podunkboy

I really hope you meant the "annals of FM history", because otherwise I'm going to need a little lube. As always, I'll quietly play on until social media informs me the beta is ready, then I'll quietly step into the locker room, thank the lads for another stellar year, tender my resignation with immediate effect, and close out my career. Oh, and Thursday the 20th.

I just buy the beta, wait for it to download, quietly flip the laptop open and continue playing the new edition without telling my wife it's the new edition. I don't think she knows my Steam library has FM '11-'22 (and the related Touch releases), she just thinks I've been playing the same game for 12 years.

I've never been able to keep from meddling from "plug and play" tactics, so I don't use them. I take over a club, I look at the top 11 players, and I build a tactic around them, or I build a tactic and get rid of everyone who doesn't fit it. And then I build two more tactics that are kinda similar but not really and rotate through all three of them in a season. My tactical brilliance/idiocy can not be equaled.

Finished my first season with FC Wichita (although I adjusted their kit colors to the hideous orange and blue of the old Wichita Wings indoor team - looks great on the outdoor pitch). Clinched the league with 6 games to play, stormed through the promotional playoffs with a 3-game road sweep, outscoring the opponents 9-1. Had a real problem with the yellow-card suspensions near the end of the year (got the scrubs plenty of playing time), but even with several players losing two weeks of paychecks, the end-of-season payouts probably made up for it. No pressure, the board wants promotion again next season, even with 24 teams in League 1 (and to motivate me, they only gave me a 1-year contract.) Onward and upward!

The fact that you named the save file "Lazarus Long" made me giggle (Even though to the best of my knowledge, he was never a footballer.)

Looks intriguing, but I'll likely have to open it up in editor and make a FC Wichita team, whether I manage them or not, got to have the hometown boys in there.

I pretty much walk away from locked-down demands any more, been burned by players getting upset for being played as Wing back (support) after agreeing to wing back (defend), even if the player's getting more playing time than originally agreed to and getting POMs for his play. My team, my terms, or there's the door (I really tend to be a much shrewder negotiator in FM than in real life.)

Oddly enough, there are some words that Americans use with impunity that apparently are considered expletives in the British language. I've always been curious about "non-English" versions of the game, but I don't know if anyone's collected a database of trigger words. I started using the additional comments when I was managing in Scotland and for some reason Gus MacPherson and Neil Lennon both had it out for me from the very beginning, so I started getting mouthy with them to create a perceived rivalry. Probably why for years my first save was always somewhere in Scotland just to pick fights.

Well, when I was doing my Reunion sign-up experiment, I went into the pre-game editor and set Reunion as FIFA member, because otherwise the country won't qualify for the World Cup or the African Cup of Nations. You might be able to set them as a UEFA member, too.

Forgot to drop back by and say the fix worked, the foreign player limits are reasonable and registration works fine. Thanks for the fun database!

Rockies and Plains League A - the Wichita team. Signed a bunch of free agents as well as players at other teams, but there's no registration option at any time from the squad screen, and I played my pre-season friendlies no problem, but I got to the first league game and half my starters can't be registered, but they don't DISPLAY as unregistered, they show as available for selection, but the game won't progress with them in the match-day squad.

Hmm, downloaded this, got my team all set up and ready to start the league season and 1/2 my team is "unable to be registered", even though there are no league rules requiring registration, no foreign player restrictions in the nation rules, and no option on the squad screen to register players. So...that was a waste of time and effort.

You think the Tactics sub-forum is toxic, you should have seen the LLM sub-forum...before it was NOPED out of existence. I generally stay out of Tactics largely because of the confrontational/adversarial nature of the discussion. There were some real great tacticians that used to post in there until they decided to post on their own blogs and leave the trolls to fight it out. Besides, I like to figure out my tactics on my own, feels more realistic.

And that's why the press is always asking other coaches about how dense you must be for working with a DoF. The only position even more worthless is a Loan Manager, who even if you list a player for loan and set them for development, the LM never can find them a loan opportunity. They eat a huge amount of salary budget with absolutely no results.

I haven't had a single player have a positive response to handshakes, pats on shoulder, or swats on the butt. Doesn't matter if they hold me in the highest regard or hate my guts.

Well, I always make sure that I have final approval set on all contracts, and although I've never used it, I think you can go in and change the offered contract before it's final. Otherwise, it would be nice to have a feature where you can tick off preferred playing time and terms offered or not offered before turning it over to the DoF. Sometimes it seems like the DoF WANTS to blow up the entire club salary structure.

I have always been a "team-focused" sort of manager, in that whether a player is a first-team starter or a regular rider of the bench, he needs to be flexible enough that I can send him on in a variety of position or roles and expect him to perform competently. I think it comes from playing LLM where one unexpected injury and you may need to put a center back in at midfield because that's the best available player still left on the bench. I don't even buy one-position "superstars", I'd rather buy 2-3 competent guys who earn their paychecks every week. I know I'm in the wrong, I know that I know NOTHING about football, but that's the way I play it.

It's cool - I've done enough sign-ups to know that eventually life and/or burnout gets in the way of progression. I always used to get 10-12 people to sign up for them, and once it started, they'd all quit commenting or even acknowledging, so I've tried to be good about popping in to comment. Sign-ups are fun, but they're a LOT of work on the production side. That's why I sat out doing a sign-up this year, I'm having too much fun just playing.

Wait a minute - some of you actually pay attention to what upsets the board? I've never been sacked for anything other than on-field performance, and I always accept those sackings as absolutely MY fault. Terms of loan, transfer terms on deadwood who are never going to see the pitch under my watch, tactical requirements, etc.-- my team, my rules. If the board thinks THEY can do a better job, they why did they hire me?

Looks like Gabb scored a lot more than Mbappe did during that last run of games. And Klopp has accepted that Mambo can't carry Curacao on his own, so he's not going to let him even try. (okay, they were only friendlies, but still...)

I feel like Curacao's time has come and gone (as you might expect.) So, what you're saying is, had it not been for Mbappe, the game would have been a tie. (Got to figure out a way to catch Mbappe out clubbing all night before a match...)

it's okay ALL the big-time FM content providers get to take some time off. Get well!

you must have the "make unfit 1st team players available for reserves selection" ticked. The game will haul them right home from your training camp location to play for the reserves.

Apparently, Curacao has come undone, can't seem to find the form they used to have.