Football (Soccer) Thread

[The Larch]

The amount of work that goes into each Football Manager game is quite astounding, so it's no wonder that it becomes so inmersive. And yeah, when you've been playing for a while and you suddenly see "your" players in a real game it's quite the funny feeling.

[celedhring]

I very fondly remember a save in the early 1990s with Piacenza in the Serie B, and having a youngster promote me with a 30-goal season. His name was Filippo Inzaghi...

[The Larch]

I very fondly remember a save in the early 1990s with Piacenza in the Serie B, and having a youngster promote me with a 30-goal season. His name was Filippo Inzaghi...

Back when it was still Championship Manager, my winningest Celta team was lead by a certain young Dutch winger by the name of Arjen Robben. 

[Syt]

In Anstoß 2 I had gotten quite good at timing the use of PEDs during preparation so they'd give my players a boost weren't traceable in doping tests any more. Also, how to best funnel away money into a secret fund to try and bribe opponent players and referees.

It also had coaching tests where you were quizzed on German football trivia, but also stats of your current league. (Doing well in the quiz improved your coaching stats.)

[celedhring]

I very fondly remember a save in the early 1990s with Piacenza in the Serie B, and having a youngster promote me with a 30-goal season. His name was Filippo Inzaghi...

Back when it was still Championship Manager, my winningest Celta team was lead by a certain young Dutch winger by the name of Arjen Robben. 

Also, I signed Cristiano Ronaldo for my hometown club in Segunda B back when he was 16 and absolutely nobody knew of him (not even me). He wasn't a wonderkid in the game, but was more than good enough for Segunda B and helped me get promoted. It was quite funny when he went on to become such a villain for people like me 

[The Larch]

In Anstoß 2 I had gotten quite good at timing the use of PEDs during preparation so they'd give my players a boost weren't traceable in doping tests any more. Also, how to best funnel away money into a secret fund to try and bribe opponent players and referees.

It also had coaching tests where you were quizzed on German football trivia, but also stats of your current league. (Doing well in the quiz improved your coaching stats.)

Damn, that simulator is dark. 

[The Larch]

I very fondly remember a save in the early 1990s with Piacenza in the Serie B, and having a youngster promote me with a 30-goal season. His name was Filippo Inzaghi...

Back when it was still Championship Manager, my winningest Celta team was lead by a certain young Dutch winger by the name of Arjen Robben. 

Also, I signed Cristiano Ronaldo for my hometown club in Segunda B back when he was 16 and absolutely nobody knew of him (not even me). He wasn't a wonderkid in the game, but was more than good enough for Segunda B and helped me get promoted. It was quite funny when he went on to become such a villain for people like me 

Heh, randomised players were always a hoot. In that Celta team, together with Robben my other stalwart, and more or less on par with him in importance for the team, was another Dutch attacking midfielder called Youssouf Hersi, who in real life didn't really amount to much (checking his wiki I can see that he roamed almost all teams on the Dutch first division and got to play a few games for the U21 national team, played one year in Greece and ended up his career in the Australian league).

[celedhring]

In Anstoß 2 I had gotten quite good at timing the use of PEDs during preparation so they'd give my players a boost weren't traceable in doping tests any more. Also, how to best funnel away money into a secret fund to try and bribe opponent players and referees.

It also had coaching tests where you were quizzed on German football trivia, but also stats of your current league. (Doing well in the quiz improved your coaching stats.)

Damn, that simulator is dark. 

I kinda miss when CM was a little bit wilder and you could enable player misbehavior, I fondly remember Rivaldo spitting on an opposition player and getting banned for the season.

[The Larch]

In Anstoß 2 I had gotten quite good at timing the use of PEDs during preparation so they'd give my players a boost weren't traceable in doping tests any more. Also, how to best funnel away money into a secret fund to try and bribe opponent players and referees.

It also had coaching tests where you were quizzed on German football trivia, but also stats of your current league. (Doing well in the quiz improved your coaching stats.)

Damn, that simulator is dark. 

I kinda miss when CM was a little bit wilder and you could enable player misbehavior, I fondly remember Rivaldo spitting on an opposition player and getting banned for the season.

I don't think I ever saw such a thing happen. 

But it's true that FM is quite "sanitized" lately. I mean, it's been ages since one of my players skipped training.

[Syt]

In Anstoß 2 I had gotten quite good at timing the use of PEDs during preparation so they'd give my players a boost weren't traceable in doping tests any more. Also, how to best funnel away money into a secret fund to try and bribe opponent players and referees.

It also had coaching tests where you were quizzed on German football trivia, but also stats of your current league. (Doing well in the quiz improved your coaching stats.)

Damn, that simulator is dark. 

It was a serious sim, but with a more lighthearted tone. It also referenced real life events. E.g. one of the players could be a mole leaking secrets to the tabloids, or write a tell-all book that pisses everyone off, killing morale. Players had hobbies that could be beneficial or detrimental. A dreaded event was a player being out for two weeks, because an old lady accidentally hit his heel with her shopping cart.

German management games also had tycoon elements. You would negotiate sponsoring deals, could expand your stadium and add amenities like roofs for fans, or VIP areas, manage the prices for merchandise, manage your private life (buy status symbols, get married, and have your kids become players once they grow up), etc. On April 1st you might be struck with horrendous news ("You entire team died in a plane crash.") only to get "April Fools!" when your accepted the message. You could also instruct players to go all out on tackling.

The series peaked IMHO with Anstoß 2 Gold. 3 was still ok, though.



As mentioned, no license, so the names were changed. In the above screenshot, the IRL players would be Kahn, Matthäus, (not sure who Punke is supposed to be, Fink possibly), Helmer, Lizarazu, Wiblishauser, Tarnat, Zickler, Effenberg, Jancker, Elber - I'm still reasonably familiar with the Bayern names of that era (ca. 1997), it seems

[celedhring]

In Anstoß 2 I had gotten quite good at timing the use of PEDs during preparation so they'd give my players a boost weren't traceable in doping tests any more. Also, how to best funnel away money into a secret fund to try and bribe opponent players and referees.

It also had coaching tests where you were quizzed on German football trivia, but also stats of your current league. (Doing well in the quiz improved your coaching stats.)

Damn, that simulator is dark. 

I kinda miss when CM was a little bit wilder and you could enable player misbehavior, I fondly remember Rivaldo spitting on an opposition player and getting banned for the season.

I don't think I ever saw such a thing happen. 

But it's true that FM is quite "sanitized" lately. I mean, it's been ages since one of my players skipped training.

That's probably because only regens can do that now (and it's still pretty rare). The more fun events (like players coming out as gay) tend to happen a lot of seasons into a save, when all your squad is made up of regens.

[Syt]

That's probably because only regens can do that now (and it's still pretty rare). The more fun events (like players coming out as gay) tend to happen a lot of seasons into a save, when all your squad is made up of regens.

Yes, I'd imagine they're careful not to get in hot water with any real players.

You can always play with fictionals, I suppose.

[Syt]

Btw, I also saw that Wolfsberg from Austria is in Europa League, WTF?

[The Larch]

In Anstoß 2 I had gotten quite good at timing the use of PEDs during preparation so they'd give my players a boost weren't traceable in doping tests any more. Also, how to best funnel away money into a secret fund to try and bribe opponent players and referees.

It also had coaching tests where you were quizzed on German football trivia, but also stats of your current league. (Doing well in the quiz improved your coaching stats.)

Damn, that simulator is dark. 

I kinda miss when CM was a little bit wilder and you could enable player misbehavior, I fondly remember Rivaldo spitting on an opposition player and getting banned for the season.

I don't think I ever saw such a thing happen. 

But it's true that FM is quite "sanitized" lately. I mean, it's been ages since one of my players skipped training.

That's probably because only regens can do that now (and it's still pretty rare). The more fun events (like players coming out as gay) tend to happen a lot of seasons into a save, when all your squad is made up of regens.

I assumed it was because I tend to play the Touch versions in the last editions of the game, as the full version is becoming a bit overwhelming (when they added interactions with the press they were not aware on how draining it'd be). I've seen some of the latest additions with curiosity, like dressing room cliques, but they're absent in Touch versions, as they strip down the more cumbersome simulation things and is a bit more arcade-like (or what can pass for arcade-like in FM).

[celedhring]

Yeah, all the interactions with press/players are an absolute chore, but I leave them to my assistant as much as possible. The clique and seniority systems are decent additions though.

I don't care much for the feature creep of the game, but the Touch version feels a bit too lightweight for my taste.