FM Fanboys - The site for editorials, blogs, articles and guides.

Football Manager Fanboys - FM2010 Fansite and Forums

Signed up today and its a quality forum. Recommend it to anyone.

Thanks, glad you like it.

We've a lot of new features rolling out very soon. First of which is the community portal.

We're very much a portal already, if you're looking for written material on FM, we have it and if we don't have what you want, we'll get it. We link to all the other community sites and we bring you all their work too, so you have everything you need at your fingertips.

Right here, you can see the new FM Portal.

It is still being developed and expanded; reviews on other sites- what they'll bring you etc., we're developing a ranking system for any newbies looking for specific items for the game etc., so stay tuned for that stuff.

No need to signup, unless you want to - just bookmark us and check us out before you begin your posting day

Look's great, only that it is an incredbly stupid name

The name is in relation to the enthusiasm behind the site. I do have a tendency to make rather daft site names (Los Wonderkids being the other )

Some of the latest content you might be interested in:

Display Kits - Being labelled as one of the best kit designs around already, the unique style has already had many kits made and with a World Cup pack ready for download and 2010 kits being made, be sure to download these for your game.

Project Dummy Kits - If Display Kits aren't your thing then perhaps these will suit your graphical needs. Another unique style with a kit design based around a Dummy, hundreds have kits have already been made and are ready to download for your game

Panini 2010 Facepacks - I'm sure most of you would have seen the latest Panini WC stickers, now you can download facepacks for your FM game in the style of them thanks for the fantastic work of Steifus.

The Database Bible - Everything you need to know when it comes to using the data editor, covering all of the editors features, ideal for anyone who wants to create a custom database.

Pen Tool Tutorial Video - Learn how to effectively use the pen tool in photo shop teaching you how to easily create and edit kits.

Contemporary Premier League Tactics - An in depth look at some of the most well known tactics used in the Premier League, with in depth descriptions and research in to how teams work as well as tactics for you to use in football manager.

The Real Arsenal 4-3-3 - Part of a number of great in depth guides from Mantralaux which look at emulating the Arsenal approach in FM, this superb guide will tell you anything you need to know when it comes to playing as Arsenal in FM.

TSN Issue 1 and Issue 2 - Top quality blogging covering certain issues regarding England's failed WC Campaign and a look at the graphics from the Football Manager Scene.

Looks like a top site, well done mate.

Looks like a top site, well done mate.

Thanks for the good words, you should sign up and get involved with some of the discussion

Anyway if anyone's interested there's a couple more articles that you might find interesting. This one covers basically how the scene has changed in terms of how sites are run and what type of sites are around. Also the brand new Where The Lines Is is a new 'blog' which gets the opinions from over members of the scene on various topics relating to FM.

Thanks for the good words, you should sign up and get involved with some of the discussion

Anyway if anyone's interested there's a couple more articles that you might find interesting. This one covers basically how the scene has changed in terms of how sites are run and what type of sites are around. Also the brand new Where The Lines Is is a new 'blog' which gets the opinions from over members of the scene on various topics relating to FM.

I've just read the article and the scene never really had sites with active forums either. Apart from dugout and susie the rest had like 10 active members at best. So that side of things is still the same today.

Sites didn't really add or produce content either. The dugout added bits now and again but susie and throw-in were by far the most active ever in terms of written content. TNS used to be pretty active for well written content as well. But those 3 sites aside imo there were no others adding content or discussing things. I've been around since the so called scene was created and the dugout and susie (biased I know) were in a total different league than any other site past or present. It's never been a fun place either, there was always rivalry and bitchiness.

People always say the scene as changed or was better in my day, but unless you was part of dugout or susie (mine and Caleys reign) then the rest is the same as now. Nothings changed apart from those 2 sites don't exist (well susie sort of exists but is poor now and not what it used to be). The lack of content from sites is not something new but as always been a big issue. Even the community spirit there never really was any to begin with. I don't understand why people say these things were better back in the mid 00's or even further back because it simply isn't true.

The scene is exact same as it was 10-15 years ago in every single sense, except there is no 1 so called super site anymore.

I actually disagree with some of your points Cleon, and with the original article.

I have the ability to chat to a lot of site admins via Twitter, and this tool also allows each site to exchange news about one another or just have a wee bit of banter. I believe this is getting sites closer together than before.

There is a lot of rose-tinted specs being put on when people revisit the past. One thing to remember is that 5 years ago we were all different people, all wanting different things from our game.

There are people like me who prefer Throw-In to FM Britain because FM Britain is too technical for me, but equally there are people who love FM Britain because over the years they've been interested in tactics and find this site perfect for what they want to talk about - their knowledge of tactics evolved over time and that level of discussion is exactly what they need. Susie was massive a few years back but now people aren't as bothered about graphics (facegen, more kits, more club logos & a decent default skin make FM great out of the box). It's just things moving on.

I feel there is a good level of innovation going around as well. We've all complained about it, and that'll never change. But we've got people like Putzy doing great things on Los Wonderkids and we've got some fantastic tools on FM Fanboys. Rob at Susie is working on his own forums coded from scratch and a brand new site, and to do that level of work for a site is really good to see.

You also have to say (even if you disagree with what they did) that FM Britain were very innovative by daring to charge for some content!

So, far from being this awful, stale, quiet state of affairs that the article portrays, fansites are actually doing very well!

I actually disagree with some of your points Cleon, and with the original article.

I have the ability to chat to a lot of site admins via Twitter, and this tool also allows each site to exchange news about one another or just have a wee bit of banter. I believe this is getting sites closer together than before.

There is a lot of rose-tinted specs being put on when people revisit the past. One thing to remember is that 5 years ago we were all different people, all wanting different things from our game.

There are people like me who prefer Throw-In to FM Britain because FM Britain is too technical for me, but equally there are people who love FM Britain because over the years they've been interested in tactics and find this site perfect for what they want to talk about - their knowledge of tactics evolved over time and that level of discussion is exactly what they need. Susie was massive a few years back but now people aren't as bothered about graphics (facegen, more kits, more club logos & a decent default skin make FM great out of the box). It's just things moving on.

I feel there is a good level of innovation going around as well. We've all complained about it, and that'll never change. But we've got people like Putzy doing great things on Los Wonderkids and we've got some fantastic tools on FM Fanboys. Rob at Susie is working on his own forums coded from scratch and a brand new site, and to do that level of work for a site is really good to see.

You also have to say (even if you disagree with what they did) that FM Britain were very innovative by daring to charge for some content!

So, far from being this awful, stale, quiet state of affairs that the article portrays, fansites are actually doing very well!

When I wrote the above it was more aimed at the 'past was better' attitude. People always see it as some kind of glory years where every single site was bursting with enery and lots of users. This as never been the case and there has only ever been 1 real active site at a time. I've no idea why people think the scene of the past was better than it is now. It was a lot more up its ownself back then imo and people had no time for anyone else other than their own sites, with the except of the odd few. As someone who has been involved in the scene since its creation and worked on many sites, I just don't see how people come up with the perception that it was a better time.

I agree with you about people like Putzy and FM Fanboys do have some amazing features on the site. For the amount of people trying new ideas and looking for the next big thing I think there as never been a more active time. People seem to have more about them nowdays and don't just focus on team guides (which is all sites used to do back in the day, I mean seriously wtf). I think things like Facebook and Twitter have made it easier to communicate with other sites. I've started talking to a few webmasters via twitter myself and it does seem to have made things a lot more friendlier. The communication between sites now is probably at an all time high.

So, far from being this awful, stale, quiet state of affairs that the article portrays, fansites are actually doing very well!

The article actually came across more negative than I wanted it I probably should have mentioned more successful things regarding the scene now but to quote a comment of mine on the article; Basically what I tried to outline in the article was how I felt the mentality of the people on the scene had changed and now a lot less people are willing to be part of a community and be happy to produce content for fun but instead want more credit and recognition for there work so are power hungry and decide to do things alone instead of just happily be a member and produce content for a forum.

Also the article wasn't meant to be one of those old scene is better rants, in fact I've not been around the scene for that long at all and I actually prefer it now, I just wanted to talk about how I felt the mentality of people had changed like I said before and how the scene has changed a lot in terms of ideas and what type of sites are around and how they are run.

I agree with you about the twitter bit though, this year twitter has really got a hell of a lot popular between FM sites, especially bloggers as well and it seems there are always people interacting on there all the time. The innovation thing is something I probably should have mentioned more in my article as well, there's a lot more unique ideas now on different sites and there's a lot more variety between fansites. When I first joined the scene there used to be FP, GK, FMD, FMV, TI, MC etc which I used to know as FM Forums and Susie and FMG which I would visit for my graphics but now each site seems to have something unique about it like you have mentioned.

Although I wasn't around during the "good ol' days", I'd have to agree with Caley & Cleon here about the community actually becoming *more* close & connected due to the increasing social networking nature of the web. I understand your perspective, Daniel - and can easily see how you view things the way you do - but it's a quite similar attitude that "old" media (like newspapers) have been infected with over the past decade's rise of the social web.

Yes, I agree with the fact that back 5-10 years ago, there were bigger FM community sites and those who staffed & produced content did so within the confines of these hubs. But it was not due to a shift in attitude & community minded spirit as you seem to claim. It was because starting, designing, managing & administrating a website like that was a very *high* barrier of entry. The technical abilities to do so alone pretty much excluded 99% of the population from creating a site. (even now, guys like Putzy, Caley, Rob, Game, etc. have a much further grasp of the coding side than most) Because of this, the only option for those wanting to produce graphics, articles, etc. HAD to staff up at an existing site in order to get their work up on the web in any decent capacity.

No longer is this the case.

Between Wordpress, Tumblr, Posterous, Drupal, Joomla for blog/CMS platforms, IPB, vBulletin, phBB, SMF for forum software and other fairly easy to use open-source solutions - almost anyone can publish content on the web if they wanted to without relying on a 3rd party. Combine this with Twitter & Facebook making it easy to connect with people & share content - plus the democratization of search by way of Google, Bing, etc. - I ask you the stupid question: Why would *anyone* choose to publish their work on an existing site when they can do so themselves?

The only fathomable reason would be for brand recognition & traffic a person would get from being aligned with a specific site. But the social web is diminishing those reasons as well. As single entities become "influencers" in this space, it makes virtually no difference where any content is published from - as long as it gets shared & linked to by those with the largest reach. Ask a site administrator what happens to his traffic when the official FM Facebook page posts a link to an article of theirs, or when FM-Britain links to a forum post of theirs on our 45k+ mailing list. THIS is what the social web is - so the platform becomes virtually irrelevant as long as your putting out *good* content that is so good, people actively *want* to share it.

By silo-ing your content, as what almost all FM sites are currently doing, they're essentially creating *less* of a community as a whole, not more, as you claim, Daniel. Instead of viewing splintered sites & bloggers as being "power hungry, looking for credit & protective", understand how the social web has completely changed the fabric of what the "scene" is entirely. The fact that a no-name FM user could write a killer article on their own blog, get it shared across the scene, highly ranked on Google and help MORE people with the game - how is that not a good thing?

Twitter and Facebook are the new MSN and IRC. There's always been socialising, it's just a lot more easier now.

The trith is that, these sites DO NOT work together in a manner that's befitting a community. It's one thing talking on Twitter, but how many sites give you a link on their own site? How many sites promote your work on their site? How many sites let you go there and post your news? - Less than three.

At the end of the day, these site owners are competing for attention; they block site links in the important areas of the community (their forums and site - where the majority of their userbase will frequent), because ultimately they're too lazy to create something worth attracting attention themselves (interesting content). They block the other sites out of the picture on their own sites in a bid to keep people on their forum talking. That's not co-operation or recognition of your time and work, that's a sneaky way of keeping rival sites at an arms length.

--

I noticed that there were comparisons between now and then - and for me there is a big difference. The reason these sites were started was to share something with other FM players. It wasn't about money or being the best site on the internet. The Scene has evolved into a place where people spend more time talking about their site and why you should visit it than they do actually talking about the game.

At the end of the day, most of the sites we have now are garbage. I'm not disregarding the effort, but the facts are clear - what's the point in a site which does nothing more than provide a second-rate forum to that of the official game? That's what we're looking at. A few sites do some nice things, but they're in the minority by a long shot. Even Los Wonderkids with it's Versus FM competition and FM Database doesn't actually do anything other than provide a forum - which is pretty shocking when you do actually look at what it discusses, for the most part - and IMO LW is one of the more experimental sites out there. If LW fails to provide what FM-Britain and FM Fanboys do for the FM community, and what Gameworld One does for the FML community (useful content), then what does it say about the failings of the others? Only Versus FM at LW and Play FM provide anything interesting with regards to non-written material; with Susie's/FM:Genesis'/FM Fanboys' graphics and FM-V's podcasts (when they're not littered with people talking like they're down the pub) being a small exception to the rule. The rest of the sites are a total waste of time; they produce nothing more than a forum and even a couple of the aforementioned sites have forums which are dragging the quality of the site down - because they're an unnecessary distraction to the content production.

To be completely honest, there are a number of sites which fail to do anything to make them worth visiting; but some do have people who deserve to get something out of what they put into the site. The only viable solution is for them to merge with other sites and work together to give people what they really want from these FM fansites. I did it at Los Wonderkids with GenerationFM, FM Pulse and VersusFM, and I left LW as one of the biggest sites on the community last year. I don't particuarly like the direction of the site right now, but when those sites came together we really did do something wonderful to (what was at the time) a pretty dull Scene - and if that's not the point in these fansites, then I'm really off-base.

i agree with you Julius_

thank god you didn't mention my site here, but i guess it should be flagged as not worth visiting

i know we haven't been producing any real content, it wasn't part of the plan until now really.

hoping to change that for the new season.

by the way, i like how fmfb is produced and growing. keep up the good work guys!

Dude, I meant to email you just before - sorry it's taken so long to reply, been kind of busy!

You should pop over to Fb (if you have an account), I think Joey wanted to chat to you about your email. - or I can get him to contact you on here, if that's better for you?

BTW: I'm a fan of what you do at FM Scout. Quality content is far better than a load of crap

no problem mate - found joey on msn, but it's not a great night for a calm chat tonight, so we agreed to continue the chat tomorrow

by the way, i'm guessing i'm always left out from all those fansite fights and rants because i never cared about advertising mine lol

-

speaking about the scene status, i don't give a crap for rivalries between the scene, this is not tribal wars or grepolis really.

trying to lure members from each others forums and sign up just to advertise is pathetic. amazingly, some sites do that...

-

jordan said it right about how easy it is for anyone to start his own little blog/forum instead of writing for some other place that he can't be an admin... sometimes it's the common syndrome 'all are chairmen' more or less.

-

but, genuine content and effort should be rewarded and promoted regardless where it came from.

posting links to interesting content from fellow fansites is not that bad. and everyone would be better off contributing even a crap article to the scene instead of flaming each other and wasting so much time with those stupid attacks.

this last 'paragraph' sums up what i want to do for this new season

I think that's what SI are trying to implement now anyway - rewarding of content. As a result people will value a site more, if it's obvious it's there to benefit them, not just treat them as a forum number. It's all headed in the right direction, regardless of a few blips here and there.

Latest Happenings

After FMGLive split we 'aquired' the vast majority of their best GFX staff and teamed them up with the likes of Touchdown, Derek, Packmanch and all the other big names I can't ever remember. As a result we've now got what is probably the best GFX team on the Scene and as you'd expect they've produced a ridiculous amount of quality FM11 graphics - including logopacks, kitpacks and facepacks.

Some logo samples....

I will include the other images in a seperate post. SI only allows 4 images per post.

FM Reseach/Databases/Time Machines

Not only have we collected a superb graphics department, but we've also aquired an FM Research team - featuring JohnP, BlueAngel and legenddicanio10. As a result we've got a number of FM10 databases on offer, including a new FM10 transfer update. For FM11 there are plans to produce a number of custom databases (some really terriffic historical ones) and some Time Machine games - as well as a special research project, which will be revealed in a few weeks (hopefully).

Grab the Fanboys' Offical FM10 Transfer Update.

View Fanboys' database catalogue

Reading Material

Even with the graphics and research team aqusitions, we've still continued to produce one of the largest article/blog resources on the Scene too - and that will continue for FM11 and beyond thanks to our dedicated teams in each field. There is plenty on offer for everyone to check out, lots of different topics covered, and we'll be overhauling all of it for FM11 too!

View Fanboys' Featured

Football Manager Handheld

Thanks to the likes of Dec, Ollie, Saul and Ali; we've also got the best FMH community on the Scene too. Infact, this is the best FMH community on the internet (or so they tell me, it's sh*t really, so I don't visit it). Anyway, those minitures are handling all kinds of stuff for the portable version, including updates, graphics and a whole bunch of things I don't concern myself with, but they say it's awesome - so if you're into FMH or iFM, check it out.

View FMH at Fanboys

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, I think that's a pretty good update on how things are going. I'm sure I'll have missed a bunch of stuff out, but you can toddle over and check it out for yourselves I guess.

I rarely update this, so I might as well drop some things that we're working on for FM11 - one of which is our Playbook, that's about to get some new features and I think we're working on Fanboys Live, which is a pretty sick competition.

We'll also have some FM11 and FML giveaways coming up - but the full details on that need to be hammered out.

So, until next time

Some facepack samples...

Some kitpack samples...

View the full catalogue of Fanboys' FM11 Logopacks

View the full catalogue of Fanboys' FM11 Kitpacks

View the full catalogue of Fanboys' FM11 Facepacks

Love the coathanger ones

Yeah, they're probably the most popular kits this year. The GFX lads have put quite a lot of effort into making kitpacks, so there should be a full collection for FM11

BTW Caley, any chance we could alter the topic title? Something along the lines of "FM Fanboys : #1 for Graphics, Databases, Tactics and Guides."

The tactics thing is in the works, but it saves changing the title again later

Are you #1 though?

Are you #1 though?

For graphics, I think so. We have more written content than 90% of other sites and we're one of two sites (that I know of) making databases. When it comes to tactics, not yet - but we'll see come FM11

The only fathomable reason would be for brand recognition & traffic a person would get from being aligned with a specific site. But the social web is diminishing those reasons as well. As single entities become "influencers" in this space, it makes virtually no difference where any content is published from - as long as it gets shared & linked to by those with the largest reach. Ask a site administrator what happens to his traffic when the official FM Facebook page posts a link to an article of theirs, or when FM-Britain links to a forum post of theirs on our 45k+ mailing list. THIS is what the social web is - so the platform becomes virtually irrelevant as long as your putting out *good* content that is so good, people actively *want* to share it.

Or, and here's a crazy thought, they don't want to go to the trouble of creating yet another bloody blog? I've already got a job, I create graphics in my spare time, I don't want to be fannying around with some blog or whatever, when I can just post them up on susie.

For graphics, I think so. We have more written content than 90% of other sites and we're one of two sites (that I know of) making databases. When it comes to tactics, not yet - but we'll see come FM11

You reckon? I don't. No skinners != Number one.

You reckon? I don't. No skinners != Number one.

As you can see from the topic title, graphics were not something we did before we aquired FMGL and Fever-Pitch. As a result the site is still growing in that area - but, given the fact we boast the biggest amount of excellent FM graphics producers, I think it's fair to say we are number one in that area. Granted, we have no skinners (that I know of), but they will come with time. We've only been making graphics for a month, and so our reputation does not extend to the graphcis community in the same way FMGL did or Susie do.

We're in the process of a big site upgrade and with that we'll be introducing more into the site for our GFX community. At the moment I'd not consider a lack of skinners a huge negative; the year is over, so no-one would be making skins anyway and once we're optimised for GFX I'm sure we'll start to offer an impressive catalogue of skins, alongside our facepacks, logopacks and kitpacks.

Also, who really has a skinning department? I think Susie are the only site with a skinner on board and that's because Matt designs their site. No other site has a skinner - skinners simply produce their work and then spread it via sites who'll make them available for download. With all of that as a consideration, it makes perfect sense why we wouldn't be producing skins at this point and it explains why we have no skins on offer as of yet.

I'd quibble over the definition of excellent, as a lot of what I've seen is pretty derivative (though those badge logos are excellent, and your kits aren't bad) but variations of 'team logo on background with random shiny effect x' is one of my major bugbears with graphics. And most facepack styles are even more irritating, the players name is in big letters at the top of the screen!

Sorry, I'm venting. Oh, and susie has two skinners, you cheeky git.

I'd quibble over the definition of excellent, as a lot of what I've seen is pretty derivative (though those badge logos are excellent, and your kits aren't bad) but variations of 'team logo on background with random shiny effect x' is one of my major bugbears with graphics. And most facepack styles are even more irritating, the players name is in big letters at the top of the screen!

Sorry, I'm venting. Oh, and susie has two skinners, you cheeky git.

Well of course, people have different opinions on who is good or not, but from what I know of the people on the site, they're the cremé de la cremé of FM GFX (most of them originating from the same sites your very own hammer9 was at). There are some projects which I'm not a fan of; there are a few people trying their own styles and so on, but some of the team logos and kits are amongst the best around. I also believe we have one of the largest styles of facepack in the TF facepacks (around 32,000 faces thus far and counting).

I would agree that the logos with random effects are poor, I dislike them too, but we're not producing any of them. As far as I'm aware, it's just members submitting their own styles or styles coming in from other sites in those styles. We have Derek's Shine logos, the badge logos you mentioned and we're producing mainly the FbKits and the Display kits - everything else is either fan made or concept work. And once more, I agree with the facepacks too. I'm not a fan of the names and flags and all that other stuff either, but I believe we only have two styles like that (due to concept feedback) and then we have simple facepacks like the stickerbook facepacks, glossy widescreen packs and also very plain logos too.

Who are you on Susie? I only know of Matt really, and that gay lad, Tom Dixon

And again - skinners aren't really important right now for any site. I think once we're ready to release the updated site, we'll offer as much as Susie do graphically - even if we're second to Susie - given their reputation and years of good service to the community.

Come and join FMCareers - www.fmchat.co.uk

Email any questions to - aodhaganclifford@live.ie

Wow, desperate much today Aodhagan?

I can't be arsed to email, so I'll just ask my questions here. Do you have Down Syndrome? Who in their right mind is going to join your site via you spamming the affiliate section? What do you hope to achieve by being an utter bellend constantly?

You seriously need to have a word with yourself.

Wow, desperate much today ?

I can't be arsed to email, so I'll just ask my questions here. Do you have Down Syndrome? Who in their right mind is going to join your site via you spamming the affiliate section? What do you hope to achieve by being an utter bellend constantly?

You seriously need to have a word with yourself.

Do you have down syndrome? That is a very nice comment - tells me all I need to know about you! As you can see that is not Aodhagan - he is banned from SI. He lives in Ireland so just get someone from SI to check the IP Addresses. And they will see a match from the IP Addresses that it is another SI member!

Do you have down syndrome? That is a very nice comment - tells me all I need to know about you! As you can see that is not Aodhagan - he is banned from SI. He lives in Ireland so just get someone from SI to check the IP Addresses. And they will see a match from the IP Addresses that it is another SI member!

Yes, I'll take busy people's time up by getting them to check IP's on people's accounts -- to confirm that on this occassion, he's not responsible for spammng.

Honestly, this ain't what this thread is about. So, kindly, decline from further commentary on this saga. Grazie.

Do you have Down Syndrome?

Uncalled for

Uncalled for

Why is this being dragged on?

Individuals with Down syndrome tend to have a lower-than-average cognitive ability, often ranging from mild to moderate disabilities. A small number have severe to profound mental disability. The average IQ of children with Down syndrome is around 50, compared to normal children with an IQ of 100.

It might not be construed as the most politically correct comment, granted - but it's a valid point.

it's a valid point.

We'll have to agree to disagree there. I have no like/dislike for the guy in question but there's a huge difference between labelling them an idiot and inferring that they have a condition such as Downs.

[/off topic]

We'll have to agree to disagree there. I have no like/dislike for the guy in question but there's a huge difference between labelling them an idiot and inferring that they have a condition such as Downs.

[/off topic]

It was the culmination of numerous examples of idiocy which have built up to this point, so I escalated the language. It's no different to calling someone a r3t4rd; which I'm sure you'd not have complained about. I'm not saying it wasn't politically incorrect, but is it really that big of a deal? It's just words, and words without any hatred or antipathy behind them.

Don't take everything to heart; you know me, I'm not some ignorant lunatic. Granted, I'm hardly a fluffly cloud of fun, but surely by now you know that I don't pander to an over politically correct audience.

So, yeah. Quick update (sadly one of those spammy, lazy link ones - it's late, I'm tired).

Anyway, we've been offline for a few days, I just wanted to let people know we're back and looking fresh. We'll have some more content up for FM11 in the coming weeks - so if that's your bag, come over and check out our work

Signed up to Football Manager Fanboys a few days ago and its just brilliant. There is great discussion about the game in general. I am happy to say that there are some good tactics discussions there to read and I have downloaded some kits, logos and player faces for my FM11 demo.

This site is definitely the place to be on Friday when Football Manager 2011 comes out.

This could quite possibly be the best site ever. Graphics, guides, fun and friendly discussion. Awesome, just awesome

As you will know, FM Fanboys is not your typical fansite. Here we're all about quality over quantity, but we also like to prove that you can have both if you work hard enough.

So far since our conception, we've not only tried to be innovative with things like the Playbook (not yet complete - more to come on that later), but we've also tried to drive home the point that as a fansite, community is everything.

Since late December, we've changed. At first, we wanted an exclusive site, promoting the best of the FM community and only allowing the best people to join. We realised whilst that methodology was not wrong, it was flawed - after all, people adapt based on their surroundings and someone who was previously "spammy" might flourish in the right environment. So, we took a few months, shut the site and came back with something else.

It's fair to say, whilst we're technically nearly 10 months old, we're only really four months old. In those four months we've brought on board a number of other fansites to help us reach our goal of providing the most quality FM material around - all on one fansite. Of course, like anything it takes work but, after bringing on board Fever-Pitch, FMGLive, and FM Chat, we're happy to announce that Los Wonderkids are joining our revolution.

As the latest member of Team Fanboy, Putzy's Los Wonderkids will bring a lot to the table. Whilst Los Wonderkids has always struggled to keep 'Party Hour' at bay, there's always been innovation and creation behind the scenes. Adding LW to Fanboys not only brings more creative thinking to the team, but it also brings more hard-working monkeys who endevour to be the best they can for the members around them.

So, what is the breakdown of our latest recruits?

Well, as a result, we'll be able to finish a number of projects Wonderkid was heading up - thanks to Putzy's ability to write in Matrix code. We'll also be adding a fantastic challenges module to the site - which will be tied in with our FM stories competition - thanks to Marshall and Saintmat.

Not only do we promise the things aforementioned - but we promise innovation will be at the heart of this site. We've always been creative thinkers and now with even more ability to make these happen, we'll really aim to deliever on all fronts.

As normal, you can expect regular Featured content and regular FM discussion. We're obviously a small community - not many people know of us - and whilst we're growing at an exceptional rate, we're still very young and are trying to find our feet. With that said, we'd hope that the members here would continue to get involved in the discussion, the graphics production and also continue to make us one of the best FM sites around.

More to follow regarding new features, so stay tuned for that - announcements and upgrades will be taking place at some point in the near future - just for reference.

http://www.footballmanagerfanboys.net

http://www.footballmanagerfanboys.net/discussion

This site is excellent. Great GFX downloads, good career stories & great discussion on tactics & players.

Keep up the good work everyone.

FM XML is an important tool for graphics creators who use it to make the special config.xml files that make the graphics work in game. It’s also something that until now, did not have a Mac version, meaning Mac graphics creators were forced to wait for other people to create their config.xml files, or boot into Windows.

Following a few requests (and my own curiosity), I’ve created a version of FMXML for Mac that has exactly the same simplicity of the Windows version, in a native Mac OS X application. It is available right now, for free, exclusive to FM Fanboys!

Missing right now is configuration for Kit packs: getting the code right for this is a lot harder than the other types of image because there can be 3 types per club. Don't worry though, they will be making an appearance very soon!

The application is very easy to use – select the style and type of graphic you are creating, hit the button, and select each image you wish to have included in the config.xml file: (you can either click on the top image, hold shift, then click on the bottom, or CMD and click each image individually - I am looking at better ways for this!!), After you click Open, the config.xml will be generated in the folder where your images are located. The pack is now ready to zip-up and upload to the forum.

I’m open to requests about what should be changed in this application, but I am still learning how to code Mac applications, so I can’t guarantee everything will find it’s place into the app. I am also trying to keep the app incredibly simple, so try to keep your ideas in the constraints of the application.

If you think this is for you: Click to Download!

Nice work!!!