Players who enjoy LLM...

What do you do when you become too successful for the lower leagues? Resign and start again with another small club, or go with it and see how far you can take your club?

I enjoy LLM - but I don't wanna stay there! I like to hop clubs to make it to the top.

I leave when offered a job by a better club (except my project at Peterborough).

My clubs:

Hungerford 3 years > Workington 4 years > Accrington Stanley 4 years > Bristol Rovers 6 years > Watford 14 months > Portsmouth 10 months > Peterborough 16 years

^^^^^^^^^ looks a brilliant career.

I'm a one save, one club kinda guy, so I stick with a club and if I get bored, I start a new save/go back to an older save of a different club. It's a mentality I'm trying to break.

I've taken Ashington from the Northern League to The Championship in 12 seasons. Looking for a move now if a good enough club becomes available. The board won't increase the capacity of Woodhorn Lane (3500) or consider moving to a new stadium.

Took Woking to the Champions League winners. Only took 26 seasons.

I love LLM but usually after 2-3-4 years I get promoted so I keep on climbing the leagues until when I win the Premier and Championship cup, usually it takes 10-15-20 seasons. I have never cheated and never I'll do, I just believe in youngsters power + very few experienced ones.

whats your setup-countries selection at the start of the game for a proper LLM

whats your setup-countries selection at the start of the game for a proper LLM

sunday league unemployed?

sunday league unemployed?

Sunday League - picked a suitable club from the Ryman/Evo-Stik/Zamaretto Regionals. Don't like to start unemployed. Wastes valuable game time!

Sunday League - picked a suitable club from the Ryman/Evo-Stik/Zamaretto Regionals. Don't like to start unemployed. Wastes valuable game time!

thanks a lot SWaRFeGa

I dont like to see regens taking over the world. And also i dont resing my club for any reason. Not since Cm 01-02 So i take my club to highest level as soon as possible. In my Crewe Alexandra save it took 7 seasons to win EPL. And when my teams get very strong i decide to quit the save and start whole another one. I dont know if i am masochist or something.

Sunday League - picked a suitable club from the Ryman/Evo-Stik/Zamaretto Regionals. Don't like to start unemployed. Wastes valuable game time!

Without wishing to be picky that isn't strickly LLM but I'll let it go

As for the OP LLM is about more than just starting in the lowest playable league, it is about how you approach the game. If you scratch the surface of the LLM community you will find that folk like me who only play FM in an LLM fashion tend to have a similar ethos towards gaming & life in general, even if our beliefs are polar opposite.

A common misconception is that once you reach the higher divisions the game ceases to be LLM, this couldn't be further from the truth.

I dont like to see regens taking over the world. And also i dont resing my club for any reason. Not since Cm 01-02 So i take my club to highest level as soon as possible. In my Crewe Alexandra save it took 7 seasons to win EPL. And when my teams get very strong i decide to quit the save and start whole another one. I dont know if i am masochist or something.

Nope you are not, you are just enjoying lower leagues

Without wishing to be picky that isn't strickly LLM but I'll let it go

As for the OP LLM is about more than just starting in the lowest playable league, it is about how you approach the game. If you scratch the surface of the LLM community you will find that folk like me who only play FM in an LLM fashion tend to have a similar ethos towards gaming & life in general, even if our beliefs are polar opposite.

A common misconception is that once you reach the higher divisions the game ceases to be LLM, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Exactly this. 'True' LLM (to the ethos of the SI community) advocates a no-cheating approach, and strictly working within the limits of realism. Therefore, we aproach the game from a perspective of 'is it realistic to do this' - is it realistic to move from the club you've brought up from the BSS to League 1, in exchange for treble your wage and better prospects of success? Yes. Is it realistic to 'do a Dario Gradi' and stick with one club and get as much success as possible? To a certain extent, yes. Therefore, both approaches work. You could go the Dafuge challenge/Dario Gradi method, or you could do a Jose Mourinho, and work your way up jumping ship as you go. Realism is key.

Think there's a difference here between "Lower League Management" and "LLM", as the former is simply starting off at least at a very low level whereas the latter is a different approach to the game.

(I'm not getting in an argument about LLM itself, there was a whole thread about this the other day).

No, I stay the course and see where I can go. However, if I've gone a little stale with no real direction in 4-5 years, I'll resign and look for another project.

LLM around here is a touchy subject I prefer the more relaxed attitude to it whereas others (on the LLM forum for example) prefer to play in a more realistic kind of way.

To answer the OP though, I usually like taking a level 10 or 11 club up to maybe L1 or the Championship and then start again back at the bottom. I've not any interest at all in playing in the Premier League (Been playing the game for 8+ years and I've NEVER managed in the top flight. Too much money and pressure. I like to bargain hunt.

Normally once i took the club to european glory it's time to just start a new save somewhere else.

I don't use player search and rely on what my scouts and backroom staff recommends though i'll take a look at the reserve squads of the top teams on the country and of the other teams in the league(i think that it's realistic) but i'll stay on the same club though it would be more realistic to move as soon as a new club shows up offering you more money.

Well said Coentrao. I think that FM2012 will remove this dilemma(take a look at the reserve squads,transfer list etc) as we'll have the option to scout any club in the football world. An other difference here between "Lower League Management" and "LLM", is not using editor data at all, so level 11 is more like "Lower League Management". But its fine, i was offered the Shankhouse(L11) job at the start and its fun.

As for the OP,resign and start again with another small club, or go with it and see how far you can take your club? it sounds unrealistic. I will continue in the higher leagues.

I've had games where I continue with one club and games which follow more of a career path. It depends who I start with in most cases.

I play LLM philosophy, not perfectly but close enough that it makes the game challenging and fun. Definitely one club one save - I try to get to the top and play continental football if I can

I have never won the Champions League, or even the Europa League. Closest I got was Limerick FC in Ireland where I was making the CL group stages every second year on average (while having no impact in the groups), but I ended up retiring the save after twenty years, as I wasn't making real progress, and I wanted to try playing in a country with a more powerful league.

For me the cool thing about LLM is to transform a weak squad and climb to the top. When you're at the top things are easier but it's a great feeling of accomplishment knowing that when you started the club was in the lower leagues.

What do you do when you become too successful for the lower leagues? Resign and start again with another small club, or go with it and see how far you can take your club?

This year I've done a bit of both, I've worked my way from the bottom to the top and then after a while I went back to the bottom again. Usually I tend to stay at the top once I've made my way there though.

Here's my career:

I stick with one club. I'm Truro City in my current save and hav managed to get from the Conference South to League 1 in straight seasons but I've hit the wall. I'm just outside the playoffs, thew wage bill is too high so I'm losing £100,000-150,000 a month and have had to sell 2 of my star players for about £4million combined to keep the books balanced.

I love it but always stay at the same club and try to take them as far as possible. I did a save with Alfreton Town when the game first came out and got to the Prem is straight seasons but got hammered and releagated in my first season there and went into freefall. I gave up on that save. I'm trying not to make the same mistakes with Triro but the wage bill isses are already showing that I proabaly haven't fully learnt my lesson.

I usually start in the blue square north/south and then play the same save untill the next game is released. If I reach an age where I would consider too old to manage I would retire the manager and go back to scratch with a new one. I go where the game takes me, sometimes I accept new offers but many times I only leave when I get fired. This version I didn't have a good enough laptop to get a really good careergame going, but bought a new one a few days ago so should be able to get back to my ways with FM12.

I love starting from the bottom.

I started as bromley (as usual).

1st season finished 8th Blue square south.

2nd season finished 4th BLue square south - promote through playoffs

3rd season finished 1st Blue square Prem.

4th season finished 2nd League 2

5th season finished 10th League 1.

6th season finished 2nd League 1.

7th season finished 19th Championship

8th season finished 1st Championship

And just started the 9th season in the Prem. Probably looking at a season of struggle. Just become a club legend. I already broke the Premiership record for lowest attendance with 1300 (maximum capacity stadium). Thats despite having 2000 season ticket holders??, but looking to move into a new 15,000 stadium next season.

So things are looking good.

Usually when I reach the prem is when I start getting bored and give up but I'm still pretty much enjoying this save.

In my opinion, unless you have a salary cap, it's not really LLM as you can take advantage of the game by shrewd trading and end up with lots money and high paid players. Try getting the best side possible on the lowest salary possible. For Example the A-League has a squad cap of 28K and a 1st team cap of 18.8K/week. I currently have a squad of 21 players with aan average wage of 932/week and we won the Club World Championship, beating Chelsea. No cheating in the sense that I have not altered any dB, or taken control of any clubs I wish to trade with and I won all games at first crack. I admit to playing Mexico under 20s about 10 times with Australia U20s for the U20 world cup however (Ironically tried differing tactics to no effect and then thought stuff it, set it back to my standard and move on, win/loss/draw and got the win). So just to reiterate - salary capping is key to LLM style - otherwise you can pwn the game too easily with trading advantage of man v machine.

Up until the championship I had never sold a single player. The AI dont bother making bids.

I tried to sell a player valued at 18K for 20K and nobody made a bid. I reduced it to 18K and all of a sudden bids come in. £0 up front and 18k over 5 years. Fantastic. Had a 0% transfer revenue anyway so ended up with nothing.

Great free transfers make it too easy and the AI never trying to steal your players. But been able to switch excess transfer funds to wages helps too much, thats if you can even get any transfer money.