Tiny Minnows in a Big Pool:

San Marino v. Leichtenstein
(v. The Rest of the World!)

Hello CSE and welcome to my third sign-up (but my first in a few years). Following the numerous positive responses to my 'feeler thread', I've decided to go ahead and set up a new rivalry to be played out on the world stage: San Marino v. Leichtenstein. :cool:

For those of you unfamiliar, the premise is simple: you create a potential superstar player based on the criteria I will give you below. I then use the editor to put your young footballer into the game and then run the game on my PC, updating on how your player and chosen nation develop season by season in what will hopefully be a long and successful career.

Why San Marino and Lichtenstein?
Long seen as the whipping boys of European football, both nations have been injected with a flood of youthful talent (a 'golden generation' if you like). Will these players be able to help their nations rise up the world rankings? Can they take their respective countires to major tournaments for the first time? Can they challenge the traditional UEFA powerhouses for internaitonal glory? Which nation will ultimately be more successful? These are all questions our players will try to answer!

What do you have to do? Well, first you create your player and then you follow the thread. Once the game is underway, you are expected to contribute through comments on how your player, the game and the rivalry between the two national sides plays out. How you do this is up to you - you can 'keep it real', just as you would comment on any other thread or 'get into character' with mock interviews, press releases and tweets from your player (see my previous sign-ups for some amusing examples of these :D)

NOTE: Please only sign up if you are willing to actively contribute to the game thread. As anyone who has run a sign-up will know, there is nothing more frustrating than someone who takes a place and then is never heard of again.

Links to my previous sign-ups (in case you want an idea of how the 'game thread' pans out)

Cove Bay/STI v Capital City/NTI - The Ultimate Rivalry (FM08)

The Return to Treasure Island - The Ultimate Rivalry Lives Again (FM09)

Details of how to sign-up to follow shortly...

After my switcheroo experiment last year, I have decided to start a new experiment! I did drift off with that experiment, but new house and new baby factors change my loyalties! But now, I shall update this always, for as long as this interests you!

So, the aim of this experiment is to see the impact of finances in the game, particularly in the lower leagues and how the AI uses it. So, each season, I will take all transfer funds from the Premier League winners of the previous season and buy a poor youth player from a recently promoted team that was previously unplayable of your choice (first 5 people to pick one team of 6 promoted). The English champions will offer this youth the highest wage available, all done through the power of first name last name and his persuasive manners. I will then update you each season on the teams progress with pictures and words.

I will obviously have a new team each season. It will be interesting to see if the newly rich teams get into the league, and also how the now little but poorer teams will do, whether finances cripple their title hopes, or even threaten relegation.

Man City won the league last year, so either Brackley, Oxford City, Hornchurch, Billericay, Chester or Bradford Park Avenue will prosper through your choice!

Hope you enjoy reading!

Hello CSErs!

I've been away from CSE and the forums in general for a few months but I've recently had the unexplainable urge to run a sign-up... I did a couple around FM09/10 time and they were fun. Both were based on two fictional nations in the Caribbean (Northern and Southern Treasure Islands) who played out a great international rivalry with two golden generations made up of sign-up players created by members of this forum.

Here are the links if you weren't around at the time (or if you just want a trip down memory lane ;)):

Cove Bay/STI v Capital City/NTI - The Ultimate Rivalry (FM09)

The Return to Treasure Island - The Ultimate Rivalry Lives Again (FM10)

I had to abandon the second one when I started my MA but that's long since done and I have a long summer break coming up so I could get a long-term sign-up game running.

However, it seems that there are no currently active sign-ups here though and the forum in general seems a little quiet. Do you think there would be enough interest for it to be worth going ahead?

I have a couple of ideas - one very similar to the above ones with two international nations duking it out (though I may go for real minnow naitons rather than trying to create/overwrite nations in the editor); and another in which the created players will all be from the same naiton but competing with each other for individual glory ... More details to come if there is enough interest! :)

Hey folks. Not sure what happened to the original of this thread but I thought I'd resurrect it as my long-term Arsenal/Guatemala save is getting to the stage where I have quite a lot of players who qualify. See the Big Club, Small Nation thread for details of their careers. As per the last one, caps count but games on loan at other clubs do not.

Currently (end of 2024/25 season), these players stand a realistic chance of making it:

Petar Filipovic: Age 26, 496 apps. Fairly likely.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: Age 30, 567 apps. Very unlikely.
Jack Wilshere: Age 33, 640 apps. Almost impossible.
Anton Carter: Age 24, 259 apps. Definitely won't as he can't break into the side. For a while before, he looked certain.
Tihomir Novakovic: Age 29, 522 apps. Very unlikely.
Bradley Howley: Age 24, 448 apps. Almost certain, possibly before he hits 30!
Adolfo: Age 21, 69 apps. Highly unlikely.
Perevertailo: Age 28, 379 apps. Almost impossible.

DISCLAIMER: PA SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD


Introduction

For quite a while I’ve been interested in the limitations of training in FM. I’ve always wondered just how far you can shape a player’s attributes to how you like them. I’m not talking about improving a player as such, by increasing their CA though. I’m referring to turning an already good player with a high CA that’s a striker into a good central defender. I’m interested to see just how much of a players CA the game will let me shift onto a group of attributes for a different role.

The Plan

I will start as manager of Manchester United, due to their good facilities, coaches and wealth of 20-24 year olds with high CA’s that are close to their PA’s.

5 players will be selected by me between the ages of 20 and 25 (to allow plenty of time for their attributes to be shaped). I will then choose a position and role for each of them which I believe their current attribute set is least suited too. So an attacking player is very likely to be some sort of defensive player. The player will then be trained in this position until they become natural in it and trained in the role until the end of their career.

To add further interest I’ll pick a couple more players of similar age and a high CA and will solely train them in their lowest attribute.

All players involved in the experiment will start every game whenever possible in the position I am training them in.

I’ll be holidaying for the duration of this game and will only return once a month to check on each player and ensure the game isn’t screwing the experiment up by changing the training or not playing the right players.


Presentation

I’ll be doing January and End of season updates featuring each player showing their development.

>

The Challenge:

Playing as FC United of Manchester, beat Manchester United's major trophy haul as of the beginning of the 2012/13 season. This consists of:

19 Premier League wins
3 Champions League wins
11 FA Cup wins

There are also the minor trophies, as an additional challenge:

4 Capital One Cup wins
1 Club World Cup win
1 UEFA Super Cup win
17 Community Shield wins

Not an overly complicated challenge, but one that will - if completed - guarantee your game will be an epic one! As the seasons pass, it is inevitable that Manchester United will win more trophies. It is preferable that you beat their 'in-game' trophy haul, but the minimum requirement is the list above.

The Rules:

Load a game with England (to Blue Square N/S) loaded. Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales can be added if you wish, for a larger player pool. (Unless playing Dafuge's Challenge/ri916 Youth Academy challenge, in which case only load England. See 'compatible challenges' section for more info)

Players from the Regional Premier Leagues have to be added, which looks like this. If you wish to add extra players, any players from continents may be loaded, but not from individual countries.

- Add yourself as an unemployed manager.

- Go on holiday until 24th June, thensave the game. Holiday for one day, then check to see if FC United have been promoted. (A quick way to check the new teams is to find the England Overview, then the 'season summary'. Find the Regional Premier Leagues and it'll show the 6 promoted teams.)

- If FC United isn't there, reload your save-game, holiday again for one day then check. Repeat until FC United are promoted.

- Add a new manager.Past experience must be set to 'Sunday league footballer'. I expect people to use their own real nationalities.

- After adding a new manager, choose FC United, in the Blue Square North to manage.

You're now the boss!

**Use of any form of Real-Time editors and/or scouting programs is prohibited, as is use of the Official Editor prior to starting the save.**
**Must be using the latest official patch (13.3.3)**


Compatible challenges:

There are a couple of other challenges that can be played alongside this one, where the rules are similar enough not to compromise the integrity of this challenge:

Dafuge's Challenge- Take a small club who were previously unplayable in an unedited game from the Blue Square N/S to Premier League and Champions League glory. (Club limited to FC United only)

ri916's Anglo/Euro Youth Academy challenge- Much the same as Dafuge's Challenge but ONLY using players from the club Youth Academy. No player signings whatsoever. (Again, club limited to FC United only)

The Club History:

FC United of Manchester is an English semi-professional football club based in Bury, Greater Manchester that plays in the Northern Premier League Premier Division. It was formed in 2005 by Manchester United supporters opposed to American businessman Malcolm Glazer's controversial takeover of the club. The supporters own the club and vote on how the club is run.

The club was founded in 2005 by supporters of Manchester United. Although they had various reasons for their dissatisfaction, the prime catalyst for FC United's formation was the 12 May 2005 hostile takeover of Manchester United by the American businessman Malcolm Glazer. After the name "FC United" was rejected by The Football Association for being too generic, all those who had pledged money to the club were asked to vote on a name. On 14 June 2005, it was announced that "F.C. United of Manchester" had been chosen, beating "AFC Manchester 1878", "Manchester Central" and "Newton Heath United". FC United continues to be used as an abbreviated form of the club's name.

Karl Marginson was appointed as the club's manager on 22 June 2005, and the club held trials for players on 26 June 2005. Just under 900 players applied to take part in the trials, of whom 200 were selected to do so and 17 were chosen to play for the club. By 6 July 2005, over 4,000 people had pledged money to FC United and the club had over £100,000 in the bank. During their formation, the owners of Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute FC asked FC United to take over their club, however United refused the takeover offer as they believed that taking over an existing club would be hypocritical, given that FC United was formed as a result of Manchester United's takeover.

During FC United's 2011–12 season they reached the First Round of the FA Trophy for the first time after knocking out Frickley Athletic, Durham City and Altrincham. However, they failed to get to the Second Round as they were beaten 2–0 by Guiseley.

In the league, FC United qualified for the end of season play-offs, despite finishing 6th, due to the demotion of Northwich Victoria for the breaching of financial rules. They beat Chorley 2–0 in the play-off semi-final to qualify for the play-off finals. In the final, FC United lost 1–0 to Bradford Park Avenue in the penultimate minute of extra time.

On FM 2013:

The club currently ground-share with Bury FC at their 11,313 capacity, all-seated, Gigg Lane stadium at a cost of £62,000 per season. The club have future aspirations of owning their own ground, but this is not set in FM13, so is something you must look to achieve yourself.

Good luck, and enjoy!