CFuller

Yes, that might actually be another part of the problem. On my Arsenal save on FM22 (where I focussed heavily on developing youth players), I had no problem loaning out PL/Championship-level players for reasonable fees - but those League One/League Two quality players who needed gametime were much more difficult to loan out. I wasn't expecting lower-league clubs to stump up full wages for a loanee, but I struggled to get anyone to pay 50% wages - even for someone who was on £1k a week - and those who were willing to pay that much would typically use them as Squad Players. Even negotiating a small increase in the wage contribution would go something like this: "We'd like to take Player X on loan, and we'll pay 10% of his wages." "Sure, but only if you pay 20%." "No, 10%. Take it or leave it." "Come on, it's only an extra hundred quid a week..." "Ah, forget it." As far as I can tell, these negotiations are a little better on FM23, but I've only a very small sample size to go on.

DIVISION 2 TABLE (End of November 2005) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Wrexham 19 6 1 2 21 13 5 3 2 24 18 37 2nd Norwich 19 6 2 2 17 10 4 1 4 15 18 33 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Port Vale 19 5 2 2 16 8 4 3 3 8 8 32 4th Rochdale 19 6 4 0 23 13 3 0 6 10 18 31 5th Swindon 19 4 2 3 12 11 4 4 2 27 21 30 6th Cambridge Utd 19 6 2 2 21 11 3 1 5 11 15 30 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Portsmouth 19 6 3 1 24 15 3 0 6 14 19 30 8th Huddersfield 19 4 4 1 22 17 4 2 4 15 18 30 9th Northampton 19 6 2 2 18 12 3 1 5 16 22 30 10th Dag & Red 19 5 3 2 24 15 1 6 2 16 17 27 11th Cardiff 19 4 4 2 24 15 3 2 4 17 19 27 12th Bristol City 19 4 0 5 19 21 4 3 3 20 20 27 13th Shrewsbury 19 4 1 4 15 10 4 1 5 17 16 26 14th Peterborough 19 4 4 1 15 12 2 4 4 14 19 26 15th Carlisle 19 3 3 4 16 19 3 4 2 20 17 25 16th Oxford 19 5 0 5 22 18 3 0 6 15 19 24 17th Reading 19 4 2 3 14 11 2 4 4 16 24 24 18th Watford 19 4 3 2 14 10 1 3 6 13 20 21 19th Bournemouth 19 4 3 2 12 9 0 6 4 4 11 21 20th Tranmere 19 3 5 1 13 11 2 1 7 7 16 21 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21st Bristol Rovers 19 2 7 1 21 21 2 1 6 14 24 20 22nd Hull 19 3 2 5 17 24 1 6 2 15 18 20 23rd Barnsley 19 4 1 4 19 19 1 2 7 7 17 18 24th Wigan 19 4 0 6 15 16 0 2 7 6 20 14 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Manchester United suffer their first defeats under new manager Hélio dos Anjos, losing to 10-man Liverpool at Anfield before being ostracised from the League Cup by Coventry. Hélio comes under increasing pressure after dropping Old Trafford favourites Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke - and falling out with Ruud van Nistelrooy. Arsenal narrowly avoid a shock Round 2 exit from the UEFA Cup, only beating Legia Warszawa on penalties after losing the first leg 3-1 in Poland. Leeds aren't so lucky in the Champions League, crashing out at the first group stage for a third straight year after Barcelona exact their revenge at Elland Road. There are wild celebrations in Cardiff, as Wales defeat Scotland in a Playoff to qualify for their first World Cup since 1958. Mark Hughes' Red Dragons overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit to win 4-3 on aggregate, with Craig Bellamy scoring twice in the second half. Meanwhile, 20-year-old wonderkid Cristiano Ronaldo nets a brace of his own as Portugal overcome Turkey to book their tickets to Germany. Having fallen to 7th in Serie A, Lazio's bid to retain the scudetto suffers a huge blow when captain Alessandro Nesta tears his ankle ligaments in training. Biancocelesti fans burn down the training ground in protest. Atlético Madrid are leapfrogged at the top of La Liga by Barcelona, who recover from 2-0 behind to win 3-2 at the Vicente Calderón. Carles Puyol's 90th-minute winner comes as a huge shock - not least to Carles Puyol, who didn't realise he was allowed to score goals instead of just preventing them! IN OTHER NEWS... Football mourns the death of the legendary and mercurial former Manchester United forward George Best. The 59-year-old Northern Irishman passes away from multiple organ failure in a London hospital after losing a three-decade battle with alcohol addiction. The professional wrestling world is shocked by the sudden death of former WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero at the age of just 38. One of World Wrestling Entertainment’s most popular ‘heels’, Guerrero struggled with substance abuse before passing away from heart failure at a hotel in Minneapolis. It's a big month for women in politics. Angela Merkel is sworn in as Germany's first woman Chancellor, while Liberia's new President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf becomes Africa’s first democratically-elected female head of state. A 38-year-old woman from France becomes the first human to receive a face transplant. Isabelle Dinoire undergoes a five-hour operation in Amiens after being attacked by her dog, losing her nose, lips and chin.

NOVEMBER 2005 After the early cancellation of Glynn Thompson's loan spell from Fulham, I was in the lookout for another goalkeeper. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait long or look far to find one. Taking over Dagenham & Redbridge's number 1 jersey is 25-year-old Robert Green, who joins us from Millwall on loan until the end of February. Though he has never fulfilled the potential he had as a youngster at Norwich, Rob is still a pretty solid and very agile Football League shotstopper. Green hoped to make an explosive start to his Daggers career when we went to Tranmere on Bonfire Night. The Merseyside club were level on points with us, only trailing on goal difference. Though their recent form under John King had been disappointing, we still needed to be prepared for a battle at Prenton Park. 5 NOVEMBER 2005: Tranmere Rovers vs Dagenham & Redbridge Robert Green immediately made the Daggers goal his own, making several saves to keep various Tranmere players off the scoresheet in the first half. Centre-back Lee Matthews also deserved some credit for winning many key tackles and headers, but our attack was struggling to get going... ...until the fourth minute of the second half. We caught Tranmere on the hop, and when midfielder Ryan Carter's shot was spilled by goalkeeper Darren Trigg, the rebound was calmly finished by Craig Winter! Craig then struck again four minutes later, with a low shot bypassing Trigg to double our lead. Rovers gave us a scare in the 58th minute, when ex-Chelsea right-back Leslie Hughes blasted in a superb shot that cut our advantage back down to one goal. Fortunately, Winter allayed any fears by completing his hat-trick in the 68th minute. A bullet header from Julian Alsop's cross rounded off an outstanding solo performance by the flying Scotsman! Tranmere Rovers - 1 (Hughes 58) Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Winter 49,53,68) Division 2, Attendance 8,169 - POSITIONS: Tranmere 17th, Dag & Red 9th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Hawkins, Prior (Gledhill), Matthews, Sharps (Mayo); Weekes, McLean, Carter; Winter (Hamilton); Alsop, Walsh. BOOKED: Prior, Sharps. That was our first away win this season. Had we turned a corner? A week later, we were at home to the team who were just one place and two points ahead of us. Bristol City had just come back down from Division 1, having been relegated after a single season back in the top flight. In former German international Paulo Roberto Rink, they had one of the division's form strikers. 12 NOVEMBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Bristol City A mishap in the Bristol City defence gifted us the opening goal after 18 minutes. Centre-back Nicky Hunt almost headed a wayward clearance onto his own net, and was thankful to goalkeeper John Karelse for pushing it out for a corner. Hunt didn't feel so grateful just moments later, when Dagenham captain Spencer Prior rose highest to head in Nick Weekes' corner and sent Victoria Road rocking! The Robins' defence managed to hold firm for the rest of the first half, but they lost their way again after the break. Weekes latched onto a killer through-ball from midfield colleague Craig Winter to make it 2-0 after 62 minutes. Benjani Mwaruwari then struck in the 79th minute to put the seal on what looked like a comfortable 3-0 win. Unfortunately, the Daggers aren't allowed to keep clean sheets anymore. Prior's centre-back partner Lee Matthews gave away a totally unnecessary penalty in the 88th minute after tripping Tony Thorpe. Though Ian Kilford's spot-kick was well saved by Green, the former Wigan midfielder drove in the rebound, giving Bristol City a consolation. Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Prior 18, Weekes 62, Mwaruwari 79) Bristol City - 1 (Kilford 88) Division 2, Attendance 5,976 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 8th, Bristol City 12th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Hawkins (Gledhill), Prior, Matthews, Mayo; Weekes, McLean (Lacey), Carter; Winter; Mwaruwari (Alsop), Walsh. BOOKED: Matthews. That match marked the end of Jocky Scott's tenure as Bristol City manager, as he was sacked the following afternoon. I'll admit that the prospect of managing a club with City's resources - not to mention talent - was a tempting one. However, I wasn't desperate to leave the Daggers just yet, so if the Robins wanted me, they would need to make me a very attractive offer. I also wasn't desperate to sell our in-demand starlet Robbie Walsh. We'd turned down a couple more offers from Coventry and Dundee United for the 18-year-old striker, whose dozen appearances so far this season had yielded two goals and three assists. Now it was time to look ahead to the cup competitions. The Football League Trophy Round 1 draw had given us a tough away trip to Oxford in December... but the FA Cup draw had been much more generous. Our FA Cup campaign began with what looked like a straightforward away game against Conference side Chester. Then again, City were captained by my old nemesis - 38-year-old Craig Forrest, who was the most unstoppable Canadian since Bryan Adams’ reign of chart terror in 1991. Would the former Rotherham goalkeeper haunt us once again? 19 NOVEMBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Chester City I named a strong team for this match, but a combination of Craig Forrest and his woodwork kept us goalless for just over half an hour. The breakthrough finally came in the 32nd minute from our form man Craig Winter, who skipped past City midfielders Aaron Skelton and Stuart Taylor before driving home an unstoppable shot. Though we were largely dominating the match, Forrest was still saving almost everything we fired at him. At times, it felt like he should have been goaltending for the Vancouver Canucks in the NHL, and not Chester in the Conference. However, there was nothing he could do about our second goal in the 59th minute, which Benjani Mwaruwari smashed in off the crossbar to effectively book our place in Round 2. Chester's attackers finally showed up for the final half-hour. Shots from midfielders Sean McClare and Graham Thorpe kept our goalie Mike Pollitt on his toes, and striker Stephen Grant fared even better with a stunning free-kick in the 73rd minute. The final scoreline of 2-1 did perhaps flatter our visitors, but we'd still done enough to progress. Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Winter 32, Mwaruwari 59) Chester City - 1 (Grant 73) FA Cup Round 1, Attendance 2,824 DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Hawkins, Matthews, Maher, Mayo; Carter, McLean (M Jones), Hamilton; Winter (McQuade); Alsop (Griffiths), Mwaruwari. BOOKED: McLean. We could look forward to playing Conference opposition again in Round 2. This time, though, we faced a journey west to Somerset, to take on Garry Hill's Yeovil side. A few days later, Dundee United came back in for Robbie Walsh - and this time, Jim Leishman was deadly serious. Before long, we had agreed a sale worth £200,000, plus 25% of Robbie's next transfer fee. I was sad to be losing a talented youngster before he'd become a first-team regular, but at least we had made some substantial money through developing him. Walsh's departure also opened the door for fellow striker Chris Griffiths to come back into the Daggers fold. The 19-year-old's cameo against Chester was his first competitive game for us since the Division 3 play-off against Lincoln 18 months ago. If Chris wanted to establish himself in the senior squad, now was his time to step up. We hoped to complete a perfect November with a fourth consecutive win. The latest visitors to Victoria Road were 15th-placed Shrewsbury, whom we would have to face without midfielder Des Hamilton, who'd sprained his ankle in training. 26 NOVEMBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury's goalkeeper Justin Bray is not Canadian, but he may as well have been another Craig Forrest. Craig Winter, Benjani Mwaruwari and Julian Alsop were all over the Shrews attack in the first half, but Bray's superhuman reflexes frequently kept them at bay. The only shot that beat him in the first half was a piledriver in the 42nd minute from left-back Kerry Mayo, who unfortunately hit the wrong side of the crossbar. For the second half, we tried to crank up the pressure and increase the tempo. Against an unflappable Shrewsbury side with a high-pressing game, that was a mistake. After 62 minutes, they struck on the counter, with Ryan Lowe breaking through the defence to tap in Chris McConville's left-wing cross. Things went from bad to worse for Rob Green in the 74th minute. McConville outjumped the Daggers goalkeeper to head in a quick free-kick from Craig Taylor, and we were facing a second home league defeat this season. Though Alsop did get a shot past the virtually unbeatable Bray eight minutes later, his consolation goal was too little, too late. Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Alsop 82) Shrewsbury Town - 2 (Lowe 62, McConville 74) Division 2, Attendance 5,989 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 10th, Shrewsbury 13th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Green; Hawkins (Gledhill), Matthews, Prior, Mayo; Carter (Lacey), McLean (Griffiths), Weekes; Winter; Alsop, Mwaruwari. This is what frustrates me about this Daggers team right now. We're entertaining, sure, but 16 matches have passed now since we last kept a clean sheet. We've been on long runs like this before, but something about this feels deeply worrying. You can only make so many signings or tweak your tactics so much before you run out of ideas. For the first time, I'm seriously feeling that I've taken this team as far as I can. Unfortunately, Bristol City isn't an option for me now. They gave the job to Frank Yallop instead. Bloody Canadians.

I'm sure SI are still looking at it. I hope they are anyway. I've just reached July 2037 in my holiday save with just the English leagues loaded, and I'll be honest - the early signs are not good. For starters, here is how the England squad looks: Just three players under the age of 25, and quite a few oldies. Bukayo Saka is still playing well enough to justify his place, but Jude Bellingham is barely clinging on after a modest half-season at a Southampton team who finished 14th last season. Bellingham's now on 151 caps - he's still 37 shy of the record held by Declan Rice, who was still playing for England right up until the Euro 2036 Final aged 37. It's a bit late in the day, so I'm not going to go into too much detail right now. I'm happy to upload the save file and leave the in-depth research to you guys if you're interested... but I thought I'd give you a sense of just how bad this problem is, particularly at international level. At the start of FM23, there are 88 active players aged 33 or under who have at least one senior cap for England. I won't list them all, because otherwise we'd be here all night, but here's a list of all the players who made their England debuts before the age of 21: That's 29 England debutants under the age of 21, all but one of which were within the last 13 years (Walcott being such an extreme case that he made his England debut before some real players in FM23 were even born ). We sure do love to give youth a chance in this country. Now, let's fast-forward to 2037 and see how things have changed. As of June 2037, here are all the players under the age of 33 - thus being born after the current youngest Three Lions international Jude Bellingham - who have at least ONE cap for England: That's 29 England debutants, total. TWO of them made their debuts before they turned 21. It will probably not surprise you that Jon Bastable and Richard Duncan are two of the best players in the world, and perhaps the two best English players. Reputation on Football Manager is so utterly borked that you literally have to be an elite-level wonderkid in order to make your England debut at the same age as Carl Jenkinson! To use Bellingham once again, you might have spotted that it took SEVEN YEARS before a player younger than Jude won their first England cap. To put it another way, Jude was 26 years old when he was dethroned as the baby of the England team. That, to me, doesn't feel right at all. Anyway, here is the link to my save file from July 2037, so you can have a look for yourselves and perhaps compile some more data. Have at it.

Yeah... I'm not a huge fan of the new draws. Some good ideas, but poorly executed. Automatic draws are far too slow, I'm sure many people agree with that. But I'm someone who likes to manually draw each team one by one, and it's annoying that you need to click on the "Advance to Next Team" button TWICE for each team. I know that the host has a lot to say and only so much time to say it in - and in the European draws, you need to move seamlessly from one group to the next. But surely there's a better way of executing this, rather than expecting us to make double the clicks for the same result? On the subject of the hosts, I find it rather strange that the draws are hosted by unemployed managers - typically managers who have strong ties with at least one of the clubs involved. In my save, the Europa League draw was hosted by Slavoljub Muslin - a popular figure at Crvena Zvezda amongst others, but hardly the charismatic presenter you'd expect in this role. It kinda breaks the immersion for me. In reality (at least in UEFA and English competitions), these draws are usually hosted by journalists - think Pedro Pinto or Reshmin Chowdhury. Obviously, you can't have real journos in the game for licencing reasons. But surely having one of the top game-generated journalists present the Champions League draw would make more sense than having a Joël Bats or a Roy Keane present it? You might expect a legend like Roy Keane to be one of the draw assistant, but not to be the compère!

I wouldn't start any long-term save on the beta (but that's just my preference) - and absolutely not while this is still an issue. I'm also considering a non-league save. The last time I did one on FM13, it took me 17 years to get a team to the Championship, and the AI squads were pretty well-balanced with mostly newgens. I don't want to get to that point in 2039, where I'm managing in the Premier League or Championship, and most of my opponents' squads are dominated by 30-somethings that I recognise. I'll run a holiday save over the next few days (with just the English leagues loaded) and see how things are looking.

Yes, I used Dave's files on my FM22 save. They helped a little by boosting the reputations of some young player awards, but modders can only do so much.

This was the main thing that put me off a long-term save on FM22. Big teams and nations over-reliant on older players, and hardly bringing any youngsters through other than the odd generational talent. If it's still like this on FM23, then what's the point in playing on beyond the first 5 seasons? I'm convinced that it's (at least partly) related to player reputations not growing fast enough. On FM22, there were very few high-reputation youngsters in 2030 compared to at the start of the game, but the reduction of high-CA youngsters wasn't quite as bad. I've not had time to run any tests on FM23, but I fear this might still be a problem.

I think that's something a bit different. The "similar player to Player X" description doesn't consider the nationalities of the players. Benjamin Sesko was also described as a "similar player to Christian Benteke", hence he would always be called the "Slovenian Benteke" on those NxGn lists. The "could be the next Player Y" description, on the other hand, does require both players to be from the same nation. As far as I know.

As far as I'm aware, it's (almost) always a player with the same nationality and position as the youngster. And if it was Arsenal's Pépé, he would be called "the next Nicolas Pépé" - the tag uses the player's nickname (common name) or full name, not just the surname.

Could be this Pepe? Don't know a lot about him, but apparently he was a legendary winger/striker for Brazil and Santos in the 50s and 60s.

To be fair, saying "we've done more work to balance game worlds" is not exactly the same thing as saying "game worlds are now balanced". Perhaps they're still working on it (and if your results are anything to go by, there is still a lot of work to do). But otherwise, good job on finding these issues nice and early in the beta. I was really put off starting a long-term FM22 save because game worlds were so unbalanced, and clubs/nations would keep playing older players instead of developing younger talent. If this is still happening on FM23, I'll be very disappointed. The one thing I would suggest is looking at the world reputation of the players in the database. This was my biggest gripe on FM22 - that young players' reputations were not increasing fast enough relative to their abilities. I think this is a big reason why younger players kept getting overlooked, and why top clubs were often stacked with 30-somethings. I'm pretty sure that, in the FM22 feedback thread, I likened it to if Gareth Southgate had refused to call up Jude Bellingham for England until he turned 25 (six years from now) because he would rather pick a 35-year-old Jonjo Shelvey. I'm also pretty sure (please correct me if I'm wrong) that a high world reputation plays a part in getting called a Wonderkid or an Elite/World-Class player. That could be another reason why you're not seeing a lot of these players in 2039.

DIVISION 2 TABLE (End of October 2005) Pos Team Pld Won Drn Lst For Ag Won Drn Lst For Ag Pts -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1st Cambridge Utd 16 6 1 1 19 8 3 1 4 10 13 29 2nd Wrexham 15 5 1 1 13 7 3 3 2 18 16 28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3rd Port Vale 16 4 2 2 12 8 4 2 2 6 5 28 4th Norwich 16 6 0 2 15 8 3 1 4 13 17 28 5th Rochdale 16 5 3 0 19 10 3 0 5 10 15 27 6th Swindon 15 3 2 3 11 11 4 2 1 22 14 25 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7th Portsmouth 16 4 3 1 21 15 3 0 5 12 14 24 8th Shrewsbury 16 4 1 3 14 8 3 1 4 14 13 23 9th Carlisle 16 3 2 3 13 14 3 3 2 17 14 23 10th Huddersfield 16 4 3 1 20 15 2 2 4 10 15 23 11th Northampton 15 5 2 1 15 9 2 0 5 11 18 23 12th Dag & Red 16 4 3 1 20 12 0 6 2 13 16 21 13th Oxford 16 4 0 4 18 15 3 0 5 15 18 21 14th Tranmere 16 3 5 0 12 8 2 1 5 7 13 21 15th Reading 16 4 1 3 13 10 2 2 4 12 20 21 16th Cardiff 16 3 3 2 20 12 2 2 4 14 17 20 17th Bristol City 15 2 0 5 13 17 4 2 2 17 15 20 18th Peterborough 15 3 3 1 13 11 1 3 4 11 17 18 19th Bristol Rovers 15 2 5 1 19 19 2 1 4 14 19 18 20th Barnsley 16 4 1 3 17 16 1 1 6 6 15 17 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 21st Bournemouth 15 3 2 2 9 7 0 5 3 2 8 16 22nd Hull 16 2 1 5 12 20 1 5 2 14 17 15 23rd Watford 16 3 3 2 11 9 0 2 6 9 18 14 24th Wigan 15 4 0 4 13 11 0 2 5 3 15 14 ELSEWHERE IN FOOTBALL... Here we go again. Five consecutive victories send Manchester United seven points clear of Arsenal, already putting them on course for a fourth Premiership title in a row. United have won 10 of their first 11 games, while Gary Megson's West Brom are on an equally spectacular run, having lost 10 of their 11 matches. After leaving Manchester United in the summer, former Republic of Ireland midfielder Roy Keane embarks on a new chapter, succeeding Jimmy Sandison as player-manager of Division 2 side Barnsley. Keane immediately tries to win the Tykes players over by giving them ice cream and taking them to Flamingo Land. Dado Prso's excellent scoring form for Lille continues, as a brace against Paris-SG and a hat-trick against Le Mans help 'Les Dogues' build a nine-point lead in France's top division. The ponytailed Croatian is now odds on to take the Ligue 1 golden boot from Monaco's Shabani Nonda - not least because Nonda is serving a 90-day ban for assaulting the referee against Toulouse. Madrid are back on top of La Liga... but with an erratic Real Madrid floundering in mid-table, it's Atlético Madrid who hit the front! The strike duo of Uruguayan veteran Fernando Correa and 21-year-old Fernando Torres are in fine form as Atléti win seven straight matches, including a 1-0 victory over 2nd-placed Athletic Bilbao. 19-year-old Tottenham prospect Joe O'Shea scores on his international debut as the Republic of Ireland secure a World Cup place by beating Northern Ireland 2-0. Holland also progress after Ruud van Nistelrooy scores 22 goals in eight qualifiers, but Denmark - who finished 4th in 2002 - miss out on a play-off place on goal difference. IN OTHER NEWS... African American activist Rosa Parks passes away aged 92. In 1955, Parks was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama after refusing an order to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This started a bus boycott that eventually kick-started a nationwide civil rights movement. …and it’s goodnight from him. Ronnie Barker - one half of the “Two Ronnies” comedy duo with namesake Corbett, and the star of 1970s sitcom “Porridge” - dies of heart failure in Oxfordshire at the age of 76. A Sky News presenter breaks the news that the playwright Harold Pinter has died... but then corrects herself and states that Pinter has actually won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Fortunately, the 75-year-old creator of "The Birthday Party" and "The Homecoming" sees the funny side and revels in his resurrection. Nickelback’s new album “All The Right Reasons” gets a lot of attention for all the wrong reasons. For starters, why does Chad Kroeger have to sound so constipated when he tells us to LOOK AT THIS PHOTOGRAPH?!

OCTOBER 2005 The new Division 2 season had entered one of its busiest periods. There were seven rounds of matches scheduled, and it was anyone's guess where this mid-table Dagenham & Redbridge team would be positioned come Halloween. A good run of form would place us firmly in the play-off picture, but if our recent string of poor results continued, the relegation places would be on the horizon. First up was an away game against one of the teams who came up with us from Division 3 last season. Oxford had made an inconsistent start, winning five of their opening matches but losing the other four. That said, the U's had one of the league's joint-top scorers in Lee Trundle, who was itching to add to his eight-goal haul. Having hurt his calf in our most recent defeat at home to Norwich, defender Shaun Maher was unable to join the Daggers at the Kassam Stadium. Captain Damien Lacey and striker Junior McDougald were still recovering from their injuries. 1 OCTOBER 2005: Oxford United vs Dagenham & Redbridge As expected, Oxford set their stall out to attack in the early stages, with Lee Trundle putting his first shot just over the bar after just three minutes. Two minutes later, we launched our first counter-attack through Benjani Mwaruwari, who put himself in the shop window with an impressive solo goal that sent us 1-0 up! After a couple of narrow misses at both ends, an entertaining match took a major twist ten minutes from half-time. Our defence was unable to cope with a killer cross from New Zealand winger Leo Bertos, who set up the equalising goal for teenage midfielder James Newell. Bertos followed that up a couple of minutes later by giving Oxford the lead, burying the rebound after Glynn Thompson made a mess of Newell's shot. Our defence suffered a blow six minutes into the second half, when a shin injury ended right-back Lee Gledhill's match. Despite that, we soon pushed forward looking for an equaliser, only to be met by a string of fantastic saves from Alan Fettis. The Northern Irishman wasn't the first goalkeeper to play a blinder against us, and he wouldn't be the last. Oxford took control in the closing stages, and by the 81st minute, it was all over. Journeyman defender Wayne Brown doubled their lead from a cross by substitute Chris Blackburn, and Neil Cooper's side celebrated a massive victory in their pursuit of back-to-back promotion. Meanwhile, defeat saw us slip into the bottom half for the first time. Oxford United - 3 (Newell 35, Bertos 37, Brown 81) Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Mwaruwari 5) Division 2, Attendance 7,437 - POSITIONS: Oxford 5th, Dag & Red 14th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Thompson; Gledhill (Hawkins), Bayliss, Matthews, Sharps; Carter (Melton), McLean, Weekes; Winter; Alsop (Devine), Mwaruwari. BOOKED: Carter. Including our League Cup defeat to Bolton, we'd now lost three matches on the trot. If we were to get out of this rut, I would have to make major changes. I called centre-back Dave Bayliss, winger Mark Janney and strikers Sean Devine and Victor Renner into my office - and told them all that they were being relegated to the reserves and transfer-listed with immediate effect. Frankly, none of them were good enough for regular Division 2 football and were now surplus to requirements. I also warned three other players - Julian Alsop, Lee Gledhill and Stephen Melton - that they would be heading the same way if their performances did not improve. We couldn't afford to keep any stragglers around at this level. After that, I injected some fresh blood into the team. Firstly, we took the powerful 20-year-old Scottish right-winger William McQuade on a season-long loan from Derby. He was soon joined at Victoria Road by the more experienced Spencer Prior, who had made over 500 league appearances - and spent many years in the Premiership with Leicester, Derby, Manchester City and Gillingham. The strong 34-year-old centre-half signed from the Gills for £65,000 and would take on the captaincy with immediate effect. Prior led the Daggers out for the first time when we hosted league leaders Cambridge a week later. Teenage striker Robbie Walsh also made his first Dagenham start, while McQuade was on the bench, hoping to make an explosive impact if required. With Kerry Mayo serving a one-match ban, Ian Sharps deputised at left-back. 8 OCTOBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Cambridge United This match saw the return of our former keeper Ian Bennett to Victoria Road - a place where he hadn't exactly enjoyed the best of times two seasons ago. Cambridge's soon-to-be 34-year-old goalie had another nightmare after nine minutes, when Daggers midfielder Nick Weekes whipped in a corner - and captain Lee Matthews headed in his first goal since coming back home. Bennett did try to keep the floodgates from bursting wide open, but by the 26th minute, we had doubled our lead. Another Weekes corner was converted by another of our big summer signings - in-form midfielder Craig Winter. United were shellshocked, and it took them nearly the entire first half to launch a response. Though Scott Bannerman's 45th-minute shot was saved by Mike Pollitt, his team's next attack did fool our goalkeeper. Pollitt was beaten to a right-wing Ian Ridgeway cross by the head of Adam Bolder, who pegged us back to 2-1. Given how his set-pieces had given us the lead, it seemed fitting that Weekes should be the man to restore our two-goal cushion. In the 68th minute, Winter returned the favour to Weekes, who dribbled into the Cambridge box and then stroked a cool shot past Bennett. Though Bannerman did get another goal back for the visitors six minutes later, there was no need to panic... especially with Ian Bennett in the opposition goal. After 79 minutes, Bennett made his biggest mistake yet. Substitute John Anderson went clean through on the Cambridge goal when he was taken out by Bennett, who was finally put out of his misery with a straight red card. Substitute keeper Paul Robinson then conceded Benjani Mwaruwari's penalty, which sealed a 4-2 Dagenham win! Dagenham & Redbridge - 4 (Matthews 9, Winter 26, Weekes 68, Mwaruwari pen80) Cambridge United - 2 (Bolder 45, Bannerman 74) Division 2, Attendance 5,536 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 9th, Cambridge Utd 1st DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Pollitt; Hawkins, Prior, Matthews, Sharps (Gledhill); Carter (Anderson), McLean, Weekes; Winter; Walsh (McDougald), Mwaruwari. Were we returning to form, or was that just a fluke? Next up was a mid-table clash at Ninian Park against Cardiff, who hadn't yet kept a clean sheet this season. Our new loanee winger McQuade would set out to wreak further damage on the Bluebirds' defensive record when he made his Daggers debut. 11 OCTOBER 2005: Cardiff City vs Dagenham & Redbridge This match also saw Damien Lacey - an ex-Swansea midfielder, no less - return to the Dagenham line-up after a month out with a groin injury. But while Lacey was fit again, we would soon have a couple more injuries to contend with. Left-back Ian Sharps pulled up after just 19 minutes, and an even bigger blow came when striker Junior McDougald was stretchered off five minutes from half-time. In terms of attacking action, the first half saw the two teams have one shot apiece. Cardiff made the most of their opportunity in the 28th minute, when Peter Thorne's flick-on was punched away by Daggers keeper Glynn Thompson, only for Thorne's strike partner Keigan Parker to blast in the rebound. By contrast, our only chance of the opening period was volleyed horribly wide by Benjani Mwaruwari. Thankfully, Benjani's next effort in the 49th minute was much better, rocketing past Tony Williams in the Bluebirds goal. Sadly, Williams didn't put a foot wrong in the closing stages, as his assured shotstopping meant we only took one point back home from Wales. Cardiff City - 1 (Parker 28) Dagenham & Redbridge - 1 (Mwaruwari 49) Division 2, Attendance 7,411 - POSITIONS: Cardiff 14th, Dag & Red 11th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-4-2): Thompson; Hawkins (Winter), Prior, Matthews, Sharps (Gledhill); McQuade, Weekes, Lacey, Mayo; Mwaruwari, McDougald (Alsop). Sharps would only be out for around 10 days with a twisted knee, but the news about McDougald's injury wasn't so positive. He had torn a groin muscle and was ruled out for the best part of three months. We had plenty of firepower in this team, so replacing Junior wasn't exactly a priority, but it was still a major blow. As we came to terms with this latest setback, we watched the FA Cup Round 1 draw. The drawmasters had been quite kind to us this time, giving us a home game against Chester, who were recently promoted back to the Conference after three years in the regional leagues. Our next league match saw us go on the road again, meeting 16th-placed Portsmouth at Fratton Park. Pompey were relegated from Division 1 last season, and their journeyman coach Roy Hodgson was already facing a battle to stop them dropping down another tier. 18 OCTOBER 2005: Portsmouth vs Dagenham & Redbridge Portsmouth were unlucky not to take the lead after just six minutes, when Juan Carlos Socorro drove a low shot against the crossbar. Unfortunately, the Venezuela left-winger did s(o)core in the 23rd minute, comfortably beating Glynn Thompson after a great set-up from David Nielsen on the right wing. Benjani Mwaruwari pulled us back level in the 25th minute, helped in part by an assist from his young strike partner Robbie Walsh. Pompey's director of football Harry Redknapp clearly looked impressed with Benjani, who had another opportunity to catch the eye in the 38th minute. Walsh's pace and skill won a foul off left-back Alessandro Zamperini in the area, prompting the referee to award us a penalty. Unfortunately, Benjani's spot-kick prowess let him down this time, as Shaka Hislop made a strong save from the Zimbabwean. Portsmouth had been let off the hook, and they stole the lead again nine minutes into the second half. Gary O'Neil's cross found his midfield colleague Darryl Powell, whose header slipped past Thompson for 2-1. Glynn had now conceded two goals from two home shots on target, and I couldn't stand the thought of his shaky goalkeeping costing us another game. Mike Pollitt took his place between the posts for the last half-hour. By contrast, Portsmouth's shotstopper wasn't so Shaka... er, I mean shaky. Hislop withstood a deluge of Daggers attacks, and I was starting to believe that we were going to come away beaten when an old hero came to the rescue. Just as the referee was about to blow full-time, Kerry Mayo put one last ball into the Pompey box, where supersub Julian Alsop drove in his first goal of the season to snatch a 2-2 draw! Portsmouth - 2 (Socorro 23, D Powell 54) Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Mwaruwari 25, Alsop 90) Division 2, Attendance 5,887 - POSITIONS: Portsmouth 17th, Dag & Red 10th DAG & RED LINE-UP (3-5-2): Thompson (Pollitt); Anderson, Prior, Matthews; McQuade, Mayo; Weekes, Lacey, Hamilton (Winter); Mwaruwari, Walsh (Alsop). BOOKED: Matthews. Welcome to the party, Jules! I'm glad you could join us at last! Alsop's reward for his late equaliser was a return to the starting line-up when we welcomed Wrexham to Victoria Road. The Dragons were perennial play-off contenders - their previous three seasons had seen them finish 6th, 5th and 7th, and they were now faring even better in 4th place. 22 OCTOBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Wrexham Julian Alsop picked up straight where he left off. The big target man's first shot after nine minutes hit the post, and his next effort a couple of minutes later did the same... but his luck was in this time, as the ball deflected into the net. That was a moment of redemption for our three-time Player of the Year, and also for midfielder Des Hamilton, whose killer ball opened up the opportunity. Unfortunately, Wrexham would finish the first period as strongly as we'd started it. Left-winger Kevin Cooper unlucky hit the post in the 39th minute, but midfielder Richard Dunning's 41st-minute strike did manage to beat ex-Dragons keeper Mike Pollitt in the Daggers goal. 1-1, and still all to play for. After wasting several opportunities to restore our lead early in the second half, a frustrating afternoon turned into a potential horror show. Wrexham's right-winger Scott Huckerby was taken out by a clumsy tackle from Damien Lacey, who had otherwise been consistently solid in our midfield. Delapo Olaoye took the penalty, which comfortably beat Pollitt, and our Welsh visitors had the lead. In a moment of annoyance, I decided to sub Alsop off immediately and bring on Robbie Walsh in his place. Just six minutes later, that was looking like a surprisingly smart move. The 18-year-old got himself into space to receive a cross from Benjani Mwaruwari, and a powerful header restored parity! Our game ended on a sour note in the 78th minute, when substitute winger William McQuade suffered a twisted knee that would sideline him for the next three weeks. Despite having to play the final dozen minutes with only 10 men, we somehow held on for a point. Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (Alsop 11, Walsh 70) Wrexham - 2 (Dunning 41, Olaoye pen64) Division 2, Attendance 5,986 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 12th, Wrexham 4th DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Pollitt; Hawkins (Gledhill), Prior, Matthews, Mayo; Carter, Lacey, Hamilton; Winter (McQuade); Mwaruwari, Alsop (Walsh). In our last three matches, we'd faced six shots on target and conceded from five of them. For all our excellent attacking play, the state of our defence was utterly shocking, even with the addition of Spencer Prior. For our next away game at 2nd-placed Rochdale, I decided to switch to a very defensive 5-3-2. A fit-again Shaun Maher returned at centre-half to try and help us snap a run of 10 games without a clean sheet. 25 OCTOBER 2005: Rochdale vs Dagenham & Redbridge Glynn Thompson went back in goal for our trip to Spotland - but by the 23rd minute, I was wishing I'd sent him to Scotland instead. A low cross from Christian Fox was met by a good but not outstanding shot from Rochdale striker Gavin Holligan, which Thompson probably could've got a glove to. With Glenn Roeder's Dale attacking us hard and not giving us much time on the ball, it was a real struggle to get back into the game. Our plight was only worsened when left-back Kerry Mayo gashed his shin just before half-time. Mayo was replaced with Lee Gledhill, and I decided to make a more significant change during the interval. The 5-3-2 gave way to the more usual 4-3-1-2, with defender Shaun Maher coming off for attacking midfielder Craig Winter. In truth, the tactical overhaul didn't really help when it came to settling us down. Things went from bad to worse in the 56th minute, when Rochdale asserted their dominance with a second Holligan goal, set up by a square-ball assist from midfielder Claus Bech Jørgensen. Just before Rochdale went 2-0 up, I made my final change by replacing midfielder Des Hamilton with rising star Alan McLean. Alan was just a week shy of his 20th birthday, and with 15 minutes remaining, Nick Weekes gave him an early present. Weekes played a perfect weighted pass to McLean, who dribbled to the edge of the Dale area and then rocketed in his first senior goal! Then, barely a minute after one Scotsman had quietened the Spotland crowd, another stunned it into silence! Winter came into the penalty area after Benjani Mwaruwari's header was parried by Ian Gray, and a poacher's finish completed a turnaround. From 2-0 behind, we had salvaged another 2-2 draw - our THIRD in the space of eight days! Rochdale - 2 (Holligan 23,56) Dagenham & Redbridge - 2 (McLean 75, Winter 76) Division 2, Attendance 5,461 - POSITIONS: Rochdale 2nd, Dag & Red 15th DAG & RED LINE-UP (5-3-2 Defensive): Thompson; Maher (Winter), Prior, Matthews; Hawkins, Lacey, Mayo (Gledhill); Weekes, Hamilton (McLean); Alsop, Mwaruwari. A great comeback, but now the injuries were getting ridiculous. Mayo's shin injury thankfully coincided with Sharps' return to full fitness, which meant he was free to start our home game against a Carlisle side who were just outside the play-off spots. After four consecutive draws, could we end a frustrating month with a decisive result? 29 OCTOBER 2005: Dagenham & Redbridge vs Carlisle United After sitting out the last game, our young striker Robbie Walsh got another chance to show why his talents were coveted by top-flight clubs. The Irishman only needed five minutes to make an impact, unleashing a killer strike from Nick Weekes' through-ball. Nine minutes later, though, another Irish striker found the net to pull Carlisle back level. Richie Foran's low shot was met with so little resistance by Glynn Thompson that I immediately told my loanee goalkeeper what I thought of his recent form. The fourth official put the subs board up, with Mike Pollitt coming on to replace a bewildered Thompson. In the 19th minute, we set our sights on going back ahead. Julian Alsop's beeline towards goal was interrupted by a tackle from Cumbrians defender Leo Roget, but Craig Winter got to the loose ball and played Weekes through for 2-1 Dagenham. All was well at Victoria Road again... ...until the 39th minute. Pollitt turned away a powerful strike by Carlisle left-winger John Hore, only to watch left-back Adam Drury score the follow-up shot from Jimmy Davis' chipped delivery. Weekes did combine with Walsh again just before half-time to restore our advantage, but even at 3-2 up, there was a very real fear that we would soon lose the lead once again. Our fears came to pass 10 minutes after the restart. Carlisle once again exploited our lack of width, when Hore's cross from the left wing was met with a clinical finish by former Manchester United striker Davis. Now it was 3-3! We fought tooth and nail over the final 35 minutes to try and take the lead for a fourth (and hopefully final) time. Despite the best efforts from Weekes and Walsh, who probably could've shared the 'Man of the Match' award between them, we couldn't quite turn one point into three. Even after Roget was sent off for a frustrated kick at Damien Lacey in the 88th minute, Carlisle's defence managed to hold out. Dagenham & Redbridge - 3 (Walsh 5, Weekes 19,45) Carlisle United - 3 (Foran 14, Drury 39, Davis 55) Division 2, Attendance 6,000 - POSITIONS: Dag & Red 12th, Carlisle DAG & RED LINE-UP (4-3-1-2): Thompson (Pollitt); Hawkins, Prior, Matthews, Sharps; Weekes, McLean (Lacey), Carter; Winter; Alsop (Mwaruwari), Walsh. A joy to watch going forward, but a complete shambles at the back. That sums up Dagenham & Redbridge to a tee. I had finally lost my patience with goalkeeper Glynn Thompson, who had apparently forgotten what he was supposed to use his hands for. I cancelled his loan spell from Fulham a month early and sent him back to Craven Cottage with his tail between his legs. We also said goodbye to 33-year-old John Anderson, who signed for Cambridge on a free transfer. The Scottish centre-back had served us with great distinction over the past three years, and having played a pivotal role in two promotions, he will go down as a Daggers legend. Sadly, an average rating of 6.00 across a dozen Division 2 matches just isn't going to cut it. I won’t lie, those are two brutal decisions I’ve taken, but I hope they will give the rest of the defence a much-needed shake-up.

I don't mind more press conference questions; I just want them to be more contextual and sensible. In other words, I don't want the same old questions about my on-loan youth players before every single league game - and I certainly don't want to have some BT Sport reporter ask me 15 minutes before the Champions League Final about Luton putting a reserve midfielder up for sale.

Not always. I've played a few games where my PC didn't meet the minimum requirements and they still ran... fine, if only on the lowest graphics settings. I suppose you could run a new(ish) FM on an older laptop that doesn't meet the requirements. You'd just need to play it on 2D with very few leagues loaded, and even then, processing might be an issue. I haven't dared to test this out on my laptop, though, so don't quote me on it.

No. I've never really encountered any game-breaking issues on the beta, but I won't start a long-term save until around January/February, just to be safe. For the FM23 beta, I'll be managing Betis. No real targets, just get a feel of the new game and see how far I can take them in 3/4 seasons.