A League Improvememt for FM 2009

I think the A League needs a lot of improvement for Football Manager 2009.

Marquee Players

I have yet to see a club in football manager 2008 sign a marquee player. In football manager 2009 clubs need to sign a marquee player and this player needs a lot of media attention. As it stands at the moment, if a club did sign a marquee player then there is no real media attention to designate him from a normal player. The media needs to establish that he is the clubs new Marquee signing and there opinion of him.

For example:

'Club A have signed Player X as there new Marquee signing for the 2009/2010 season. Player X has played for Club B and Club C, and Club A hope that he will boost performances on the pitch as well as get the fans excited about the player.

Coach A said"He is 29 and played X amount of times for Country B and will really show his stuff this season"

or

'Club A have signed Player X as there new Marquee signing for the 2009/2010 season. Player X has played for Club B and Club C, and Club A hope that he will boost performances on the pitch as well as get the fans excited about the player.

Being 36 though fans are unsure if Player X will be able to sustain performance for the whole season is another matter but being an Australian International Club A hope attendances will be improved.'

Media attention should follow the player as the season goes stating his performances, his injuries and any controversies.

For Example:

'Player X again played magnificantly against Club B scoring one and setting up two to justify his Marquee spot"

'Player Y will miss Club A's clash with Club B yet again due to injury. This is the third time this season that he has missed games through injuries and clubs are questioning his worth as a marquee'

'Player Z was once again very quiet during the game against Club B and there are real question marks if he will be kept on as the clubs marquee next season or given a less contract to finish his career with the club'

You should also be able to negotiate with the board about your marquee signing because as it stands the Marquee player is supposed to fit into the clubs wage structure. It doesn't work this way as seen in deals with John Aloisi, Dwight Yorke and Mario Jardel. You should be able to talk to your chairman saying "i've found player X and he wants this much for a X year deal. He is a brilliant player or will boost attendances". Really you should be trying to convince your chairman the kind of player he is and why he should invest more on him as well as his advantage in the club. You may then get pressure by the chairman to play the player even if playing poorly. Even as seen this season when Con Constantine brought in Jardel, your chairman could bring in a Marquee for you and then there could be a lot of media controversy about it.

Junior Marquee Player

This new rule for this season is where a player under 23 can be paid $150 000 AU dollars of his yearly salary out of the salary Cap. Now for this to work there needs to be a lot more media attention paid to Young Australian Talents. The players who normally win the Young Player of the Year are heavily targeted by overseas clubs. For example Scouts need to attend from overseas to watch games and there should be a lot of spectulation of the best young talent moving overseas. Young talent need attention for example:

'Player B has been amazing this season scoring twelve goals despite his tender age and there are murmurs of interest overseas, with scouts from Club C and Club D seen in recent games"

Simple media items like that would be good. You could then get clubs pinpointing the player being interested overseas and offer him the contract. It shouldn't really be the player with the most potential but no one watching him as that is not the idea of the Marquee spot, it has been brought in to stop young players going overseas.

Youth League

The A League has also brought in a Youth League. This League can have 3 overage players playing for them and the games are played on matchdays. They are normally coached by either ex-players or high profile coaches in the area with several older first team players assisting. For this I would like to see there be a coaching position called Youth Team Manager and Youth Team Assistant. Again a media item is deserved if any coaches are appointed.

'Club A has hired ex-player B to be the clubs new Youth team boss'

Something simple like that is all that needed. Now the Youth Team Boss should be head of recruiting for this youth team. The players that need to join should be players playing First Team at State League Clubs in the States, the Best Young players from the State's Acadamy as well as any Young players who turn up from Overseas. The best young Talent should be signed by the First Team, and that talent normally comes from the Australian Institute of Sport. The Maximum age of a youth team player is 21, so coaches should be looking for a mix of the Best Young State League Players not being looked at by the first team as well as the best from the States Institutes of Sport.

The A League squads can now be up to 35 Players including Youth Team Players and you should be able to allocate the Youth Team Boss the amount of players he can can sign with the Minimum being 11. You should also get an email of any players he signs.

When they start playing you should get an email summarising each game and after every month the Youth Team Manager should give you a report with the following information.

'This month we have played well winning all our games. Player X, Y and Z have been brilliant for the third month running and are some of the top performers in this League. Player Q has been poor though and Im starting to ponder about his place on the team'

Then at the end of the season you should get a report on each player saying the following

'Player X this season has been brilliant scoring X amount of goals and getting an average rating of X. He has developed into a tall lanky striker with a great touch, and all though still lightweight, he has bags of potential and should be given a place into the first team next season'

'Player Y this season has been good playing X amount of games despite his tender age. He is developing into a lovely attacking rightback who is technically assured although more work is needed on the defensive side of his game. I still feel he needs another season at this level'

'Player Q has been below average this season failing to perform well in all of his X amount of games. He has failed to fulfill his early potential and is just too slow to be a centreback at this level. Being 20, I feel he wont develop much further so unless you think differently I will be letting him go this season'

I will post a few more improvements later

You should also be able to tell your Youth Team Coach what overage players and playing and how long you want each to play. For example you could say you Player X to play for a half as he is still coming back from injury or say Player X,Y,Z and V will not be involved with the first team tomorrow so you can pick one you want for your squad.

Glad that someone is on to it...although a lot of points had been made in the Australian Data Issues...I just hope that the new version will see expansion included (eg Gold Coast United and North Queensland FC in 2009/10 and then West Sydney and another team in 2011/12) these have been basically guaranteed by the FFA, so i can't see the harm. Another 2 in 2016 to have a 14 team league would be awesome as well. I remember they considered doing this with the first release of Fm06 (i think) where there was Wollongong United and Townsville FC in the DB, but the expansion was apparently removed at the last minute. Probably cuz it wasn't realistic. Hope they include the MLS expansions as well, apparently four more teams in the next few years (Seattle Sounders FC in 09 and a Philadelphia team in 2010 already confirmed and St Louis seen as a near cert after that, the fourth is looking like Ottawa atm).

Also don't forget the Pacific Championship that began this year with Sydney FC as Australia's representative.

I plan to a few more posts on other improvements but Im just finalising my points currently.

I think the a-league is so messed up at the moment that SI have a lot of work to do.... its the salary cap that is causing them problems, its apparently very hard to code. But I think if they can set the game up so the cap does everntually dissapear (but forienger limits still apply) than even if its still messed up we can holiday till the cap dissapears and play from there uninterupted.

Whle i don't know much (read anything) about the A league in general, I am particularly excited about your first point about marquee players.

I think this could be expanded into every league in the game to fill somthing missing in the game as a whole - which is immersion into the football world.

Once the game moves into a regen filled world, you lose sight of who the superstars of the game, league or team are. More media and board interaction in the way you have explained would be useful in a general sense for all clubs (probably focusing on higher waged or reputation players), and this sort of interaction would be good in a more general sense for european teams, such as Michael Owen for Newcastle, Dwight Yorke for Sunderland a couple of years ago, Ronaldinho for Man City (had it happened) Shevchenko for Chelsea, etc, etc, and a more specific sense in the way you have described in leagues where these players form a specific part in the league's wage structure such as the A league and MLS.

This will bring the characters in the game more to life than simply their stats and make te game more immersive as a wole

Glad that someone is on to it...although a lot of points had been made in the Australian Data Issues...I just hope that the new version will see expansion included (eg Gold Coast United and North Queensland FC in 2009/10 and then West Sydney and another team in 2011/12) these have been basically guaranteed by the FFA, so i can't see the harm. Another 2 in 2016 to have a 14 team league would be awesome as well. I remember they considered doing this with the first release of Fm06 (i think) where there was Wollongong United and Townsville FC in the DB, but the expansion was apparently removed at the last minute. Probably cuz it wasn't realistic. Hope they include the MLS expansions as well, apparently four more teams in the next few years (Seattle Sounders FC in 09 and a Philadelphia team in 2010 already confirmed and St Louis seen as a near cert after that, the fourth is looking like Ottawa atm).

Unfortunately, I don't see it happening. SI has never put expansion into the game before, but if they do, it would be great!

AIS and State Institutes of Sport

I feel at the moment the AIS and the States Institutes of Sport aren't presented properly. They are in the A League the main source of young player recruitment. The AIS is for players 15 to 17 years of age with it standing as the step up to professional football.Players join the AIS after impressing for their State Sport programs. There scholarship is normally for a season with the possibility for a second. Many of Australia's best players went through the Institute of Sport as youngsters.

I want to see clubs signing players more regularly after they leave the AIS. This occurs in the A League currently as you see that 80% of the 2006 Graduates went on to play at a A League team. I think the State programs should be implemented into the game with their best players going on to be the next batch of youngsters who join the AIS.

The AIS is a quality program and the youth league teams should be rejected for the oppurtunity to attend the AIS. If this system continues you should start to see a strong continued development of players.

State Loyalty

I feel at the moment you see little indication of overseas Australians who want to return to Home town teams. Craig Moore returned to his hometown team in Queensland as did Muscat with Melbourne. When a player is in negotiations this home town loyalty should play a large part in his decision.

I know this is only a minor thing but it would give the game a level of realism and would give media reports more depth for example

'Harry Kewel has signed for hometown team Sydney FC rejecting Perth Glory and Wellington'

or

'Mark Viduka has rejected overtures from hometown team Melbourne victory to sign for Adelaide. Money is said to be his motivation or something like that'

Ok a few points based on what I know:

Marquee Player

This is extremely difficult for SI to code. The comprimise that we reached with them is that the top earning player at each club is the Marquee and is therefore exempt from the cap

Junior Marquee Player

I have requested that this gets looked at for FM09 but as above it may be too difficult. Also only 3 clubs have taken up this option

Youth League

THe Youth League has been added. We might not have the right squads though as our data deadline is next week and as far as I know only QLD have announced their full squad.

Expansion

The general consensus is that expansion wont be added for FM09 as we dont have a playing squad to add. This will more likely be added for FM2010

They also need to fix the registration issues, which I'm pretty sure still remained in the game after the latest patch.

I really hope the Australian football world improves dramitically in the FM09. Here are a couple of the things I would love to see:

1) Players rejecting a return to Australia to play: We have seen players such as John Aloisi, Ahmed Elrich, Tony Popovic, Stan Lazaridis, Craig Moore, Danny Tiatto, etc, return to Australia to play rejecting higher European offers because they want to help Australian football and be big fish in a little pond. Whenever I go to sign a 32 yr old Tim Cahil he still wants a massive wage and so moves to the English Championship club instead of coming home, as he probably (and hopefully) will at that age.

2) Players demanding rediculous wages: At the time of contract renewal I had 6 players all demand nearly $10,000 per week, Ok, we did win the A-League, but they are aware of the cap and would generally be happy to take a small increase with bonuses, but none of them would and I lost 4 quality players who then signed for other A-League clubs for less than $5,000 per week!!

3) Youth players only coming for the Sports Institutes: Due to this there are only around 20+ young Aussies generated each year so that by 2015 there is such a small pool of Aussies to pick from that our national team is a disgrace. There seem to be more Kiwis generated than Aussies each year!

4) Youth players rejecting A-League contracts because the AIS pays more: This is also rediculous, why is the AIS allowed to offer a 17yr old kid $3,000 a week to play for them, when, due to the salary cap, I can only offer him $2,000?? The player then rejects me, an A-League club who has won the title for a couple of seasons and is hoping to win Asia for the 3rd time in 4 years? No 17yr old would turn down the option to play professional football.

5) The lack of ethnic names: As we see, the majority of the Australian national team, and a lot of the good youth in Australia are 1st or 2nd generation Australians, however, by the year 2015, most Australians have surnames like Jones, Smith, White, etc. This isn't realistic. Surely we should see more ethnic sounding names coming through with a 2nd nationality of Croatia, Italy, Macedonia, etc.

I think that's all for now, if I think of more I will be back!

Yeah, the a-league becomes pretty much unplayable after a few seasons. The inability to attract players from the institutes of sport is absurd. The huge gulf in quality and potential between established a-league players and those in lower divisions kills the game also (and has also proven to be very unrealistic). The wage expectations when looking to re-sign players becomes especially problematic in light of that.

Then there are the bugs. I'm not sure if others experience this but usually half the sides are somehow able to register more than the 4 allowed foreign players. And all of the other sides always sign huge numbers of foreigners. Some clubs are somehow able to use many or all of them, others end up with tiny numbers of registered players because of the foreigner-registration limits. I decided to set a challenge which was basically going to be about winning the a-league with each of the 8 clubs. I gave up though as the numbers of poor quality, really old foreign players each squad had after winning with the first couple of clubs was too ludicrous and killed the enjoyment.

A lot of the specifics though outlined by others though are probably expecting too much. But it would be good if the regional biases could be introduced - both in terms of overseas-based players coming back gravitate to their home states and that clubs look to their state leagues and state institutes for young talent. But I can well understand that the a-league would be a tricky one to get right.

Also don't forget the Pacific Championship that began this year with Sydney FC as Australia's representative.

Its not sydney every year, isnt it the team that comes 3rd/4th in the league that goes.

It would also be nice if the game actually recognised that Wellington Pheonix are a New Zealand team not Australian. It always made me chuckle when I got media reports along the lines of 'Fans of Wellington Pheonix, have travelled x amount of miles from their home in Australia' erm last time I checked we in New Zealand are an independent country from Oz, unless SI know something we don't?

Also the problems regarding foreigners needs to be sorted ASAP, as it makes the A-League a joke after several seasons. The Sports Institute needs to be set up correctly, and the Nix need to be able to sign players from the NZFC more. Added to this Kiwis need to be more inclined to come and play in the A-league from abroad when they reach a certain age, Chris Killen retired at 30ish rather than sign for the Nix.

The marquee player doesn't really bother me, as your highest paid player tends to be your biggest name foreigner/(Kiwi or Oz) International player.

Ok a few points based on what I know:

Marquee Player

This is extremely difficult for SI to code. The comprimise that we reached with them is that the top earning player at each club is the Marquee and is therefore exempt from the cap

Junior Marquee Player

I have requested that this gets looked at for FM09 but as above it may be too difficult. Also only 3 clubs have taken up this option

Youth League

THe Youth League has been added. We might not have the right squads though as our data deadline is next week and as far as I know only QLD have announced their full squad.

Expansion

The general consensus is that expansion wont be added for FM09 as we dont have a playing squad to add. This will more likely be added for FM2010

Thats good to see...Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Newcastle have all released their squads by the way

Thats good to see...Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Newcastle have all released their squads by the way

Have they?? You got a link??

I read them on fourfourtwo.com.au

Here are some meblourne player I found Mijo Marinovic, Robert Wynne, Antonio LaVerde, Aziz Behich, Matthew Foschini, Stephen Hatzikostas and Fabio DiLizia. They have also signed an 11 year old Trey O’Sullivan.

For Adelaide United, http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/82874,adelaide-youth-squad-takes-shape.aspx.

Sydney Fc http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/81082,sydney-youth-team-near-complete.aspx. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/sport/soccer/canberra-players-signed-to-sydney-fc-youth-team/1251155.aspx

http://www.aol.com.au/sport/story/Sydney-FC-sign-talented-youngsters/705331/index.html

I know Adam Luca, Brent Griffiths, Antony Skorich have signed for the Glory Youth Squad

Newcastle Jets http://www.newcastlefootball.net/forums/showthread.php?p=207138#post207138

Central coast http://marinators.net/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=813673139eb72f6dfd4bcddfa3dddf1b&topic=1114.75

Also, it would be nice to be able to run the Oceania Club Championships without having to also run all the Asian ones...

Can we have a confirmation list by SI please?