The New FMCU General Discussion Thread

[Peter G]

Torn between Cyprus and Singapore for a nation building challenge. I feel Singapore would be more difficult but Cyprus potentially more attractive due to the UCL...

[anagain]

What would people say is a good rule for using real life players, in a non-footballing sense, in your career write up?

Has there ever been a case of real players reading stuff here and being unhappy. I know this forum is probably small fry and that there are likely very few footbalers who read stuff here.

I had an idea for my write up but maybe I'll take the safe option.

[forameuss]

I don't see how anyone could possibly write anything here that would be simultaneously fine by the moderators, but deeply offensive to a player.  And that's assuming they would actually ever see it.  I don't think you've anything to worry about.

[oriole01]

On 17/12/2022 at 20:14, anagain said:

What would people say is a good rule for using real life players, in a non-footballing sense, in your career write up?

Has there ever been a case of real players reading stuff here and being unhappy. I know this forum is probably small fry and that there are likely very few footballers who read stuff here.

I had an idea for my write up but maybe I'll take the safe option.

I had a career thread where I portrayed real life football managers as murderous mob bosses who engaged in all sorts of debauchery and I've never received any court papers in the mail. I did actually include an apology at the end of my story to the real people I used in it, but it was more tongue-in-cheek than me actually being worried about the possibility of someone seeing it. Go for it man, life's too short to be concerned about something like this!

[phnompenhandy]

On 18/12/2022 at 08:14, anagain said:

What would people say is a good rule for using real life players, in a non-footballing sense, in your career write up?

Has there ever been a case of real players reading stuff here and being unhappy. I know this forum is probably small fry and that there are likely very few footbalers who read stuff here.

I had an idea for my write up but maybe I'll take the safe option.

Re. My "Nessie Awakes!" thread, I informed Loch Ness FC via their Twitter and Facebook presenses about the thread as well as joining their website. I used the pregame editor to create the team with the real players and staff, merging it with Mozza's lower league Scottish file.

The real life manager is my chairman and director of football  and is a prominent character in my thread,  and my Head of Youth Development - also key given it's an Academy Intake only challenge is the real life Head of Sports at the real local high school (found him on Facebook). I added their real photos.  I have ongoing tussles with my chairman in the thread but if the real guy reads it, I'm sure he'd see it as good natured.

I learned my  lesson from 2 or 3 years ago when I informed Little Oakley  (IIRC) about my save and DID upset a couple of real players who objected to me hollowing out the squad and replacing them with fictitious players!

 

[Motlhen]

Hey guys, I noticed that after my Chairman retired due to wanting to only take up part-time roles in football moving forward that he popped up as s DoF / Scout. I had no idea that board members could transition into employable staff and wondered if this was common knowledge or if I've seen something pretty rare?!

...

[Rikulec]

On 27/12/2022 at 17:58, Motlhen said:

Hey guys, I noticed that after my Chairman retired due to wanting to only take up part-time roles in football moving forward that he popped up as s DoF / Scout. I had no idea that board members could transition into employable staff and wondered if this was common knowledge or if I've seen something pretty rare?!

...

Never seen that before to be honest,

In other news, a big step up could be coming up to me - I've been admitted to the UEFA A course! It starts on 4th February and should be over before the end of 2023. All coming along nicely.

[TheBigPog]

Decided to do a save in Oceania as wanted to do something a bit more laid back. Managing Hekari United in Papua New Guinea, in the quest to try dethrone New Zealand as the dominant country in Oceania. 
 

First season was all about building the foundations which I achieved thanks to some incredible free agents being offered to me for pennies (including a 37 year old Asamoah Gyan who is still very good in this continent) and this magnificent regen who came through on the first day of the save.

I’m determined to try build the team around him and make him the most successful Papua New Guinean of all time. 

Walked the league, currently in the semi finals of the domestic cup and a promising youth intake with 5 stars too.

The Champions League almost went as well. I managed to get out of a tough group with Auckland in (who went out in the groups themselves), beat the other New Zealand side in the semi final and set up an all PNG final with Lae City. Unfortunately they got the winning goal in the final in extra time. I hope it’s more just a learning curve than a missed opportunity. For some reason that final hurt more than most of my final defeats, but I guess that makes the wins so sweet. 
 

A lot of the “weaker” players that I’d like to get rid of are still contracted until 2024 so can’t change the side too much until then, but will definitely be going straight towards the American intakes as soon as I can!

Edited December 31, 2022 by TheBigPog

[MarcPTFC]

After a longer than usual absence owing to both a badly sprained ankle and then a horrendous passing bug, I've just published my second post in my FM blog covering my save with Partick Thistle, the team I support.

 

A lot to get through in it with action in both the League and the League Cup, having been drawn with Motherwell at home there's a chance of an upset.

Read more here https://wallacetilidie.wordpress.com/2023/01/09/breakfast-at-tiffoneys-august-2022/

[Vakama2619]

Why don't you blog it here as well?

[withnail316]

Been a while, FMCU. How's it hanging?

[rodesire]

On 01/12/2022 at 19:37, Peter G said:

Torn between Cyprus and Singapore for a nation building challenge. I feel Singapore would be more difficult but Cyprus potentially more attractive due to the UCL...

Cyprus will have a higher ceiling as well as floor, so depends what kind of save you're looking for.

[Jimbokav1971]

Does anyone know, if I hide a thread, is it still visible to me so that I can unhide it at a later date? 

I want to post something, but then hide it immediately and then update it and hide it again until such time as I want to release it. 

It's something for the Experiments forum rather than in here, but I just thought you lot might know because we have so many new threads created in here. 

[Muttley84]

7 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Does anyone know, if I hide a thread, is it still visible to me so that I can unhide it at a later date? 

I used to hide my failure threads a couple of years but they never were available to me after... maybe a mod could clarify that, but for me they were gone forever.

[deltablue]

They're still around, just hidden. On the old forum software we used to call it 'soft deletion', which was the standard practice, 'proper' deletion only occurred in rare circumstances like spam. On this software it's specifically labelled as hiding a post or a thread, and anything that's hidden can be unhidden even of only mods can still see them and do that.

[Jimbokav1971]

2 hours ago, Muttley84 said:

I used to hide my failure threads a couple of years but they never were available to me after... maybe a mod could clarify that, but for me they were gone forever.

 

1 hour ago, deltablue said:

They're still around, just hidden. On the old forum software we used to call it 'soft deletion', which was the standard practice, 'proper' deletion only occurred in rare circumstances like spam. On this software it's specifically labelled as hiding a post or a thread, and anything that's hidden can be unhidden even of only mods can still see them and do that.

Ok. Cheers lads. That's no good if I can't do it myself. 

[duff33]

Now I've achieved my primary aim of winning the Premier League with Newcastle, I was going to try my hand at another save, but a little stuck for inspiration.

I could go back to Valencia again - which has been a favourite stop of mine in recent editions of FM, and presents an even greater challenge this year with Guedes, Soler, and Gomez sold.

I normally look for small to mid length saves - five seasons-ish - and like those sort of upper mid-range teams with an obvious sort of goal in mind; for example I've played as Napoli in the past (win first Scudetto since 1990), Roma (first title in 20 years), and had a go as Frankfurt in FM22.

Tempted by Hertha Berlin too, but open to suggestions for inspiration  Not sure I have the patience for resurrecting Deportivo, or turning Peterborough into Premier League champions 

[Rikulec]

Came back from a pre-season camp with the girls yesterday. We ended up getting infected from tap water or whatever and after one good day of training we pretty much spent the remainder of the camp recovering. We did manage to put in some decent work though and had good moments in there, as you can see. One month left until the league resumes.

[Deisler26]

18 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Came back from a pre-season camp with the girls yesterday. We ended up getting infected from tap water or whatever and after one good day of training we pretty much spent the remainder of the camp recovering. We did manage to put in some decent work though and had good moments in there, as you can see. One month left until the league resumes.

How young do you train? My daughter is 8 and is playing, but their coach isn't the best, so I'd like to 'improve' them if you have any exercises/tips

[Rikulec]

10 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

How young do you train? My daughter is 8 and is playing, but their coach isn't the best, so I'd like to 'improve' them if you have any exercises/tips

What do you mean when you say the coach isn't the best? Are they creating a poor or toxic learning environment? If so, it might be a good idea to look for a different team, especially if it's the latter. At 8 years of age training is mostly about fun and engagement, improvement of ability is more of a natural consequence of participation and less of a specific focus point. I don't have much experience working with players this young, so I'm probably not going to be able to give you real advice further than those general ideas. I also really wouldn't like to judge another coach, especially one I've never met. Make sure your daughter enjoys football and participating in training activities, it's pretty much all that matters at this age.

[Deisler26]

Just now, Rikulec said:

What do you mean when you say the coach isn't the best? Are they creating a poor or toxic learning environment? If so, it might be a good idea to look for a different team, especially if it's the latter. At 8 years of age training is mostly about fun and engagement, improvement of ability is more of a natural consequence of participation and less of a specific focus point. I don't have much experience working with players this young, so I'm probably not going to be able to give you real advice further than those general ideas. I also really wouldn't like to judge another coach, especially one I've never met. Make sure your daughter enjoys football and participating in training activities, it's pretty much all that matters at this age.

They do very little work with the ball. I'm not expecting amazing stuff, but playing games that don't really have any basis in football isn't good enough. I appreciate your candour btw

[Rikulec]

7 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

They do very little work with the ball. I'm not expecting amazing stuff, but playing games that don't really have any basis in football isn't good enough. I appreciate your candour btw

This might not necessarily be a bad thing. I don't know the situation in your country, but here in Poland we've observed a big decline in the quality of physical education at schools. At the same time kids are also becoming less and less physically active in their free time, which in turn hinders their overall fitness and has an impact on their ability to adapt to football-specific conditions. Many clubs and coaches are reacting to this by creating new programs, providing training sessions that are designed to include a diverse range of various physical activities with elements of football. If you don't like what the coach is doing, it could be a good idea to ask them about the reasons for such design of training. It's quite likely that it could be for similar reasons.

[Deisler26]

3 minutes ago, Rikulec said:

This might not necessarily be a bad thing. I don't know the situation in your country, but here in Poland we've observed a big decline in the quality of physical education at schools. At the same time kids are also becoming less and less physically active in their free time, which in turn hinders their overall fitness and has an impact on their ability to adapt to football-specific conditions. Many clubs and coaches are reacting to this by creating new programs, providing training sessions that are designed to include a diverse range of various physical activities with elements of football. If you don't like what the coach is doing, it could be a good idea to ask them about the reasons for such design of training. It's quite likely that it could be for similar reasons.

She's a 19 year old first time coach. So it can be just them not quite understanding the role. But you have set my mind at ease so I appreciate it

[Rikulec]

10 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

She's a 19 year old first time coach. So it can be just them not quite understanding the role. But you have set my mind at ease so I appreciate it

I'd say dialogue is key here. Trust your coach, and if you have any doubts, just speak to her before or after training. For such a young beginner coach establishing positive relationships with parents could be a massive confidence boost.

[Ron_Swanson]

Hi, I've never posted anything here but I'm considering to give it a try with my English tier 10 career. But I have a question about posting images. What's the best way to do it, what hosting sites do you use, and is there any free ones with no "few MB" limits?

[deltablue]

You don't need to use hosting sites as you can upload images straight to posts.

[Ron_Swanson]

Thanks, I've read HQ and Rules where the instructions said about hosting websites, but I guess it was just not updated

[deltablue]

On 05/03/2023 at 17:46, Ron_Swanson said:

Thanks, I've read HQ and Rules where the instructions said about hosting websites, but I guess it was just not updated

Yep, that's left over from the old forum software where you couldn't upload images directly and needed to use hosting sites.

[Deisler26]

A lot of people use Gyazo for their pics and gifs

Edited March 14, 2023 by Deisler26

[deez0r]

Struggling to get into a new save that I can write updates about. Think I might go down the home grown route again where I can only sign players who are 18 or under so that they become home grown at club.

Anyone recommend any countries they enjoyed outside of the big 5? I preferably want to stay in Europe. 

[ToMexico!!]

1 hour ago, deez0r said:

Struggling to get into a new save that I can write updates about. Think I might go down the home grown route again where I can only sign players who are 18 or under so that they become home grown at club.

Anyone recommend any countries they enjoyed outside of the big 5? I preferably want to stay in Europe. 

Same, I've done starts to saves with Bury St Edmunds (homage to Nick Pope), Grevenmacher (Amateur) in Luxembourg, a team in Guyana and tried another African save in Ghana, oh and Sumqayit (3rd save across FM) in Azerbaijan.

I've just started a journeyman save, loaded 7(?) nations I think, differing quality. Started unemployed and took over at Panang in Malaysia, went 20 games unbeaten before losing cup semi-final. Now in season 2, poor home-grown players and limited to just 4 foreigners in the match day squad. 

[Rikulec]

4 hours ago, deez0r said:

Struggling to get into a new save that I can write updates about. Think I might go down the home grown route again where I can only sign players who are 18 or under so that they become home grown at club.

Anyone recommend any countries they enjoyed outside of the big 5? I preferably want to stay in Europe. 

I've always enjoyed Scandinavia, simple league formats (maybe excluding Denmark) with not that many teams mean that you can fly through seasons and there's always plenty of talent available.

[deez0r]

13 hours ago, Rikulec said:

I've always enjoyed Scandinavia, simple league formats (maybe excluding Denmark) with not that many teams mean that you can fly through seasons and there's always plenty of talent available.

Yeah think I am going to go Norway and try and do a only sign 18 and under save!

[433Robbie]

Just got to the CONCACAF CL Final for the first time and paused the game at kick-off ready to get into after taking a quick Zoom call. Came back from the call, had a heart attack when it was the 38th minute, felt elated when I saw we'd scored twice! Had to tell someone about it hahahah

[Muttley84]

What people been playing in Europe in the past two weeks on the FMCU section.

[Vakama2619]

oooooh this is interesting, do more of these over time please

[Rikulec]

Four months of preparation, transfers of potentially key players that have really improved the team, and after all that we screw ourselves over big time, drawing two of the opening three games and now it's five points between us and the league leaders. First we blew a 3:1 lead against Zły (which includes hoofing an absolute sitter from literally two yards out that would have made it 4:1), then we easily beat WAP and today we drew in the big derby against Polonia despite absolutely dominating the game. Proper FM stuff as we conceded two goals from direct free kicks and just kept missing chance after chance. 1:2 down at half time where we really should have equalised, we finally made it 2:2 in the 84th minute, then wasted another fantastic opportunity, and finally we hit the crossbar with a 91st minute effort. Królewscy host Polonia next week and if they win, it's pretty much done and dusted no matter what we do, we'd need a miracle in the form of them dropping points to one of the weaker teams in the league (in addition to us beating them, of course). We've really transformed the team over the winter break and we can now play some neat passing football that's a real joy to watch, but it's still going to be a year wasted in terms of club development if we don't go up.

Edited April 15, 2023 by Rikulec

[Sheriff7]

This isn't something great but i wanted to post it here too. This is Gibraltar national team tactic session in my save. As you can see it looks like more as a club's tactic with all these lines. I have most of players in both national team and club (Lincoln Red Imps) and this was one of my goals. It really helped us to hit some very good results (4-1 win against Faroe Islands,2-0 win against Estonia,2-0 win against Armenia and a very difficult defeat 2-1 against Romania) very early.

[Sheriff7]

...

[Sheriff7]

I believe these are great news for everyone here!

However, as a sneak preview, I can share progress that’s been made towards one of the most requested features from our forums over the last 20 years – and that’s the ability to transfer saved games from one version of FM to the next.

https://www.footballmanager.com/news/future-football-manager

[Rikulec]

Great news indeed, I wonder whether we're going to have some legendary threads spanning over multiple years and versions of the game.

[Deisler26]

8 hours ago, Sheriff7 said:

I believe these are great news for everyone here!

However, as a sneak preview, I can share progress that’s been made towards one of the most requested features from our forums over the last 20 years – and that’s the ability to transfer saved games from one version of FM to the next.

https://www.footballmanager.com/news/future-football-manager

I've already started mine. I've designated it FM23+

[Jimbokav1971]

Is anyone else really astonished by saves being game-transferable?

If you asked me for 1 thing that would NEVER be introduced this is probably what I would have picked. 

I'm not even sure I will use it. I've had a think about it and I probably won't use it. 

I remember that I played by FM14 save for almost 2 years, (I bought FM15 but never really played it such was my love for my FM14 save). In that instance I would have obviously transferred the save, but I can't think of another example. 

I think a year is plenty long enough to play most saves, (and I love a long save). 

I suppose if I ever wanted to stop using the IR button then it would help, but I'm quite happy with the way I play now and I don't really have the desire to go backwards and start doing things I have already done before. 

Has anyone managed in Iceland or Gibraltar in the last few issues of the game? Have the issues been resolved? I would love to go and have a proper tilt and progressing a club/Nation from one of them again, (despite me just saying that I don't want to go back and do things I have done before). 

I think for FM25 I'm going start in Africa and try to win every competition on multiple continents. Africa should be relatively easy, but then onto North America, (and all their stupid rules), and then onto Asia.

I've never managed in North America before, (really not keen on the rules), and even now I think there's a chance I might skip it and head from Africa to Asia. I've spent a fair bit of time in Europe over the last few issues of the game. A trip to Asia is well overdue. 

[Cheez3y]

48 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

I've never managed in North America before, (really not keen on the rules)

Idk if the CONCACAF CL is finally reworked irl.

If not, its not really worth playing it.

[acidmonkey]

as im a sceptic ill start a new one on FM24, will see if and what bugs crop up between FM23 > FM24 then probably carry on my 24 save onwards

 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by acidmonkey
wrong thread

[acidmonkey]

On 02/07/2023 at 18:36, Jimbokav1971 said:

I think for FM25 I'm going start in Africa and try to win every competition on multiple continents. Africa should be relatively easy, but then onto North America, (and all their stupid rules), and then onto Asia.

I've never managed in North America before, (really not keen on the rules), and even now I think there's a chance I might skip it and head from Africa to Asia. I've spent a fair bit of time in Europe over the last few issues of the game. A trip to Asia is well overdue. 

This is what im thinking for FM24 it was always the plan to do a journeyman save next year, but with the transferable Saves im tempted to do a very slow meander across the world starting next FM, i'd not start without the following leagues:
Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Cameroon, Ghana & Nigeria 
Asia: Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran & Qatar

Just because only South Africa in africa isnt enough to keep me going, the move to Asia with the above, Australia, India (dont ask) Korea, China, then over to the americas before finally getting to europe

[Jimbokav1971]

4 hours ago, acidmonkey said:

This is what im thinking for FM24 it was always the plan to do a journeyman save next year, but with the transferable Saves im tempted to do a very slow meander across the world starting next FM, i'd not start without the following leagues:
Africa: Egypt, Morocco, Cameroon, Ghana & Nigeria 
Asia: Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran & Qatar

Just because only South Africa in africa isnt enough to keep me going, the move to Asia with the above, Australia, India (dont ask) Korea, China, then over to the americas before finally getting to europe

I don't like waiting for new databases to come out though so I have to go with what's in the game out of the box. 

There are some good ones on your list though. 

[acidmonkey]

i couldn't do Africa with just south Africa, id get bored too easy  

[Jimbokav1971]

5 hours ago, acidmonkey said:

i couldn't do Africa with just south Africa, id get bored too easy  

You're completely right. It's almost not worth doing, but at the same time just tick it off, get it done and move on. 

Would love a proper linked African database. 

[acidmonkey]

Started a new save last night in level 11 with Durham, might start a thread if i make it past 3 seasons 🤣