There is a playoff in the Conference North/South. You'll notice the playoff slots on the League Table. First place gains automatic promotion.

You'll be surprised how short the off-season is. Don't wait until the off-season to transfer list players. Make sure you have a scouting staff in place and develop a shortlist of players you'd be interested in. One thing to remember is that a player who is in the last year of his contract can accept contract offers from other teams in the last six months of his current deal. In this way, you can 'poach' players from teams without having to pay a transfer fee.

You don't need to mess with training. Players will automatically be placed on vacation and you'll be notified about this. I've set up a training schedule I'm happy with and now I just leave it year round.

If you still have your order# and password, you can reset your key if you press 'Customer Service' on that pop-up window and enter the information.

Hmm, I think I'll try that next time.

my goalie constantly kicks it up the field to my strikers, where they get out jumped with a header. I just had a game where my strikers were a combined 0-25 on headers. What strategies can I use to stop this from happening so much? (assuming I'm not able to go out and sign big high jumping strikers with 20 heading ratings)

Set the GK's distribution instruction to defender collect.

Yup, under tactics/player instructions, you can have the goalie feed it to your defenders and/or a specific player if you wish.

anybody can tell me in what a "cynical" fould is different from a "professional" foul?

I had a defender draw a straight red card after he held an opponent's jersey just outside our penalty area. I didn't think he was the last defender, thus I didn't expect the red for a professional foul (which I understand is called when a defender is the last one between an attacker and the goalkeeper and he fouls the attacker in a clear attempt to keep him from having a one on one with the keeper, or an empty net goal) but never expected the cynical foul call...

On another note, still regarding red cards, I just had my first positive reversal of a one match ban on an appeal. When the call happened in the game, the commentary went something like "this didn't even look like a foul", yet my guy drew the straight red.

I'd gone almost 3/4 of a season without a red and I've now draw three in about 2 weeks of play, two of them in the same game, all straight reds too... In that one game where we got two, our opponent had one later in the game, crazy I tell you, that ref was about to lose control and let it degenerate in bench clearing brawl as if we were in the ECHL... :D

FM

FM, you hooligan!

well, as I said, it had been a long while since I'd seen any reds for our side then boom had that guy sent off on a dubious call where the appeal rescinded the ban and then that crazy game. The first one, the cynical foul, came only 5 minutes into the game and the other guy was sent off about 15 minutes into the game for elbowing and opponent in the face. And on his debut with the club no less :eek: He is still under scrutiny from the FA and they may increase his ban. Don't need to tell you that I gave him a formal warning for violent behaviour, the first time I've ever used that one. I'd used the warning for having been sent off on players sent off after arguing with referees but I'd never had to discipline a player for having been too violent...

FM

The one thing I love about playing a CA type formation is that the opponent gets a fair share of red cards handed out when they're trying to chase down my speedy wingers and strikers on the break. :)

I wanted to comment on that. There was a sequence of about a week where, among other things, Mourinho called Wenger "obsessed with Chelsea", saying he was always commenting on them. I found that kind of funny. Then last week, Mourinho comes out and says he repsects Wenger and he hopes they can put aside the bad blood, or something to that effect :D

This leads me to how the media in FM can be close to what they are, at least in regards to English football. I've been following the EPL a lot more lately (since the holiday break mostly) and many of the little tidbits that appear on the Yahoo! UK football section, or the bbc.co.uk football section seem to be taken right out of FM, it's quite comical sometimes.

Take this exhibit from Mick McCarthy, manager of Sunderland, after his team lost to League One Brentford in the FA Cup this weekend...

from: http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/060130/1/gn2s.html

Read the bolded section. I can't say how often this has happened to me currently with Luton. Out of nowhere, we have a couple of stinkers after playing kind of well for a while, then we get his by a few injuries and it goes all down to hell...

Reading that article has kind of put my own problems in the game in perspective, heh ;)
FM

Ok, need a little MLS input here. I've only been following soccer for like the last three seasons now and it's mainly been the EPL. I've got a current career going in WSM 06 where I'm in my 13th season, or something like that, over in England and it's growing a bit stale and I want to change it up a bit.

One of my thoughts on changing things up is starting a career in the MLS but was wondering what I could expect as far as obtaining players. Do players get brought in solely via the draft and trades? Or is there any kind of transer system to bring players in at all? And what countries do most players come from besides the USA? Is it mainly players from this continent? Just curious.

Thanks for the advice. The playoffs did show up the next time I "continued".

So promotion is still possible :) If promoted will I see an increase in wages allowed by the board? With my current wage situation I could conceivably gain promotion but move up with a much less talented team after making the wage cuts the board wants. Definatly gives me plenty to think about, should be interesting.

It depends on the board and how much cash you have on hand. I was making money by selling players and still managed promotion so the board let me bump the budget with whatever I could sell.

I love the fact that at contract time the board let's me decide whether to put more toward salaries or a transfer budget. I'm very passive in the transfer market, looking for deals, so I'd much prefer a larger wage budget. Great feature by SI.

I couldn't agree more. I'm not much of a spender on the transfer market but I like to splurge in the free transfers and find bargains for free, which I usually do but I sometimes have to pay the wages to make the players come to us. Being allowed to give up transfer money for more wage makes a whole lot of sense in my case...

FM

one thing I wanted to comment about is how nice it is to see the AI managers try and bid on your players and try different stuff to try and get you to let them go. I think it was SirFozzie who mentionned a crazy offer, something very big, but with nothing or very little up front and the rest split over 24 months.

Last night I had one of these offers. We're in late December and I'm getting pissed off with some of my strikers, name one Enoch Showunmi who at times can can give a big show as his last name implies and at other times can play more like the eunuch that his first name reminds you with a whopping stamina of 8. I finally got so pissed off with him in one game where his condition dipped to something like 62% before the halftime break that I transfer listed him right after the game. Now, he's got some finishing skill (around 15) and is very explosive (pace & acceleration at 16) but as I said, he can't run for very long. Valued at $75k, I decided to list him for $95k and see if anybody would bite. The January period is a non-factor since his contract is still good for another season. A week passes and I receive and offer from Watford. Simply saw the email saying "Watford has made a bid for Showunmi" or whatever it says. Expecting the usual $95k I was asking for, the email says they are offering something like $1.45M for him. SAY WHAT!!! :eek:

Turns out the offer is for $0 up front and $1.25M once he's scored 40 goals for them with a 20% of next sale clause. hehehe, very clever if they need a dude for the end of the season, not so bright if they plan on keeping him for many years. I still wanted to get something for him, so I countered with $75k now and that $1.25M after 20 goals and they accepted. Off he goes... Just found the idea they had was interesting... They are in League One and Showunmi has already scored something like 15 for us in maybe 30 appearances. He could get to that 20 goal limit in one season if played regularly in League One, where Watford are now. We'll see...

Maybe it wasn't the best idea, maybe they have a real need for him, maybe they will sell him when he'll be at 19 goals, but at least they are trying something...

FM

I had that happen in one of my games, I was due an extra million dollars after 20 goals..

the player scored 18.. and then.. was moved to the reserves and eventually sold..

Marc, is there code designed to try to save teams money if a middling player is close to a goal?

thanks for the heads up. I just feel better now that I have asked for that $75k front so I'll at least have a little something. Now if I can hope something is that he gets to 17 and the has a hat trick in one game :D

FM

Put it this way we make the AI as clever as possible ... ;)

PS> IRL there have been cases where a talented player has been benched for just this sort of reason, eventually leaving the club he was at for a reduced fee because the club who owns him can't afford to play him ...

The funny thing Marc, if anyone here pulled that in a net game, they'd be accused of metagaming ;)

You British 'ar an orribly sneaky lot, you is!

I agree it's not an offer I'd allow myself to do, simply because I'd fear I'd be gaining an unfair advantage over the AI by finding some sort of hole in its thinking...

FM

The AI views such offers as a partial 'gamble' - they 'know' that a clever human might try and play the system .. but also that if they don't then they'll make good money (much as how a human evaluates such an offer).

I don't think it could be accused of cheat, since I have seen this sort of things in real teams. Nice IA.

I have a player who's always had a good releationship with one of his teammates. Then a news report came out that said he dislikes that teammate. His player card reads:

Slight Concerns: Dislikes Luis Salmaron
Future Plans: Considering his options
Good Relationships: Pleased to be playing alongside Salmeron

Is this normal or some kind of little bug?

It sounds like a bug - but I can rationalise it away by indicating they work well on the pitch but badly in their private lives (Shearer and Sutton had such a relationship when they played together irl) ....

(but on a serious note I'll try and replicate and fix it ..)

Has anyone here experienced players becoming unhappy with their playing time and then staying that way no matter how many times they're played after? I was looking at the forum there are several threads that say once this happens players will not sign a new contract and you are forced to lose them. The threads say that its been happening since 6.02.

I have a couple backups that are unhappy and if they leave, no big deal. I was just wondering if anyone here has seen this with their first team players.

Shepp, I think I'm seeing this right now. I got this kid who's about 22 or so who got pissed around the end of last season saying he felt he should be a first teamer. At 21, he wasn't up to par to replace my starting AMC. Now this season, I've started him in maybe 17 of our 28 games and played him off the bench in maybe 5 others, giving him 22 appearances with the first team out of 28. He's still pissed and says he doesn't want to renew his contract. His contract is up in June and we've just entered the January transfer window and I'm quite afraid I'll lose him which sucks...

FM

I was in a very similar situation to this. So I started the player in a bunch of games and yet he still was unhappy, feeling he "should be a first teamer." A new season rolled over, and now maybe a third of the way into it he is finally content. So it is not necessarily a permanent problem.

I hope my...my 19 year old striker is already saying this and hes a future star for me(im now at PSV)...hes not good enough to replace my two starters(both over 10 mil in value) but he should start in a few years...just not now

After a couple of games, he still dislikes Salmeron but now under good relationship it says "believes Roman Diaz will become a valuable member of the team." So maybe it just took a little time to change his loyalties, or it could have been a new news story that came up about Salmeron wanting to go to a bigger club. Anyway, no big deal.

Just curious...do you have him tabbed as a "Hot Prospect" or "First Team" or "Key Player?"

Nope, though he should be a hot prospect he is just listed as a decent player(he came through my youth system as a fairly average prospect but has just boomed in talent/mental/physical...hes not even listed as ambitious...he whned about playing time, i told him if he worked hard in training he would get his shot and im bringing him in after were up to try and appease him

Is he riding the pine with the first team, or playing with the Reserves or Youth team?

he was starring for the U-19s at the time he made the comments, and since i have brought him up as a sub

Take away his allowance.

you mean all of his weekly $5!!! :eek:

Dude I wouldn't want to be your son, you are one tough cookie!

:D

FM

how come we as human managers can't part-own players? I would love to do this...sell 50% of a young player to a lower-league team. At this point I've resorted to selling players with buyback fees. which i guess is pretty much the same, but is nowhere near as neat.

or is it just in spain that i can't do part-ownership?

it's only in Italy, I believe

booya. i havn't played any italian careers in FM06. I'm still obsessing over my Spanish career. So if I play as say Juve can I offer to sell 50% of one of my young players to a Serie B or C team?

How does part-owning work?

I run into this problem sometimes (bringing in 171 players in 4 seasons seemed to have done that). You would need to start him in consecutive games. Depending on how upset he is and his personality, it could take anywhere from, say, 5 to 15 games. At least based on what I have seen. Note that I said start, coming off the bench does not seem to help matter with this issue (which makes sense, given that he wants to be a part of the first team).

This is how it worked in '05

Team A is interested in a player on Team B. Instead of making a transfer offer, Team A can offer to co-own the player with Team B. Team A will offer some cash to own 50% of the player's rights (the default offer was 50% of the player's value). There is a time limit (I've seen 1 year and 2 year deals) and you can arrange it so that the player can either join Team A or stay on Team B. When the time limit is up, the two clubs send an offer in to the FA and the club with the highest offer will then get full ownership (tie offers will let the player stay at the club he's playing for).

If Team C is interested in a co-owned player, they will have to negotiate a transfer fee with both clubs.

I usually see it when a Serie A team likes a young player on a Serie B team. The offer a co-own and the Serie B team accepts because they could use the money. The player would usually stay at the Serie B team because the Serie A team has depth. When the year or two of co-ownership ends and the Serie A team likes the player's progress, they will make an offer. If they don't like the player anymore then they will offer $0 and let the Serie B team keep him.

I started with Hayes in the English Conference South and earned promotion to League One in my 8th season. At the start of the 8th season I asked to expand the stadium (capacity is only ~400 seated, 6500 total right now) and the board accepted... just before the start of the League One season I get a message that the local council rejected the plans for expansion so now I'm stuck with a woefully undersized stadium.

Will the council ever chaneg their mind or am I screwed? Is there anything I can do about it such as move to a new location or bribe them?

wait till i screenshot this and post it. i just had both of my MC's kicked out of the game on one play. One of my strikers got fouled in the box, and all i saw was my DMC kick another guy and then my AMC got a card also (hafta read the PBP to see what he did). I'm amused, but VERY irritated.

edit: not irritated at the game cuz i think this is a bug or whatever, irritated at the players. Like I just punched the wall.

dola.

WOW. just WOW. I have NEVER in all my years seen a team play this poorly. EVER. No single player had a rating over 5, and it looks at first glance like it was about 50/50 between 4's and 5's. Lost 5-0. WOW. I'm more than a little pissed at my team. So, do I warn/fine everybody?

wow. so i fined my entire team for poor performance, and then fined the two midfielders a week each for violent behavior and being sent off, and got myself the sack.

This is the same sort of thing I was seeing on the boards over at SI. I try to take things I read over there with a grain of salt, because those are some VERY ZEALOUS fans, and they tend to blow little things out of proportion. However, it appears that at least something is going on here. Its just not clear if this is a bug or something that can be worked through during the course of the game :confused:

I was just reading about this sort of thing on another board, but the answer there (from another gamer, not SI) was that stadiums that are controlled by a second party such as a local council, etc. will never get expanded.

...which makes it quite important to check out the Conference North/South teams before accepting a job with them. Apparently there is no direct way to figure this out from the game before you accept the job, so you've got to either look on the SI forums for some info or try to hunt it down in real life.

Again, I might be wrong, as this was not official info. Marc may be able to shed more light here.

After checking on my kid, turns out I've started him only 11 times this season and he's come off the bench 11 times. I've started trying what daedalus has suggested and I will start him, no matter what, in consecutive and I'll report back in here. He's an AM RLC so there are a few places where I can start it, even if I leave him in only for the first half and I have to sub him out at halftime. We'll see if that makes him happy, although it may be too late for that...

After last evening's playing session, it had been 4 consecutive starts...

FM

FWIW, I made the request again the next season and it did get expanded although only up to 9000/2950 so at least its possible to have some movement there.