Signing Players Based on RL Opinion

I've recently started a new save game that will keep me going for the next month or so until 09 is released. I picked Everton, which isn't particularly interesting, but I decided to try and make it interesting by only purchasing players that I like IRL and completely ignoring attributes. Normally this wouldn't be feasible, because as newgens come through i'd have no idea about them, but i'll only be playing the save until Nov 14th so that shouldn't be a problem.

It's all a bit sad really, a lot of the players I think are good IRL aren't all that good in the game and vice versa, a lot of the players I think are pap IRL are very good in the game. I even took it to the extreme of watching players from South America etc on youtube and if I liked what I saw i'd try and sign them, but if I didn't they would be forgotten about.

Sad, I know, but it's actually made what appeared to be a very boring save, very interesting. Anyone else ever tried this, or considered it?

I think a lot of people would jsut go on RL opinion , not me , but i have to admit i do look for players who have just came to the PL from abroad , or worlwide wonderkids

It must be a pretty difficult rule to maintain, but should prove to be an interesting save.

I must say, I have often looked to sign players for their game attributes and then seen them in real life and it has put me off. Sometimes it can just come down to what they look like!

It's very hard, but i'm not expecting success so it shouldn't be totally awful (especially given that Everton's squad aren't all that bad), I re-signed David Weir as back up in CD

Good OLD David Weir. You will be calling Alan Stubbs back soon!

Tried this a few times.

I'll buy back Hernik Larsson for Celtic. I'll then buy John Sutton (brother of Chris) and try to get them to strike up a partnership.

If i'm not Celtic i'll always buy Nakamura even though i know theres much better players stats wise than him for the same amount of money.

Your head eventually gets the better of your heart though and you end up signing players you've never heard of with good attributes.

I find it the other way round.

Players that I have made "Superstars" in FM become good in real life afterwards.

Proof.

EG when andy johnson is on bad form on the game yet as soon as you play against him he can't help himself but score 3-4 goals when in real life he is absolutely awful! He might score IRL but when was the last time he could score that many in a wonder performance!

PS also eddie johnson for Fulham... Maybe its something to do with their surname!

I find it the other way round.

Players that I have made "Superstars" in FM become good in real life afterwards.

Proof.

What a legend!! Haha! Forgot about him jimbo!

Nomis, are you going to pick your eleven by your rl opinion only as well or will attributes have an influence there?

It should be interesting to see how this will affect your progress with the club.

Also, how much value will you place on in-game performance? Is it more important than your rl opinion? Or will you ignore it because there might be a too big correlation with the attributes?

I can tell you about my mate who I'm playing online games with every week for 10 years now. He has some rules of playing the game by himself which have made him less successful than me in a very constant way. He never sells any first team regular and he strictly only looks at the average rating of players. Any player dropping below 7.0 goes out of the first team and in comes another and if it's a youth. This is also applied to transfers. He'll even never sign Messi unless he has a good average rating at his current club. Of course, this behaviour leads to many transfers in and out and to few good ones.

Well, looking forward to keep updated on your strategy and progress here

Jayahr, i'm trying to pick based on rl opinion atm, that's why Lee Carsley starts and Manuel Fernandes warms the bench Otherwise the team kinda picks itself, it'll be more interesting next season or the season after when I have a squad full of players I like IRL.

I'm not too sure how much emphasis i'm putting on results atm as i've only started, but i'm trying to play football the way I like football played rather than creating a tactic that definately works. Unfortunately so far that's backfired a bit and i've turned Everton into a bit of a George Graham's Arsenal rip off. Despite 3 very gifted AM's and a single striker i've only scored 7 in 8 games, but on a plus point i've only conceded 4 and 3 of those were away to Arsenal (Carsely has justified his selection).

It's going well atm and is very enjoyable, but I think next season will be the real crunch, when I get rid of the players I don't like IRL e.g. Yobo and bring in the players I do like e.g. Sammy Kuffour

I found this not to work very well myself. The other day I thought that Fernando Torres fella looked a bit useful so tried to sign him for Scunthorpe, but he just wasn't interested so I had to sign Jon Parkin instead who I haven't seen all that much of in real life

a lot of the players I think are good IRL aren't all that good in the game and vice versa, a lot of the players I think are pap IRL are very good in the game.

Maybe you just know nothing about football?

Seriously though, never tried this but it might be interesting. May try it once FM10 is about to be released

Maybe you just know nothing about football?

Re-signing Weir and picking Carsley says it all really

They're both old though and we all know many old players degenerate too fast in FM. I signed Kevin Phillips for Scunthorpe at the start of the 2008/9 season, but I doubt he is going to do anything like as well as he will in real life for Birmingham He only has 9 pace at the start of the season and that will almost certainly drop. I also signed one of my old favourite players from RL, Patrik Berger (based almost entirely on the Euro 96 days when I liked him lots!), but he only has 7 pace too

I suppose there are certain attributes that I do have a look at, but mainly physical ones and certainly certain aspects of the game that will probably thwart my progress. Before FM09, i'll probably only get 2-3 seasons done so hopefully the old players thing won't affect me too much. Glamdring has put me right off signing Enrico Chiesa in January though

I signed him for Sampdoria at the start of the 2007/8 season in my previous save game. He netted twice on his debut then never scored again

I find it the other way round.

Players that I have made "Superstars" in FM become good in real life afterwards.

Proof.

Yip, i've found that aswell, but not really players i have "made" superstars, but it has happened on a few occasions that i buy a player from an "unknown" club ( for example in fm07) and during the next real life season, he gets baught by a big club(in the 07/08 season)...

Does signing Titus Bramble then selling him to you rivals count as a move based on real life opinion? At least I made some cash off of him....

I always do my best to sign or keep hold of Mark Noble. His stats are quite poor in the game for a Premier League starter but doesn't matter. Hopefully his passing is a more realistic number this time than the 13/14 it is now.

Mark Noble certainly isn't a player I would sign under these new rules of mine, I think he's extremely boring and another mediocre Scott Parker in the making. In game though he's actually quite good and usually moves for well over £10m.