turnip

The grammar isn't perfect, but I agree with the name in general

If attributes can change that much, then there's no point having attributes. Which I get is your point, but you are talking around it at times. What you're talking about is Form affecting how well a player is performing in matches (and Training as well, as far as I can tell). There could be some more clarity from within the game about when - for example - a Defender has had a poor game because of 2 horrific mistakes that led to goals rather than just generally being crap; or a Striker who had a bunch of good efforts saved by the keeper compared to a Striker who couldn't hit a barn door. And even a player in poor form will have moments where they show their class; they're just fewer and further between. Form is a tricky one, though, because you only know whether a player's drop in performance is related to Form or Ability if it picks up again. We've all seen players whose performances have dropped off for a long time, only for them to move to a new club and 'rediscover' their form. Dele Alli is just the obvious counterpoint here - at his age, there should be no way it's a drop in ability; more likely it's a lack of self-belief and persistent criticism from everywhere affecting a young man whose neurodevelopment has only just stopped (and who has had suffered some appalling man-management).

Remember that in FM terms, an attribute of 10 is still incredibly good in relation to the average person. A player with 10 Pace is going to out-pace basically anyone who isn't a professional athlete or sportsperson. On the other side, though, an attribute of 20 on its own doesn't mean very much. If I'm in League 2 and have a midfielder with 20 Passing, he's probably got major deficiencies elsewhere in his game. Maybe his Technique is rubbish, so he struggles to hit the ball well enough to make the pass. Or his Vision sucks, so he never sees a through-ball. Or he has terrible Decisions, so he rarely chooses the best pass. Or his Composure is appalling, so as soon as an opposition player gets within 10 feet he panics and hoofs it anywhere. Or his First Touch is awful, so every time he receives the ball, he accidentally punts it halfway to Arkhangelsk. Could be his Pace/Acceleration are woeful, so he can never get in a good position to get the ball. Mayhap his Consistency sucks rancid donkey balls and on any given day his Passing is more like a 5. Whatever. If all of these other things are good, suffice it to say that the player isn't slumming it in League 2; he's probably in the Premier League.

Massive database and a bunch of leagues (read: all of them) on View-Only to start with except Portugal, where I decided to start. I'd love to say I looked around and found a cool team to take over and then and then and then... but I didn't. I'd heard Lusitãnia Lourosa have a Sugar Daddy and the fact they have decent facilities made my mind up for me. Season 1: Lusitãnia Lourosa, Portugal, Campionata Nacional Prio A few loanees came in as important signings and once the owner chipped in with a few (million) quid, I splashed out. £25k in transfer outlay by Christmas turned into £360k in total by the end of February. Money well spent? League: P:26 W:22 D:3 L:1 GD:+35 Pos:1st We also won the championship tie. So yeah, money well spent. We did nothing in the cups, which I was fine with. Having spent the first half of the season bringing in foreign players to improve the team, I spent the second half of the season bringing in Portuguese-trained players to meet the league requirements and still be good. Our best player was Tassiano, a Brazilian man mountain of a Target Forward who got 23 league goals. We also picked up a cheap Malian DC who looks good and a solid Senegalese MC. I managed to persuade the owner to upgrade Youth Facilities and Junior Coaching at the end of the season. Players signed: 25 Season 2: Lusitãnia Lourosa, Portugal, Liga 3 Going through contracts at the end of the year, I was astonished to find this kid , who'd been playing for our U-19-B team for the season and gone from a "yeah, he could be good in the future" to "yeah, he's pretty good now". I did my usual rummage through the bins and found a Spanish U18 outcast DC from Barcelona and a German U18 ST from Unterhaching. We also picked up a bunch of other homegrown players. I supplemented these with a few other signings as the season progressed - the best probably being a Montenegrin playmaker who'd been without a club since the summer. League: P:18 W:14 D:1 L:3 GD:+18 Pos:1st As with last season, we won the Promotion mini-league (despite some quite tricky games) and then Sporting's B team had two players sent off and we walked the championship tie. Cups were forgettable. Around Christmas, we 180'd on tactics, pivoting away from hoofball towards something more possession-oriented. But with Tassiano still up front; so not completely away from hoofball. Speaking of the telegraph pole, after scoring 27 goals in 26 appearances this season, he left at the end of his contract. He'd originally done the "I'm going to be exploring my options" fandango, only to transition into the "I really want to stay at the club" twerk once we secured promotion; but while there may be a pair of delightfully-proportioned buttocks in the world worth spending £8.5k p/w on, Tassiano isn't in possession of them. Our Malian DC wanted a new contract, in contrast, but also was happy with £750 p/w and resigned with no fuss. There's a lesson there. (He also got his first senior cap in the summer). He had a really good season. So did quite a few of our players, to be fair, but we'll have a bit of a cull in the summer and try to get some of our players out on loan for development. Youth Intake initially looked like trash; a second glance was a bit better, but still a wet fart after the improvements we've spent a lot of money on. Players signed: 25

If you've got 3 games in a week that your player needs to start in, just give him a week off training. It won't harm his development and unless he gets injured, he'll be more then fine to play each game.

Yes, you can improve the standing of the league. You can also improve the Youth Rating but it's really slow. I coached Poland to win the Nations League and the Youth Rating didn't improve at all.

Accusations of big club bias in Portugal are completely unfounded

There are some rather niche options in Player Interactions that come up from time to time so you might have the option to say "I tried offering you a contract but you weren't interested" if you don't end up selling him, but I wouldn't put money on it.

The factors working against you here. 1) You're trying to sign good players 2) Those players probably have 2+ years left on their contracts 3) Those players play for big teams 4) Those teams have lots of money 5) You are managing in Israel, which is a smaller league than the ones you're trying to sign players from. Points 1-4 all add to a player's value (including how much a team will want to sell him), while point 5 just means the player will be less interested in joining you. You're not really on to a winner there. Unless you've got buckets of cash, in which case those players will cost even more because of the Man City Tax.

That screenshot is from July 20th. The transfer window doesn't close for another few weeks, so Porto can afford to keep those demands high. After all, the fact that you can't to pay it doesn't mean another team won't. The closer you get to deadline day, the more likely it is that they'll accept a rubbish bid for a player, particularly if they really want him to get game time. If you can get away with playing the one-legged nags your team actually employs for a couple of games, just spend your time scouting anyone you think might be willing to join you on loan. Then, come deadline day, put in offers for 0% wages. There'll be a few players the clubs refuse to accept that for, but you'd be surprised how many they accept and how good the players can be.

This is with Fake Players, so you won't recognise anyone, but this all seems... fine? Not exactly horrendous.

Doesn't sound like a bug. The teams assume you've got the money to pay for the loan, so that's what they want. The numbers you're being quoted are based on how much money you have available. If you can't afford it, or don't want to pay that much, wait until closer to deadline day. You should be able to get the players much cheaper if they're still available. As for clubs not wanting to send a player back on loan to you for a second season... it's annoying, but it doesn't sound unrealistic. I can't remember many occasions where talented young players spend multiple seasons on loan to the same club, particularly if they develop well.

Yeah, and if you have a shortlist of 2500 players (dude, what the hell?) you have to select 50 players 50 times.

Nah, not even close.

It's kind of stupid. Every year, SI manage to balls-up lower league finances. Every year, they implement some fixes a couple of patches in that make it bearable. And then, without fail, the broken finances are back when the new game rolls around. Something something definition of insanity...

You can offer him a new contract, make it bad enough that he rejects it and then say "Look, I said I'd offer you a contract; it's your fault you turned it down." That satisfies the Promise side of things and, as other people have pointed out, even if he gets upset he'll probably calm down in a few months if everything else is going well.

If I get a bunch of offers for a player and I think there's a good chance he'll accept some of them, I'll play around a bit with the negotiation. Generally tweaking stuff like % Of Next Sale; so I might suggest £300k + 50% Of Next Sale to one club and then £400k + 30% Of Next Sale to another. Of course, if you're selling to a big team (actually big; not just 'Middlesbrough big') then I'd want to lock in 50% Of Next Sale at any cost and play around with the cash price, since you can often sell the clause a year or two down the line for several million, which is usually far more than you'd be able to get as part of a cash offer.

My understanding is that players are less likely to trust you if you're some random hobo who's just walked in off the street to manage a big club, compared to a well-known manager. Does this make a difference? Probably not if things are going well, but if you start losing games, or make a few player interaction snafus, you might find that the squad is quicker to turn against you. Also, having a high reputation as a manager is supposed to have a small impact when trying to sign players, so it might make that side of things a little harder (although I don't know that anyone's bothered trying to test that).

I do think it happens too quickly sometimes, particularly if you've brought an unknown player in on a trial from another country. Do 3rd-tier French teams really scout the Brazilian lower leagues so extensively that they know this guy I've just brought in on trial is worth signing when the whole reason I'm trialling him is because I don't?

Weird new skin for CM 97/98

The scouts just give your their impression - it's ultimately your decision about signing a player (unless you're playing a DoF challenge, which it doesn't sound like you are). You should also be checking their attributes before making a decision. With young players, I try to use the logic of "how much better would this player look with +1/+2/+3 in each of his key attributes?" when a scout comes back with a glowing report. This then helps me work out how much money to spend on them. If they only need +1 to look like a much better player, they're a fairly high priority and I'll consider spending a reasonable amount to sign them. If they need +2 to look like a much better player, they're a lower priority and I'm unlikely to spend much to sign them. And if they need +3, I'm basically only going to sign them if they're dirt cheap and have a good personality. With older (22/23) players, it's a bit harder. As you say, scouts seem to find these players' Potential harder to unpick. So really, it's only worth signing these players if you think they can contribute to your team even if they don't improve.

Yeah, my routine of shouts usually goes: "Focus" Followed a few seconds later by "Oh for [goodness] sake you morons"

Austria has squad registration, but there aren't really any rules on who you register (other than for Europe, of course). Bulgaria allows no more than 5 non-EU players in a match squad, which leaves plenty of wiggle room. Hungary seems very chill about who you put in your 25-man squad. Poland likewise, but you do need 1 Polish under-22 player in your match squad (and two for Cup games).

You hate to see it lol