Weymouth up to league 2, board and fans are loving me. The Man United job comes available at the end of the year, screw it I'll apply for a laugh and see what happens.

Anyway the media gets hold of it, I keep no commenting and then 2 days later Weymouth tells me to resign or they will fire me. It's not like I actually thought I would get the job and not like it's exactly an insult to Weymouth that I would consider going there is it?

Anyway, time to reload and not do that again :)

Fyi, I did the same thing at Man City (applied at Liverpool) - they offered me the chance to resign, but I just continued, and didn't get fired. I don't know if you saved it, but there's a chance that you can keep the job, albeit on knife's edge. I do know I'm too afraid to apply for any other jobs now!

I did that and ended up resigning. I had posted a great record with that club and figured if they were that ungrateful, they didn't deserve to have a coach of my caliber! :) I'm now taking another club up the ranks quickly while the club that pushed me out wades in obscurity. Serves them right.

hey guys, thought some of you might be interested...

/start shameless plug

WWSM2008: Long live The Hatters and their FrogManager!

/end shameless plug

:cool:

FM

12/23/2015

Games Played - 23
Goals Scord - 59 (2.6 g/g)
Goals Conceeded - 5 (0.2 g/g)

Time to fire up another new game. I'm sick of the English leagues, though, and I hate Northern Ireland on principle.

So I presume that means Scotland, eh?

I just gave in to my temptations and got this game. I know nothing about soccer so I'm trying to take it slow and learn the game.

First question of many...

The quick start gives you 3 countries to choose from, but advanced let's you choose all of them. How many countries do most of you play with? I have no idea what is "normal". Also, I'm assuming that if I choose United States, Sweden, and England, then teams from all of those other countries won't exist in the game? Or will I just not be able to play/see them?

Thanks in advance.

team from other countries will be viewable, but not playable. top teams from other nations will play in international events like the EURO stuff.

how many leagues you can comfortably run depends on your machine. IIRC there's still a "recommend" button down there that again IIRC will analyze system-speed to give you a recommended # and then you can tweak that among the different countries/leagues.

if you don't select a league it will still "exist" you just won't be able to play in it, or see detail in it.

teams in countries other than your three will be there and viewable, with their better known players still available to be signed but you won't be able to manage them, never, at any time in your career.

I like having more than a few leagues available as "view only". This means they will play their schedules on a sort of fast sim engine, and you will be able to see their league tables, but again, I will never be able to manage in those leagues. For example, here's the setup I used when I started the career used in my dynasty:


in that setup, I'd be allowed to manage in England, France, Scotland, and the MLS and the other are only there to give me flavor if I ever make it to European competition.

FM

Thanks guys. I also assume that I won't be able to "buy" any of those players from those leagues?

I clicked Recommend and it gave me six leagues. (Eng., Ger., Ita., Mex., Spa., U.S.)

Should I go with that? Or do you recommend I use something different?

As I said, depending on the database size you pick, some players from the nonplayable leagues will be available to sign (or transfer). The bigger the database, the less greyed out players you will see.

That setup seems like a decent one for a first timer... Not too sure about Mexico, but it becomes a matter of choice then. Personally, I'd rather have Scotland available so I can send my scouts there when managing in England.

FM

dola

just saw FrogMan said that I could still sign top players from those countries. But FrogMan, I see that yours say "View-Only".

So now, I'm going to assume that countries that aren't listed at all won't be available for play, but will exist when it comes to International competitions like the World Cup. If I have a league listed as View-Only, I'll be able to see the standings and stats but will never be allowed to manage a team from that league.

Yea, I thought about taking six countries that were close to each other and using those as my "playable" leagues, and then making a couple of these big ones "view-only"

"view-only" means nothing as far as players being available. I signed a player from a team in Ireland and the Ireland league definitely is not part of my setup. The "view-only" refers to the fast simming of their league games, that's all...

FM

going to bed, good luck with whatever you try. :)

FM

Ahh okay. Thanks a lot for your help! :)

GRRRR

I started out unemployed and took the job at Lindome in Sweden. After losing 3-2 in my first match, in my next one I went up 3-0 against Oskarshamn. 84 minutes into the game, the score remained the same, until they scored in the 84th minute, the 89th minute, and the 93rd minute, just before extra time ended.

This could become an addiction...

welcome to the dark side *evil cackle*

I definitely need to learn A LOT about this game though. While I'm sure the tactics can get very complicated, my biggest problem is learning about building a team. Transfers? Loans? Huh?

I dont have the links relevant, but froggy and some of the others have referenced some excellent sites for newer players in the past that give a rundown of everything you need to know. Marc Vaughn's guide is a good start, but im sure the numerous addicts here can direct you to some great reading material.

Marc V's guide for FM2007 is here (it's still relevant for the current version): http://www.sigames.com/downloads.php...d=379&file=471

It's a must-read for the newbie.

At Lindome? I've played their youth team on their pitch when I was 14-15.

13 months from my training facility upgrade being approved to the actual completion seems too long to me. That is what it took me to get mine, to go up one rating to Average. Doesn't help that injuries seem to actually be higher for me now, but that could have something to do with SPL competition I guess.

Speaking of, I am coming to the end of my first SPL season. I sit mid-table, which has me thrilled, being well above the board's/media's/fan's or even my expectations. I guess there is no mandatory stadium upgrade though, which sucks because now I don't know if I will ever be able to get one. The cost of upgrading my team some has cost me enough in salaries that I am now slowly losing money every month. Some players will be sold soon because they want to play for a bigger team, so that should help a bit.

The best thing to happen, in the second half of the season I have finally beaten both Celtic and Rangers. My team is indeed improving. I need a goalkeeper upgrade big time though. I am mid-table because I am the highest scoring team in the SPL.

I have posted some skins in here in the past, tried them, but didn't find one I really like. Couldn't get use to Steklo's possession/commentary bar on top of the pitch in the game screen. Found the black-in 2 font too small. Found the Xenon theme too aggressive (I mean bold font everywhere) and some text didn't fit in right because of the big fonts. For some reason, even downloading a modified default skin with different attribute colors didn't work for me. But now I think I have just found my new favorite skin, the one I'll stick on for quite a while.

It's called dDs 2.1 and you can download it here:
http://rapidshare.com/files/79648588/dDs2.1.zip

click the thumbnails for some general screenies:




on this one, take a look at the tactics icons on top of the pitch, nicely done!


And on this one, in-game tactics change, my captain got injured so I go to see if it's set all right and there's a mini pitch at the bottom. Thing is, I can make changes in that one down there too, it's not only visual. That might be in the original skin and I've never seen it cause it's the first time I've had to check captains in game, but if not, very well done...


I like it. The fonts are crisps and I find that it goes well with the all-in-one logo pack I am using...

oh yeah, and for fans of the full screen pitch, it's available with the icon on the top left corner of the screen (or with alt-F11)... :)

FM

dola, also some of the other skins I've tried had lost the number for the how much extra time was to be played in the score bar on top. That one retained it...

FM

I am pretty pissed. My board just thought it would be a brilliant idea to put in under-soil heating so we wouldn't have to cancel any matches do to weather. Too bad that has not happened in 6 seasons and it put us millions in the f'n red! They got pissed at my requests which would actually help the team, but nope, millions in the red and destroying half of what I have built is good. We have a 1200 capacity stadium thats sells out, maybe a few bleachers for a few thousand bucks could have been slapped down where that asshole chairman parks his van over by the side of the pitch would be a little better. Instead I go into my 2nd SPL season with zero for transfer funds.

Which?

It has gotten even better as the Albion Rovers board destroy the team thinking they know everything. I am starting to think my chairman/the board are akin to Daniel Snyder.

After blowing all our money and then some on the under soil heating, they turn around at the begining of July and complain about our financial troubles and how I better get that under control. What?!?! I wanted to slap my laptop.

Now, after getting the SPL T.V. money, and selling off several players I was just about to get out of the red within a friggin month from their screw over. My starting MR for the last couple of seasons wanted out anyways and I had to go ahead and let him go to another SPL team. The $400k for him would put us back into the black. The same day he agrees to the contract from Kilmarnock to complete the sale, the same team offers $900k for Shaun Doherty, one of my MCs. This is a guy who I have had since he was 16. I have groomed him and he was finally going to be my fulltime guy at an MC spot. He was starting for the Irish national team from the age of 20. I didn't really want to see him go but when someone asked I would say I want over a million. My Chairman just took the Kilmarnock offer on his own. Fucking whore!

I just turned down the Dortmund job thinking I would give the Rovers another season to see if I could get them going again. Now I kind of wish I hadn't. I was lucky enough to finish my 1st SPL season in 8th, and got a spot in the EURO Vase. My first match is two weeks away and my team is almost all new kids because of this crap.

Are you allowed to play SPL games at your home stadium? I think IRL they would make you play at a stadium w/ higher capacity, like Gretna this season.

Was gonna say it was the one I mentionned a couple pages back, then tried to find it and it was 6 pages back... the one in that post:

I like the round square button and the uniformity between all the leagues. They even have competition logos and nations too, although I decided to delete the small nation logos as I liked it better with the little round flags as opposed the national soccer association logos...

FM

Nice. Missed that entirely on this thread.

Yes, I am playing at my home stadium. I was surprised when nothing happened my first season because I am pretty sure 2-3 versions ago that it forced you to increase stadium capacity when I first moved up from SD1 to SPL.

Nice looking skin, FM. I'm going to download that tonight. One thing on the Steklo, I went and got the latest version (1.3 I think) and even though the commentary is still on top, it does much better on some of the color contrast problems in the earlier version.

Wow, it sounds like the board really plays a much larger role in FM '08 than it ever did before. I don't ever recall hearing about something like this in previous versions. I can't wait to fire up '08 when I get my new Macbook.