AI Experiment - an extreme league in an ordinary world

The English Football League & Walcott's Wonderkids presents...

AI Experiment - an extreme league in an ordinary world

Hello all,

Welcome to my AI Experiment, where I have decided to try and investigate the effects of extremities within the structure of a football club. 23 of the clubs within Coca-Cola League Two for the 2007/08 season have been removed (Lincoln remains) and have each been replaced with a new club that has something unique about them.

Each club has been given below average facilities / amentities, with the exception of one extreme characteristic in an attempt to see how this will affect the fortunes of clubs in the short, medium and long term. The extreme characteristics range from an ambitious sugardaddy to a club with fantastic youth setup, from having a team of superstars to being an amateur club. To aid for a fair test I have also included a 'control team' which has no extreme characteristics, but just the average abilities / facilities.

I have used League 2 in England as the basis for this experiment, mainly because it means that any team that gets relegated won't disappear off the radar. Any team that gets promoted / relegated from League 2 after season 1 will still be followed, after all this experiment is about all 24 teams and how how they adapt not just in the short term, but also over a number of years.

To ensure a fair test, the following criterion has been laid down as standard for every club, barring their unique selling point:

Status = Professional Club

Club Reputation = 2900

Opening bank balance = c.£500k

Chairman CA & PA = 80 / 200 and must have average personality traits (10/20).

Stadiums = 12,000 all seater, with average attendance of 6,000

Training facilities = 8

Youth facilities = 8

Club Morale = 8

Next up, lets meet the clubs...

So without any more delays, lets meet the teams…..

The 24 clubs in the CSE League

The 24 clubs have split down into several categories to aid for comparative / differential purposes. Where clubs have been given players, I have also provided a screenie of a striker at said club, to help you get a better understanding of the quality / attributes of the side.

Class 1: Financial Variables

1. Billionaires XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: Ambitious, impatience sugardaddy chairman.

Questions

Or will the club end up giving large wages to useless players?

How long will any manager survive if they don’t live up to expectations?

2. Wealthy Donor XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: Wealthy, loyal Chairman who wants to look after his staff.

Questions

Will the immense loyalty of the chairman lead to him losing a lot of money if he puts his faith in a dud manager who brings in poor players?

3. Admin Idols XI

CLub Info

Extreme Feature: Negative £2.5m bank balance with a £10 loan to the bank outstanding.

Questions

Will the clubs perilous financial state affect the quality of players they can bring in?

Will the club go into administration or can the club start to make a profit going forward?

4. Athletic Amateurs

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The club begins with amateur status

Questions

How long will it take for the club to turn semi-pro or go fully professional?

Will the club struggle to attract players initially if they remain as amateurs?

Class 2: Global Club Network Variables

5. Football Directory XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The club has struck a deal so that it has 3 parent clubs – Man Utd, Barcelona & Juventus, who are able to loan the club players.

Questions

How many players will the parent clubs donate to the League 2 side?

How good will these loan players be?

6. Mini Kiev XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: Has struck a deal with new parent club Shakhtar Donetsk, so that they provide financial help, have the same board and players can go on loan to England.

Questions

Will Shaktar donate players to this League 2 side?

How much financial support are they prepared to give them?

7. Euro Trip XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: This team has been awarded a place in the UEFA Cup for 2007/08

Questions

How far can this team get in the UEFA Cup?

Will the lure of European football in the first season attract another quality players to get them promotion?

Class 3: Local Environment Variables

8. Kindergarten XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The club has been given a perfect training & youth facilities, along with a youth academy

Questions

Are top class training facilities enough to attract good players to the club?

Will the club even produce any decent youngsters?

9. Londinium XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The club has a massive 80,000 seater stadium with an average crowd of c.60,000.

Questions

Will the club’s extra income from gate receipts help them to buy better players?

10. Global Newspaper XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The club has been assigned a reputation of 10,000.

Questions

How much does reputation affect the quality of players they can attract?

If so, will any superstars be lured by a high rep club.

11. Happy Campers XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The club has preset with maximum morale.

Questions

How long will it take for morale to decrease?

Does general positive morale at a club really affect its performances on the pitch?

12. Satan XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: Every other club in the division has been set to dislike Satan XI

Questions

Will anyone want to join a club that is so despise by other teams?

How will Satan XI be able to cope with the fact that every game is a ‘derby’ game in the mind of the opposition?

13. Andorran XI

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The Andorran National team have decided to enter a club into League 2 in the hope to improve their national fortunes

Questions

How long will it take for the manager to get rid of / replace the Andorran players?

Will this have any link at all to the Andorran National team’s performances?

Class 4: Player / Backroom Staff Variables

14. Civil War XI

Club Info

Civil War Stiker

Extreme Feature: The squad is comprised of talented players for this level of football, but within the squad there are several bouts of infighting amongst the players.

Questions

How many people will get hacked off with each other over the next season?

Will the team be able to play as one despite the hatred amongst the ranks of each other?

15. Dog & Duck XI

Club Info

Dog & Duck Striker

Extreme Feature: A stereotypical pub team – they play on an appalling pitch, are not very talented but make up for it with physical strength, aggression and knowing how to bully opponents off the ball.

Questions

Will they be able to win games by playing the classic long ball tactic against all the other more talented teams?

How many points will the team lose due to having a man sent off during games?

16. EPO Allstars XI

Club Info

EPO Striker

Extreme Feature: The side has been given 11 players who have tremendous pace and stamina, but lack technical ability?

Questions

Will the speed and workrate of the side overcome their technical inabilities?

How will they match up to the power and strength of the Dog & Duck XI?

17. Golden Oldies XI

Club Info

Squad List

Extreme Feature: A squad has been assembled of old players who once applied their trade in the top divisions of their respective leagues. A list of the squad members is listed above.

Questions

Will the team’s experience overcome their lack of speed and stamina?

Will these former stars have a personality clash now they are put all into the same team?

18. Utilities XI

Club Info

Utility Striker

Extreme Feature: The club has been given a goalie, plus 10 outfield players who can play in every position on the pitch.

Questions

Will the fact that every outfield player can play everywhere help or hinder the team?

Will the players switch position throughout the season?

19. Bottlers XI

Club Info

Bottlers Striker

Extreme Feature: A bunch of technically gifted footballers for this level of football, but are physically weak and mentally fragile.

Questions

Will technical ability overcome their weaknesses in over areas of the game?

What happens when they face a team like the Dog & Duck XI?

20. Hurricanes FC

Club Info

Hurricanes Striker

Extreme Feature: Inspired by the TV cartoon of yesteryear, the squad is full of future legends. What more can be said – its all in this

Questions

What will happen when the 11 superstars get injured / suspended?

Will the poor quality backroom staff hinder their chances of promotion?

21. Backroom FC

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The club has been given a tremendous set of backroom staff – manager, assman, coaches, physio and scout.

Questions

Will the backroom staff be good enough to recruit a set of players and train them so that they can gain promotion against teams with better quality players?

What will happen once the decent backroom staff move on?

Class 5: Control Variables

22. Control FC

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The side has no extreme features, the team has just average stats in everything. Run for fair test purposes.

Questions

How will a normal team with no stand out features get on in the league?

23. Synthetic Utd

Club Info

Extreme Feature: The club plays its home matches on a synthetic pitch

Questions

Does the game incorporate features of a synthetic pitch into the game or is it merely just a cosmetic feature?

24. Lincoln FC

Club Info

Extreme Feature: They are the only original League Two side left in the division

Questions

How will the existing club with a squad full of players cope against these newfangled clubs?

In addition to every club having a fierce dislike of Satan XI, I have edited the database to include the following rivalries:

Dog & Duck XI v Bottlers XI  –  strength and aggression versus technical ability
Dog & Duck XI v EPO Allstars XI  –  strength and aggression versus pure athleticism
Billionaires XI v Wealthy Donor XI  –  the battle of the billionaires
Billionaires XI v Athletic Amateurs XI  -  instant success versus playing the game for the love of it
Happy Campers XI v Civil War XI  –  high morale and happiness at the club versus infighting
Kindergarten XI v Golden Oldies XI  –  youth versus experience

To give you an overview of all the club's starting values, here is a screenie:

Starting Club Value Levels for the CSE League

Just to let everyone know, the clubs with players assigned to them, having been given long term contracts and future transfer dates - my aim behind this is that they stay at their initial team for as long as possible.

Prediction Time

Apart from the various questions written above, please provide your thoughts on these questions...

1. Who do you think will win the league this season?

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total?

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated?

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first?

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)?

This looks like a fantastic idea.

Nice.

Great idea, and done so well! I'm supporting Happy Campers XI. I also like the stadium names

1. Hurricanes FC to win the league

2. Hurricanes FC, Golden Oldies XI, Londinium XI, Global Newspaper XI for promotion (but not necessarily in that order)

3. Bottlers XI and Admin Idols XI for relegation

4. Londinium XI to reach the Premiership first

5. The physical sides will do better than the technical sides, but mental attributes will also come into play

Looking forward to the results, good work!

Just getting going wiuth this but I was under the impression that, "Each club has been given below average facilities / amentities, with the exception of one extreme characteristic", but then on the very first club I look at you have changed more than 1 setting.

1. Billionaires XI

1. Ambitious, impatience sugardaddy chairman,

2. who has splashed out on a 25,000 covered seated stadium

3. but whose club only has a rep of 1,000

That's already 3 variables rather than 1 and it will not now be as easy to see the effect of individual factors.

Still really interesting though.

Just getting going wiuth this but I was under the impression that, "Each club has been given below average facilities / amentities, with the exception of one extreme characteristic", but then on the very first club I look at you have changed more than 1 setting.

1. Billionaires XI

1. Ambitious, impatience sugardaddy chairman,

2. who has splashed out on a 25,000 covered seated stadium

3. but whose club only has a rep of 1,000

That's already 3 variables rather than 1 and it will not now be as easy to see the effect of individual factors.

Still really interesting though.

Aye yeah, I did have a bit of artistic license with some of them.

You do make a good point, so I've altered the rep using FMM (still haven't moved the game past the initial time snapshot so shouldn't make any difference.

This looks interesting. I'm goner have to follow this.

1. Who do you think will win the league this season? Billionaires XI

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total? No comment

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated? Satan XI and Lincoln

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first? Global Newspaper XI

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)? Physical guys will beat the technical guys

1. Who do you think will win the league this season? Football Directory XI

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total?

Football Directory XI

Andorran XI

Wealthy Donor XI

Satan XI

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated?

Golden Oldies XI

Lincon City FC

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first? To be honest, I reckon the Satan XI can do it.

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)? I'm not actually quite sure on this one, It will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Absolutely brilliant WW, Will be following with intrest for sure!

1. Who do you think will win the league this season?

Hurricanes FC. (Quite simply they will have too muchclass for the rest of the league. I expect them to romp to the title barely breaking sweat in the process).

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total?

Football Directory XI. (When I first started playing FM08 I found that the illegal feeder links that are in the game give an enormous advantage to some of the lower league teams who benefir from them and just a couple of players of sufficient quality would allow you to romp the league.

EPO Allstars XI. (Well considering I base my management style upon physical attributes in the lower leagues I've got to go for them. It's not as unbalanced as FM07 but it is still too important).

Global Newspaper XI. (They might not have much money, but neither will many of the others and what little talent there is available should be queuing up at their door). In addition I think there might be a significant change in the "feeder/parent" links of this club.

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated?

Administration Idols XI (Horrendous strip by the way)

Satan XI. (They have nothing going for them and the "bonus" of being disliked will only serve to reduce their points haul come the final day of reckoning.

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first?

Global Newspaper XI. If the dafuge and Gundo challenges have taught me anything it is that reputation rules the roost.

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)?

I think that EPO will finish higher than the Dog & Duck who will in turn finish higher that then Bottlers.

Great to see this up and running. Here are my predicitions:

1. Who do you think will win the league this season? Billionaires XI

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total? Wealthy Donor XI, Global Newspaper XI, Happy Campers XI

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated? Athletic Amateurs, Admin Idols

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first? Londinium XI

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)? Physically strong will do better

Very interesting concept. One query I thought of when looking through the information screen of each club though was how did you choose the location of each stadium, and when choosing did you make sure that the cities all had the same attractivity to maintain the fairness of your experiment?

Very interesting concept. One query I thought of when looking through the information screen of each club though was how did you choose the location of each stadium, and when choosing did you make sure that the cities all had the same attractivity to maintain the fairness of your experiment?

Yeah, all locations were rated 8 for attractiveness to make sure nobody wanted to go somewhere more than others (except Happy Campers of course who were given a city of 20 attractiveness to aid their happy, happy morale status).

Great start to the experiment, really looking forward to this - I'm not gonna predict anything but I've gotta say well done on creating some of the most horrendous jerseys possible!

Wow. This is truly the God of all AI experiments. I wish you luck with this very ambitious project, WW.

And go Andorran XI!

It looks like some of the players are already going to different clubs. But looks great, will follow!

It looks like some of the players are already going to different clubs. But looks great, will follow!

I noticed this as well, why do they all have future move dates of 2018 to Major clubs?

1. Who do you think will win the league this season? Backroom FC

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total? Backroom FC, Billionaires XI, Global Newspaper XI, Hurricanes FC

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated? Admin Idols XI, Civil War XI

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first? Billionaires XI

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)? physic will win over technique

I noticed this as well, why do they all have future move dates of 2018 to Major clubs?

As per the 5th post:

"Just to let everyone know, the clubs with players assigned to them, having been given long term contracts and future transfer dates - my aim behind this is that they stay at their initial team for as long as possible."

I'll forgive you for not noticing, there's plenty of info up there to get your head around!

Prediction Time

1. Who do you think will win the league this season?

I would like to think that Global Newspaper XI will win it after the ability to attract better players and a better manager.

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total?

Civil War XI (I don't think the in fighting will cause too many problems)

Golden Oldies XI (There players are still class for that level of league)

Backroom FC have an outside chance.

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated?

Admin Idols XI, points deduction for going into admin.

Bottlers XI, I am hoping that technical ability is far less important than mental or physical at this level of play.

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first?

Global Newspaper XI

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)?

I think the Bottlers will get relegated, while the Dog and Duck have a mid table chance and the EPO Allstars will get a lot of goals which should see them in the top 8.

Nice to see a wide variety of predictions for each of my questions - some of you are probably more right than others from the trial versions that I've run!

Hopefully should get an August analysis done tonight. Will upload all the results screenshots and then comment on what I feel were the more significant games during the month. Plus of course, will talk above any significant transfer dealings by the club.

1. Who do you think will win the league this season? Hurricanes FC, unless their manager decides to sell all their excellent players. Otherwise Global Newspapers XI

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total?

Billionaires, Wealthy Donor XI, and one of the two above

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated?

Athletic Amateurs and Satan XI

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first?

Global Newspaper XI

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)?

I reckon they might cancel each other out, and it might come down to some of the mental attributes. Dog and Duck to shade it.

Looks really interesting

1. Who do you think will win the league this season?

Hurricanes FC

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total?

Billionaires XI; Football Directory XI; Civil War XI

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated?

Admin Idols XI; Athletic Amateurs

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first?

Hurricanes FC

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)?

I think the strong teams will be better.

Just to let everyone know, I am running all the competitions that the clubs and their relevant players are involved in is done with full detail.

August 2007

Significant Summer Transfer Dealings

During the summer all the clubs made transfer dealings, but it was only the following ones that caught the eye:

Athletic Amateurs - Have signed 7 players, of BSP standard probably. The club remains amateur at the moment.

Backroom FC - Have used their backroom knowledge to pick up 3 semi-useful Australian players.

Billionaires FC - Possibly the most surprising of the lot. The club with the ambitious chairman has spent only £145k for around 12/13 players, with the highest fee being £65k for Nick Chadwick from Plymouth! Perhaps this is more to do with their manager than their Chairman... it will be interesting how long he lasts if he doesn't deliver.

EPO Allstars - To make up for a lack of technical ability, the manager has decided to bring in a series of loan signings from Championship sides to strike a good balance between the pace and stamina of the existing 11 players and the newbies.

Euro Trip - For a club just about to enter the UEFA Cup I would have thought they could have attracted some bigger names than what they have done. The only notable signings were Stuart Holden from Houston (MLS) for £210k and Nicky Law from Sheff Utd for about £50k who looks handy.

Football Directory - The side with Man Utd, Barca & Juventus as parent clubs has had a helping hand from them. 2 youngsters a piece from Man Utd & Barca, with a further one from Juventus (would have been 2 but for work permit issues), means that their side now has a solid defence and a half decent striker. Could they be a sneaky bet for promotion?

Global Newspaper XI - Their 10,000 reputation has paid them dividends, with the club being able to attract several classy free agents, all of whom are far better than this level of English football. The star names are Claudio Lopez, the Argentianian striker; Johann Vogel, the Swiss centre mid player and that Premier League legend Quinton Fortune.

Kindergarten XI - Have not signed too many players to supplement their youngsters, Julian Joachim being the only household name to have signed.

Lincoln City - The only notable thing about this club is that they were the only side not too have signed anyone during the summer... is that due to inability to sign anyone, or just confidence in their own players?!

Wealthy Donor FC - The biggest spenders by an absolute mile during the summer. In total they spent £3.4m, including £1.6m on Charlton player Harry Arter (who doesn't look that great to be honest). However, the £300k signing of Darryl Murphy looks an absolute bargain if his stats will produce goals.

So there we go, that's the major transfer movements - but who has got off to a flyer in the league?

Damn, After reading that, I wish i jumped on the Global Newspaper XI bandwagon. I am also slightly suprised about Wealthy Donor XI and their transfer dealings

August Results

Week 1 Results

The 1st week of any league normally throws up surprise leaders and this was no different, with the Bottlers XI and Lincoln City leading the league thanks to 3-0 wins.

Several of the favourites for the league also won. The Golden Oldies also got off to a solid start thanks to a goal each from Bennitto Carbone & Teddy Sherringham.

The Dog & Duck XI lived upto their reputation as the dirty team of the league, making an incredible 39 fouls in the game!

Week 2 Results

The league really kicked off this week, with Hurricanes & Global Newspaper both winning 7-0 at home. Andorra XI also showed that their side has unity, winning 5-3 against the amateurs. Lincoln also won 4-1, showing that the original club is proving that a settled team can produce results.

Londinium XI recorded the highest attendance of the league so far, with 61,000 odd fans turning out to watch the team win 1-0 against Mini Kiev.

Week 3 Results

What was I saying about Lincoln lol... EPO Allstars who had been quite quiet so far this season absolutely demolished the one remaining League 2 side.

One player who I hadn't noticed first time round who had signed for Football Directory was Matt Jansen and the ex-Blackburn Rovers player scored twice against Andorra XI to take his side upto 3rd in the league.

August Table

So at the end of the month it is the roughly predicted favourites who are near the top of the league, with the top 3 in particular looking quite strong and they could run away with it.

In the League Cup 1st Round only 3 teams from the CSE League survived the 1st Round.

The Hurricanes produced a big shock, winning 5-1 away to Oldham.

Global Newspaper won 2-1 away to Hull, whilst Andorra did their nation proud, beating Wolves 1-0 at home.

In the League Cup 2nd Round, only 2 of the 3 teams survived - Andorra lost at home to Sunderland, whilst Newcastle was dumped out 0-1 by Global Newspaper and Reading lost 1-2 to Hurricanes.

League Cup 3rd Round Draw

Has made for 3 interesting games, with Euro Trip XI joining the competition due to its European activity:

Liverpool  v  Euro Trip XI
QPR        v  Global Newspaper XI
Arsenal    v  Hurricanes FC

This will be a good test of exactly how good the Hurricanes are at the moment!

Good start by most of the favourites, Thanks WW

Go hurricanes!!!

3 of my top 4 predictions are correct, go me!

Interestingly, Synthetic United are doing poorly. Not looking good for Happy Campers, either .

Interesting Experiment WW, KUTGW.

Golden Oldies ftw! Experience should see them through.

This is great WW, KUTGW mate.

1. Who do you think will win the league this season?

Hurricanes FC

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total?

Billionaires XI; Londinium FC; Global Newspapers XI

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated?

Admin Idols XI; Athletic Amateurs

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first?

Billionaires XI

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically

To be different, I´m going for the technical teams

Looks very good WW

Question though; for teams which have only had stadiums/morale/reputation etc. ammended, have they just kept the same players as their former League 2 clubs had? I ask this as last year, there was a notable gulf in class between those at the top of League 2 and those at the bottom, although the ammendments could make a difference to their fortunes I guess...

Nonetheless, looks great so far, KUTGW.

Liking your updates.

Any chance you could let us know a little more info on who is doing what though?

1. Who are the loanees that have arrived at Football Directory from Utd, Barca & whoever the other one is?

2. Who were the star performers for Hurricanes, Global & Euro in their Cup runs?

3. How much profit did Londinium make in the first month and are they looking to spend any of it?

4. How many of the Golden Oldies are injured?

5. Have Mini Kiev had any loanees from big bro?

6. What is the negative bank balance of the Admin Idols?

7. Andorra were valued at £10.75M at the start. Is that a result of them playing in a big capacity ground, (do they?) or is it something that you changed but didn't list or is it purely the result of a few decent value players?

Anyway, really enjoying this.

Big thumbs up WW (). This experiment looks immense! Good luck, loving it so far.

Dodgee's Predicitons

1. Who do you think will win the league this season? Hurricanes FC (I think the poor set-up at the club won't start to have a detrimental affect just yet).

2. Who do you think will also get promoted this season, with 4 teams getting promoted in total? Wealthy Donor XI (Money talks); Football Directory XI (loanees to bring initail success); Dog & Duck XI (lets see the boozer boys muscle their way through the play-offs!)

3. Which two sides do you think will get relegated? Athletic Amateurs (bunch of part-timers!); Kindergarden XI (the youth system will take a while to kick in and produce talent).

4. Which side do you think will be in the Premiership first? Wealthy Donor XI (the chairman will keep pouring money in and give stability too).

5. Do you think in general the physically strong guys (EPO Allstars and Dog & Duck XI) will do better or worse than the technically good sides (Bottlers XI)? We are always told how physical the game is in the lower leagues so I'll plump for the physically strong guys (although this is FM so the game may do things differently ).

I really am shellshocked I didn't think anyone would manage to pull off an experiment this big, it looks fantastic and it's good to see my two suggestions in there, I hate to copy but my predictions match up with DodgeeD.

1. Hurricanes will win the league, the ability of their players is too much.

2. Global Newspaper, Londinium, Wealthy Donor.

3. Admin Idols and Athletic Amateurs

4. Global Newspaper (the rep will continue to attract quality)

5. Technical.

Liking your updates.

Any chance you could let us know a little more info on who is doing what though?

1. Who are the loanees that have arrived at Football Directory from Utd, Barca & whoever the other one is?

2. Who were the star performers for Hurricanes, Global & Euro in their Cup runs?

3. How much profit did Londinium make in the first month and are they looking to spend any of it?

4. How many of the Golden Oldies are injured?

5. Have Mini Kiev had any loanees from big bro?

6. What is the negative bank balance of the Admin Idols?

7. Andorra were valued at £10.75M at the start. Is that a result of them playing in a big capacity ground, (do they?) or is it something that you changed but didn't list or is it purely the result of a few decent value players?

Anyway, really enjoying this.

Will try and get you a few answers on these when I load the game up later.

If anyone wants to know any other details within the game (within reason), then let me know.

If anyone wants to know any other details within the game (within reason)' date=' then let me know. [/quote']

I'd like to know the top scorer and player with highest average rating, if at all possible.

KUTGW as this looks like being awsome!

A few of your questions for August answered:

1. Who are the loanees that have arrived at Football Directory from Utd, Barca & whoever the other one is?

From Man Utd we have GK Tom Heaton and AML Michael Barnes.

From Barca we have DC/DM Marc Valiente and MC Abraham.

From Juventus we have DC Yobie Bassaoule, and they have also loaned striker Stuart Nicholson from West Brom, who has scored 5 in 3 (at the end of August).

2. Who were the star performers for Hurricanes, Global & Euro in their Cup runs?

For the Hurricanes, all of their front 6 basically dominated the first round 5-1 away win over Oldham, with an even spread of goals, although Striker 2 scored both goals in their 2nd Round win over Reading.

Claudio Lopez (Argentina) seems to be Global Newspaper's star man atm.

EURO Trip XI got through automatically due to their UEFA Cup Qual.

I also noticed that Coventry demolished Satan XI 10-0 at home in the 1st round!

3. How much profit did Londinium make in the first month and are they looking to spend any of it?

They made a profit of £1.6m in August (£970k from season tickets) and are looking likely to earn a big profit in Sept from their huge stadium. Their main outlay of costs is on match day expenses (£540k for 3 home games in August), compared to the Golden Oldies whose 2 homes games incurred match day expenses totalling £80k.

4. How many of the Golden Oldies are injured?

4 - Chris Perry, Dion Dublin, Marcus Stewart and... (no shocks here) Darren Anderton! All out for a couple of weeks to a month.

5. Have Mini Kiev had any loanees from big bro?

None!

Through the affiliated club scheme, Shaktar give Mini Kiev c.£380k a year (although I'm presuming that may just be the minimum), which is far greater than any League 2 side would normally get.

6. What is the negative bank balance of the Admin Idols?

It currently stands at -£845k and they made a £85k profit in August (pretty much break even but for season ticket income). Strangely though there has been an investment of c£1.3m since the start of the game, presumably through the board or chairman, with £300k of it coming in Sept. So but for that, their balance would be around -£2m, so I will keep an eye on their bank balance in the future.

7. Andorra were valued at £10.75M at the start. Is that a result of them playing in a big capacity ground, (do they?) or is it something that you changed but didn't list or is it purely the result of a few decent value players?

That may have been a slight anomaly with FM, as in Sept 07 they are now valued at just £3.2m, which although is still near the upper end of the 24 clubs is probably more to do with the one or two semi decent Andorran players at the club.

I'd like to know the top scorer and player with highest average rating, if at all possible.

I will post a screenshot at the end of each month from Sept onwards, but for August the top goalscorer was "Hurricanes Striker 2" with 6 goals and the highest Av rating was also the same person (approx > 8.0)

KUTGW mate!

Great Idea am loving it

Kindergarten and Newspapers XI for life

Just read this, great experiment WW, I will follow with great interest

brilliant idea