[Playing a single save the whole year?]

13 minutes ago, Platinum said:

Ive never got that far but I want to on this FM, I can imagine it can be really cool. How do you keep up to date with the best players, managers etc. Do you make good use of the news and social media screens?

Yeah, I will usually read the threads on players of the year, and quite closely follow the results from the big international tournaments. Every couple of months, I also do a quick trip around of all the leagues I have loaded to see how things are going (usually that's every league in about a dozen countries - although I add/delete leagues every few years just to keep things interesting)

Although the players I'm most familiar with will be the players in and around the league I'm playing in, and am scouting heavily - which is sometimes the Premier League, but at other times has been the National League South or Serie C/A or even the Slovakian second division!

I think the last real player I was still aware of was Jude Bellingham, who just finally retired from his final managerial position at the age of 70-odd; he lasted a couple of years longer than Christian Pulisic, who managed Man City for about 25 years and has their new 100,000 (!) seater stadium named after him!

[Playing a single save the whole year?]

3 hours ago, Grifty said:

I always only play one game per save, but I skipped out FM22 due to my FM21 save where I’m in 2073.

Man, that's almost identical to me.

I'm still working on my only FM21 save and am just coming to the end of the 2075/76 season. Onto my sixth club and second generation of manager now!

I've said it before on here, but I really love getting deep into the game, because you're then creating your own unique footballing world, as opposed to just tinkering with the real one.

[The Realism Thread]

Love the discussion on local signings.....

......but wanted to add one twist.

I'm still playing FM21, and doing what I would call a semi-journeyman save - I move around between clubs, but typically spend 10-15 years at each. I'm now playing the 2073/74 season.

Anyways, I chose my current club when I decided to move on and noticed that Guernsey had just been promoted to the Vanarama South. Small island in the middle of the channel who had never previously played at level 6 of the pyramid before? How could I resist that?

And the thing is the game imposed a local signings rule on me. When I was a half star Obscure reputation club, almost every player I tried to sign permanently told me that the wages I was offering were not sufficient for them to relocate. And loanees didn't want to come to Guernsey either. The only exceptions were players from clubs on the south coast. So Exeter, Torquay, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Brighton and Eastleigh were fair game. But try and sign a player from as far north as Crystal Palace and they weren't interested! The game seemed to have an in-built distance limit so that most lower league players wouldn't be interested in playing at a club that far from home (I don't recall ever experiencing this when I previously managed Halesowen - a club in the middle of England - at the same level)

It made for a nice challenge, and I didn't even have to self-regulate. Eventually, after several seasons of building a team using nothing but Plymouth and Portsmouth academy cast-offs and the occasional Torquay loanee, I did get promoted to the Vanarama National, and then the rest of the world opened up. But although I'm now mid-table in the Premier League - I still think those early years, fighting against relegation in Tier 6, were the most enjoyable!

 

[as an aside - as I said, I'm now in the Premier League with Guernsey, but although my academy just moved up to Level 2, after about six years at Level 3, I still haven't been invited to any of the U23 or U18 leagues. My U18s play in the FA Youth Cup, and my U23s play in the Papa John's Trophy, but I never get an invite to the leagues, and otherwise have to just arrange friendlies for my youth teams. Anyone know if this is a bug or just a function of the fact that my club basically plays home games in France and youth teams don't want to have to get on a flight or a boat to go and play their matches? Which, while it's slightly annoying for me, would probably be a realistic feature!]

 

 

[why the agent doesnt tell me what the player wants?]

1 hour ago, dave88 said:

Yeah but agent are totally useless in fm 22. Before at least they could say what their players want. Now they dont even know... 

It happens in FM21 as well from time to time.

I view it as one step beyond the outright refusal to discuss terms. It's a "I'm not really interested, but maybe if you blow me out of the water with an offer".

I've never managed to sign anyone in these cases where they won't make counter-offers....but I wonder if you made a crazy offer (Star Player, big pay raise, stepping stone etc. etc.) it might be possible?

[Longest save you have ever done?]

So I love the idea of creating my own footballing world in FM, and therefore only ever have one save for each iteration of the game, and just move from club-to-club within that save (and at the moment, I'm still playing on FM21)

I started at Oxford (my club), then moved to Halesowen Town and then on to Piacenza (about a decade at each).

Then I created a new manager (my fictitious Icelandic daughter from when I was managing the national team there), started at Trencin (in Slovakia) then moved to Hibernian and now, in 2067, I've just been promoted into the National League with Guernsey.

I typically have 10-12 nations loaded at any one time, but change them up occasionally to keep things interesting.

And I get a lot of pleasure out of seeing the gradual ebb and flow across the leagues. Obviously the teams I worked at are now doing artificially better than they would have - but other wacky things happen more organically.....Sheffield United are now the dominant team in England; Raith Rovers have won back-to-back European trophies; Sassuolo just won Serie A for the 4th time in 5 years and have played in two CL finals; Peru won a World Cup - and it wasn't even a shock as their whole squad were playing for top European sides. Seeing Reading drop into non-league was a personal highlight.

It's a crazy, geeky, stats-nerd way of playing the game, but it makes me happy!

[Too old for new job? Or something else?]

9 hours ago, WilsonJuve said:

I’m just wondering if your 72 year old manager is now far too experienced for lower league clubs being interested in you. Even though your applying for the job the game will presume that it’s gonna cost them a lot more than they are willing to pay you simply because of your reputation and standing in the game. I have had my manager who is only in his late 30s been turned down by some terrible clubs before like league 2 in England but then get offered the Napoli job. Even though I want the move they can’t see a way it would work out financially similar in a way to Messi in real life. A whole lot of clubs would have wanted him but nobody showed interest apart from PSG because the others assumed the finances wouldn’t work out for them. 

I did wonder about that (which in itself would be a little frustrating, if the game is telling you that you can only manage massive clubs from now on!).....

......didn't test it all that extensively, but I did apply for jobs at Napoli, Ajax, Fiorentina & Grasshoppers (all of whom are 4*+ reputation in my world in 2050) with my 72 year old (didn't bother with the 30 year old, because she wouldn't or at least shouldn't be getting those jobs yet). He didn't get offered any of those either....... 

[Too old for new job? Or something else?]

So just to add to my original post, I did a little test this afternoon.

 

I created a new manager, and then had both managers apply for the same job a bunch of times. In each case, I answered the interview questions exactly the same (to the extent I could) between the two managers - basically I was just relentlessly positive and 'Yes sir, thank you sir, whatever you say sir'.

 

So manager #1 was a newly created, 30 year old Icelander with zero previous coaching experience, half a star of reputation, and a regional professional playing career

Manager #2 was my 72 year old, 30 year veteran Englishman, with four stars of reputation and a track record of taking clubs from the bottom to the top.

 

Manager #1 was offered 2/3rds of the jobs she applied for - basically any club with 2.5 stars reputation or less, she got hired. And she also got interview requests from a bunch of clubs that I didn't apply for, and was offered 100% of those jobs as well

Manager #2 got exactly zero offers from the 20+ clubs he applied to, and exactly zero interview requests from those he didn't.

 

So it really does seem that FM21 is applying age discrimination to its job hunting process; I can't think of any other reason why my ageing legend couldn't get a job offer whilst a completely green rookie was swimming in them from exactly the same clubs at exactly the same time.

Which is not exactly unrealistic.....but also not that fun! And inconsistent when you can stay at the same club and manage indefinitely.

 

Which also means that I will be continuing my save in 2051 as Inga Tonisdottir, 30 year old love child of my original manager from his day's running the national team in Reykjavik!

[Too old for new job? Or something else?]

48 minutes ago, Heywood JaBlowme said:

I thought there was no "age discrimination" in FM? What about the one FM player from years back that played over 200 years in one save? I forget which edition. Unless he stayed at the same club. 

 

I think Padders did 200 years+ in FM20 - but it was all with the same club. So you can be immortal......just as long as you don't try and change clubs!

 

I'm going to try running some more tests, but I don't know what else, other than age, it could be at the moment. Unless all 20+ clubs that I've tried won't hire me because I'm overqualified?

[Too old for new job? Or something else?]

Hi all - long time lurker, first time poster. But I've not been able to find an answer to this question/issue by searching.......

 

I've been running a long 'semi-journeyman' save on FM21. The year is now 2050. I did seven years at my hometown club Oxford Utd (taking them from League One to the Europa League); then ten years at Halesowen Town (taking them from Blue Square South to the Championship playoffs); then twelve years at Piacenza (taking them from the Serie C relegation zone to the Serie A title). I tend to like long rebuilding jobs - but once I grow the club to a certain size, I lose interest and move on. But I also like to keep the same save going because it's my FM universe with its own unique thirty years of history.

I also managed at international level for Iceland (went great), Portugal (went OK) and England (was a disaster and got sacked within a year!)

 

So I want to move on now and start a new project. Ideally, I was thinking Iceland because it's a bit different, because I have a great reputation there from my days managing the national team, and because I'm fluent in the language (in the game, not real life!).

 

The problem is that I can't seem to get a job. Five Icelandic jobs came up during their off-season - but having resigned from my previous post, my application to all of them was unsuccesful. So I thought 'Fair Enough, Iceland doesn't want me, I'll try somewhere else'. I've since unsuccesfully applied for about 15-20 other jobs in the Netherlands, Scotland, Slovakia, Romania & Switzerland (I have about a dozen countries loaded). Noone wants me.

 

Every job I apply for grants me an interview. I've tried mixing up my responses (from arrogant, argumentative and asks for the world, to friendly, accommodating and asks for nothing) - makes no difference. Every job, I get the message that I'm the fans' preferred candidate. Every job, I'm the bookie's favourite (once my odds were even as low as 1-48) but every time they go with someone else.

 

With both my previous transitions to Halesowen & Piacenza, I got the first job I applied for. I have a 4* reputation and an amazing track record but it's not doing any good.

The only thing I'm wondering is whether I'm now too old? My manager is 72, so it seems realistic that clubs might think twice about hiring someone that age.....but at the same time I know that you can be a FM21 immortal and manage the same club till you're 300 years old, so I didn't think that ageism was coded into the game?

Is it that, or is there something else I'm doing wrong here?

 

I know that I can just retire, create a new manager and parachute them into the job of my choice. But I'd rather keep my current manager's reputation and relationships if I can, and not break the narrative.

What is certain, after six game months, is that FM21 as a failed jobseeker simulator is not as much fun as a football managment simulator!!