Wishlist: What you would like to see in future versions of the game. All 'list' ideas in here.

[ray27]

How about a history screen similar to the club history screen for the manager so you can see in one easy screen what you have won / finished runners up in etc after playing 20+ seasons you kinda forget what you have achieved and is a bit tiresome going through the long winded achievements

Also showing sub appearences in brackets in the player history so you can see straight off games started / came on as sub

[Cometdude]

I would like to see the option to appoint a head scout somone who you could dictate to the type of players you wanted and he would assign the appropiate scouts and also with the scouts the ability to transfer their knowledge across to new club. I dont mean their regional knowledge but their info on players etc.

I would like to be able to appoint a team doctor or head physio. I recentley went through a spell where seven of my first teamers were injured, now I have know idea why as its the first massive spell of injuries I have had on this career and I just think that a team doctor could give you some advice as to why these players keep getting injured. I dont mean go player by player but actually go to the doctor and ask for an update on the injury situation etc.

[Adrianics]

I want something I've seen suggested a lot of times - A hands-on assistant manager.

I am absolutely, positively sick of losing game after game with absolutely no explanation at all. The game stops being fun extremely bloody quickly once my players start being dominated for no obvious reason. What would be lovely would be an assistant manager that gave advice, eg "looks like we're being caught by their offside trap", "I don't think we're playing widely enough", etc. It can be optional for the sake of the masochists out there, I'm not bothered, I just want to have some fun with the game I bought.

More media options would be nice, too

[lmorsch]

I was thinking a nice addition could be coaches that have a small % chance per year to help players gain preferred moves. Perhaps each coach could have a number of preferred moves that they can teach (based on their experience, value).

Most low-level coaches would have 0 and a few would have 1 and have a small chance of passing it on. As they rise toward World Class, they may have more moves they can train and a higher % of passing it on.

[_Dre_]

I would love to see dynamic changing weather. For example, you could start a match with cloudy weather while playing a short passing posession style game and as it starts to rain late in the first half you have to switch to a more direct aerial or long passing style because the short passing isn't working on the drenched field of play. Also defending against the likes of C. Ronaldo, Mancini (Roma), Robinho could be a nightmare (more so than the norm) for defenders on a rainy day.

Also the option to unleash your wrath on the 4th official or even better the ref himself for a boneheaded call they made on the field even if it means getting booted from the sidelines (Asst Mang. takes over) or fines/suspensions from the FA for going ballistic on the refs.

[Dstewart19990]

I dunno if anyone has suggested this yet or not but I think there should be a personal side to the game where you can do normal day stuff that you do when your not workin' like buy stuff and date like what most managers probably do in real life.

[Laurence2]

You can say unsatisfactory.

i.e. The board find the standard of your performance unsatisfactory.

You can say the board are dissatisfied with your performance,

But you can't say , The board are unsatisfied etc.

Every year when I get this game, I see unsatisfied, I think surely, next year they will change it. But it goes on and on.

i e dissatisfied

Another thing is saying a player has a damaged head. Why cant you say, He sustained an injury to his head.

Also I get fed up with training injurioes, when they occur on Christmas day, or the Sunday after a match. Can we have a bit of reality here.

Assistant managers that tell you the same thing , week in week out. Tellinh one about an unhappy player. Do they have to repeat themselves.

Can you not make finance available, immediately a team is promoted. Not wait till July first.

These are things that have gone on for years.

Also this game is supposed to be about Managers.

But it gives little credit for past performance.

e G I took Dresden out of the German minor league to the Champions league in 4 seasons. I was sacked the following season, for dropping down the league. In real life they would have built a statue to me in Dresden town centre.

Also When I was manager of Milan, the ground capacity was increased, but when I played Inter away it mysteriously shrank again.

Also can you explain when you are the manager of a team in the lower leagues, and you get promoted to the top flight. It counts for nothing, you are lucky to get a job at Torquay.

Having played in the Champions League.

Can we get these things sorted in the next version

Gripe over

[Laurence2]

Again I noticed somebody has won 5 champions league titles 5 years on the trot. Now he may be the greatest player imaginable. I too have won things on the bounce. But its only done by reloading, a saved game , when you get a bad result. Can you not put something into the program to stop over use of the reload. Maybe no reloads of cup finals , or vital play off games. We need something to stop reloading.

[Ame]

Originally posted by Laurence2:

We need something to stop reloading.

Why?

If I want to reload over and over again, let me do it, it does not affect your life in any way.

And if you feel this is cheating, then just don't do it.

[Belz]

#I think there should be more in game interaction, like for be able to tell the players what they should do while they are playing.

#There should be an option for us to choose who should sponsor the team you manage and how many years.

#You should make the media pressurize players that are playing bad and also the manager should be able to try and make the player relax.

#Also when you take over a team like for example Arsenal, Arsene Wenger shouldn't just go to any other team like for most of the time it goes to a rival team after a season like liverpool, chelsea. You should make it that the manager that leaves should go to a team that he would like to go to and for Arsene Wenger most likely a French team or the French international team, It should be more realistic.

#Make the fans have more say.

#Make the media make transfer rumours and the manager should be able to say if he is going to buy the player or whatever.

[follow the blind]

laurence, people dont just reload due to a bad result, what if a bug happened taht coaused you to lose a game that you shoudlnt have lost, i know i would reload.

[Laurence2]

I know why players reload, I know you have to save for genuine reasons, all Iam saying is, that in the save there should be penalties built in for over doing it. Especially at vital times. Winning 5 champions leagues in succession, must have reloads, in my view.

[Laurence2]

Another thing is, Every week the manager should hold a coaches briefing, He should tell his coaches the tactics for the next match, so they can work towards that game. No good saying 5 at the back minutes before the K o , when nobodies covered 5 at the back in training.

Also the team squad should be picked the night before the game. Especially for away games. If you get withdrawals after that, you cant get a replacement in time from miles away.

Players can get injured in the warm up, remember Everton a few years ago, losing two goalkeepers, on the morning of the match, one in the warm up. Ass Managers are taliking all the time during the match, his dialogue should be shown like ticker tape down the side of the screen. Substitutes, It shouldn't take all day to get your subs on. I have had to wait 5 minutes to replace a player, during which time, the ops have made two subs, and scored a goal, not on program makers, If the ops can sub so should I sort it out.

[Ame]

Originally posted by Laurence2:

I know why players reload, I know you have to save for genuine reasons, all Iam saying is, that in the save there should be penalties built in for over doing it. Especially at vital times. Winning 5 champions leagues in succession, must have reloads, in my view.

And?

It's still not your buisiness how people play their game. If I want to reload until I win championsleague, let me do it, it's not your business.

[solstar]

It's probably been said already but I would like to see two things that would take the game that extra step.

1. More control of youth development, Under 21s, Under 18s and the ability to manage at that level if that is your desire.

2. Adding summer tournaments which can actually be preset and not forgotten once they're played.

Apart from that sponsorship would be nice, even if made up.

[dr-nix]

Here are a few ideas i have

The Board

This aspect of the game sucks, and you guys at SI probably know it. It needs fixing.

- If the club has a Director of Football he should actually do something (just one of many possible examples).

- Okay perhaps it's an english thing but you do know that a Chairman isn't a dictator right ?! Atleast in Swedish clubs we can elect new chairmen without a takeover (this is usually done at the yearly meeting, although the usual thing is that the current chairman gets re-elected)

- Chairmen accepts to many crappy bids for players i have no plans on "giving" away. This happens when a clubs reputation isn't high enough and even though you are set economicly the Chairman feels a need to sell players for coffee-money.

- On this note, Chairmen (or the board in general) need to have Ambition!, if the chairman of my club has the ambition of making it to CL (again just one possible example) and establishing the club at that level he wouldn't give away players for nothing.

Please remember that a modern football club is like a company (at pro-level offcourse).

Coaching staff

Stop relying on reputation so damn much, how many coaches you are able to sign is just one example. It's not decided how famous my club is but by how much money is available in the budget (this is decided by the board, has to do with money, ambition and so on).

Transfer system

- The transfer fees in FM08 are waaayyy to high, I shouldn't have to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a players that would probably go for less in real life.

- One no should be enough, okay i develop a young players in my club and he starts playing well. The player attracts the attention of other clubs, they end up making a bid that i get offended by and refuse. I get a new call and i say okay i want x-amount of euro for this player (i say this amount to all clubs who ask). They back down (not wanting to actually pay for the guy). Next transferwindow (or whatever) all clubs collectly develop amnesia and starts with the lowballing once again.

My point?, make the others clubs remember what i want for my player, don't ask me what i want for him as a work around just look at the sum i gave you last time i gave you one.

Editor

- Now all of us know about custom db's and alot of people use them (basicly the si-db with updated transfers and stuff). These db's become quite large and more than one person work on these unofficial db's. Please support this as it makes your game(s) more playable and more enjoyable for a longer period of time.

Now to what i want, please implement a diff-system. Lets say this existed for FM08, i start of with the FM08 8.0.2 db and make a number of changes. Instead of saving only being able to save the entire db i should be able to save the changes into a diff-file (you don't have to call it that but thats what it would be basicly). This diff-file would be alot smaller and i could pass it on to another person who is working on the same db, that person would load this diff with the editor and basicly it would make all the appropriate changes into his 8.0.2 db. This would be an awesome feature.

- This wish isn't really that important but it would be fun if you had the ability to create a custom league with the editor.

League development

- You guys are way to stuck on keeping the status quo. In real life leagues reputation does grow. This is a thing that would make the game alot more fun in the long run.

- This could not be done without also changing prize-money and so on when the league reaches certain points of reputation. This is realistic and you know it (if a league has grown more money is likely to be invovled, it's simple logic)

These are the ideas i can think of atm.

[julian_casablancas]

Greater assisstant manager roles

in tactics and transfers etc

[pelicanstuff]

Originally posted by Laurence2:

You can say unsatisfactory.

i.e. The board find the standard of your performance unsatisfactory.

You can say the board are dissatisfied with your performance,

But you can't say , The board are unsatisfied etc.

Every year when I get this game, I see unsatisfied, I think surely, next year they will change it. But it goes on and on.

i e dissatisfied

This annoys me as well

Another thing is saying a player has a damaged head. Why cant you say, He sustained an injury to his head.

Never noticed this.

[Andrew Stratton]

Just an idea.

When you're a applying for jobs and you don't get them, maybe the club that have rejected you could give you some feedback.(e.g 'The board felt that you didn't have the relative experience to manage in x league, or they could not afford the compensation to buy you out of your long contract etc...)

Justa thought.

[Pangaea]

I'd like to see the death penalty introduced to the game. Maybe that will get rid of the fantastically infuriating backpasses to opposition strikers.

I'd also like to be able to turn off media interaction. FM is feeling more and more like a job than a game.

Oh, and a small addition. When you have asked the board for something, please let their reply be visible somewhere. It's very easy to forget what they said 6 months later in the game. And when you ask again you get thrown out of their office.

If you have asked to improve training facilities and they say we don't have the money, let that be stated somewhere. Or at least grey out the option in board room.

[Pangaea]

Originally posted by ray27:

How about a history screen similar to the club history screen for the manager so you can see in one easy screen what you have won / finished runners up in etc after playing 20+ seasons you kinda forget what you have achieved and is a bit tiresome going through the long winded achievements

This has been wanted for a long time. It's easy to implement. I really think this should be in for FM09. The data is already there. All that needs to be done is to make a new screen in manager history.

[tingting]

A suggestion from a thread that i had posted earlier.

Manager contracts are very basic at the moment in my opinion. While there were a couple of options in FM 07 (like expanding the stadium or training facilities), the only options available for negotiations in FM 08 are increasing the wages (which is useless) or the time of the contract.

What i would like to suggest is more flexibility while negotiating in terms of the investment and long term ambitions of the club.

If possible, there should be six options available in the contract screen:

1) The type of contract (regular or rolling)

2) Contract commencement (immediate or end of the season)

3) Wages

4) Contract period

5) Investment (low, medium, large, huge)

6) Long term ambitions (options from fighting bravely against relegation to winning the league)

Now the 4 and 6th option should be inter-connected. So if i ask a five year contract then the board should be more ambitious. For example, if i was offered a two year contract by a Wigan Athletic or a Derby County, then the long term ambition should be to stay in the EPL. But if i ask for a five year contract, the the long term ambition should be to finish in a safe midtable position (above 13th-14th) place.

The contract period should also be linked to the type of investment. If the investment option chosen is low, then the transfer budget should be limited to under 5 million every year. Likewise medium means 10 million, large 20 and huge above 20. If the board has agreed to medium/large/huge investment, then it should make sure that it will offer the promised funds even if it has to take a loan (with the obvious exception being if the club's financial condition is very insecure).

The board should be willing negotiate the investment depending on the reputation of the manager in question. So the huge investment option should only be acceptable if the manager's reputation is at least continental and his personality is ambitious (or if the club's financial status is excellent).

Now there should be cases where in the last three options are not always negotiable. For example if you are offered a contract from a top level club (the man utds, real madrids or the milans of the league in question) then, depending on their performances in the league in the last three years, the long term ambition should be set to winning the title. More ambitious boards should also demand the ECC title by the end of the period but it should not be set in stone with the league performance being more important. The investment option too will be negotiable depending on the financial status of the club. So the board should have an option of going back on their word if the financial condition worsens a couple of years down the line.

The advantages of such a feature will be many. The manager will have some say in the long term ambitions of the club (needed especially for midtable clubs), assurance of funds being available during the period of the contract (i have often accepted bids from clubs offering a good transfer budget when i was offered a contract only to see that the club is already in the red or just a couple of million above).

The feature will also offer a realistic time frame for the managers to achieve the long term ambitions. For example, though Aston Villa/Newcastle United offer large amount of transfer budget in the first season, its not possible to achieve their long term ambition of challenging for the league title (especially in the former's case) if the manager in question is not tactically that brilliant

[tingting]

A suggestion from a thread that i had posted before

Manager contracts are very basic at the moment in my opinion. While there were a couple of options in FM 07 (like expanding the stadium or training facilities), the only options available for negotiations in FM 08 are increasing the wages (which is useless) or the time of the contract.

What i would like to suggest is more flexibility while negotiating in terms of the investment and long term ambitions of the club.

If possible, there should be six options available in the contract screen:

1) The type of contract (regular or rolling)

2) Contract commencement (immediate or end of the season)

3) Wages

4) Contract period

5) Investment (low, medium, large, huge)

6) Long term ambitions (options from fighting bravely against relegation to winning the league)

Now the 4 and 6th option should be inter-connected. So if i ask a five year contract then the board should be more ambitious. For example, if i was offered a two year contract by a Wigan Athletic or a Derby County, then the long term ambition should be to stay in the EPL. But if i ask for a five year contract, the the long term ambition should be to finish in a safe midtable position (above 13th-14th) place.

The contract period should also be linked to the type of investment. If the investment option chosen is low, then the transfer budget should be limited to under 5 million every year. Likewise medium means 10 million, large 20 and huge above 20. If the board has agreed to medium/large/huge investment, then it should make sure that it will offer the promised funds even if it has to take a loan (with the obvious exception being if the club's financial condition is very insecure).

The board should be willing negotiate the investment depending on the reputation of the manager in question. So the huge investment option should only be acceptable if the manager's reputation is at least continental and his personality is ambitious (or if the club's financial status is excellent).

Now there should be cases where in the last three options are not always negotiable. For example if you are offered a contract from a top level club (the man utds, real madrids or the milans of the league in question) then, depending on their performances in the league in the last three years, the long term ambition should be set to winning

[zeuS0r]

- widescreen mode

- mp3 playlist (it sucks to turn off winamp when a match starts..)

- solid/balanced match engine

[Äktsjon Männ]

Right. Let's start with stuff that I would not like to see in future versions of the game. At least in a state that they are in in FM07 and 08.

Chairmen selling players. They can't seem to get it right, 80% of scenarios that involve this are daft and it adds absolutely nothing to game experience. I'm playing FM08 with Notts County and my chairman just accepted a bid of £1m for my striker... from Nottingham Forest. What they of course also failed to acknowledge was a 30% sell on fee which meant that they actually got 100k less than his value for this player. So the club earned about £700k which I now have to spend on a direct replacement. Make this feature work or get rid.

Tedious media items. Player X set to meet former club. Notts Co set to sign some hopelessly useless player whom I have scouted 2 years ago to unmask his attributes. Manager X says Player Y needs to be stopped - Media reckons player Y needs not to be stopped... Aargh. I don't want to read this carp. I really don't.

Team talks. Again, make it into a proper feature or get rid. If I have to talk to my players to get results at least add some more options. And make more suitable options available for certain situations. When I'm 3-0 down at HT, what use is it if I tell my players that I expect nothing less than a win? Why can't I just be angry instead?

Sliders for tactical adjustments. But that's a part of a much larger issue that I'm going to write about further down the post.

Then the things that need to be improved or revamped.

Board Confidence. While useful, it's annoyingly broken. Lose the new signings bit or make the fans understand the difference between established players and future stars. Make the board expectations - reactions consistent. Improve the match confidence bit so that the fans' view is not that simplistic and they could actually consider the strength of opponents when making judgements on results.

Match engine. Still too many daft things happening. Why do my central defenders think it's a good idea to start playing one touch pass and go triangles... with my GK... in the midfield? Why does my defensive minded midfielder constantly stop when in possession before doing two 360 degree turns and losing it due to inevitable pressure thus gifting a high quality chance for the opposition? Why can't the players have a bit of a mind of they're own - when my midfielder has through balls often he should still realise after putting 5 straight passes to my right winger out of play that this might not work and perhaps trying passes through the middle would be more successful? Why can't strikers spot obvious runs? I could go on but since I think all this has been covered already I'm not going to.

Tactics, tactics, tactics. The system is confusing, complex, unrealistic and most of all, unintuitive. I've found myself watching more and more matches on full length, which is good since doing that I'm usually been able to spot obvious weaknesses with my tactics. But when I go to the tactics screen I often have no clue how to solve my problems. My players are all holding on to the ball, can't spot a pass, can't get strikers involved. Right. What shall I do to solve it then - 5 clicks less width, 2 clicks less time wasting, 3 clicks more tempo and set the strikers two clicks less attacking. Oh so intuitive all this, isn't it. It's quite obvious why newcomers struggle with this game. Plus there's no explanation on what half of the settings do. How does width work, is it the willingness of players to pass through wide areas or is it just the way players stand on the pitch? I know it's the latter because I've watched hundreds or thousands of matches but is it obvious to new players? Similarly, what does mentality actually mean? What does time wasting do? Why isn't it comprehensively covered in the manual? I can go in the Tactics and Training part of the forums and read hundreds of theories on most of the settings and I'll still be none the wiser in the end. If you're going to have a system that complicated at least make the functions of the sliders clear for everyone - through the manual, ingame assistant manager, however possible.

Morale. Professional football players are not twelve year old schoolgirls. When I bollock them after an awful performance, even if it was away from home, they shouldn't be throwing their toys out of the pram. Even when unhappy, a class striker should be able to finish a high quality chance, bad mood shouldn't increase the occurence of daft back passes or own goals. Morale should not be that fragile nor should it have such a huge effect on professionals.

Finally the things that I'd like to see in FM.

More player interaction! When one of my players is acting the **** I want to be able to have a 'nice quiet chat' with him. When they're unhappy about something I want to have tools at hand to help me solve the situation. A 'wrong' media comment can get a player seriously upset but as it is there is nothing you can do after the damage has been done. Real life managers like Sir Alex Ferguson are respected and adored by the players that have worked with him - that's not achieved by him saying 'player X is the first name on the team sheet' to the media or signing their favorite staff. I want to be able to communicate with my players, just like real life managers do.

Asking for specific feeder clubs. When I need a feeder for work permits there's no use offering me a connection with an Angolan second division team. If there are no suitable clubs available then just state that, I don't want to create numerous useless connections over several years to finally be able to get the one I need.

Responsive User Interface. I know my computer is a bit outdated. I can accept that as such it shall take longer to process fixtures, save or load games or compute the results of my matches. However I can't accept that it takes four clicks on a button to make it respond, that it's a nightmare to drag and drop players on the tactics screen and that such sluggishness often results in undesired substitutes. 'I still don't believe that the manager really wanted to play outfield player X in goal' says the post match comment. Of course I didn't, you fecking plum. But since I had to make seven clicks for the dragging to work I accidentally selected a wrong player for the position. Which begs the question - why can't the game warn me when it's obvious that I've made a mistake? Just a simple dialog box asking 'are you daft or something' would do.

I think that's just about enough for today.

[t_hall]

When selecting how to supply target man, you have four options, to head, to feet, run onto the ball or mixed. I'd like to have the option to select two options. For example, if I have targetman who is strong and good in the air, but quite slow, then I'd like to be able to supply balls to his head or feet, rather than mixed.

It's only a small change, but it would please me very much.

[Zico]

Originally posted by Adrianics:

I want something I've seen suggested a lot of times - A hands-on assistant manager.

I am absolutely, positively sick of losing game after game with absolutely no explanation at all. The game stops being fun extremely bloody quickly once my players start being dominated for no obvious reason. What would be lovely would be an assistant manager that gave advice, eg "looks like we're being caught by their offside trap", "I don't think we're playing widely enough", etc. It can be optional for the sake of the masochists out there, I'm not bothered, I just want to have some fun with the game I bought.

Good idea.

[Galactus]

alot of good suggestions in here

i thin we should submit a list of the most feasable and let si see them

personally i would like to see improvements in the transfer system

way too many silly transfers

the game is almost creating a perfect transfer market reminiscent of past LMA manager games (forgive me i was young and poor)

[DMATIL]

For the career FM players: make it possible to load more playable leagues without slowing down the game. Now everyone, especially with an older model computer is already restricted to a few countries from the start.

Also support the jobinterview. Maybe the salary negociations can be added their too. In FM08 it's nice to see your career earnings, but basically there is no use in negociating as there is nothing to gain or lose.

More player interaction: eg instructing you subs, off game interaction (praise his training mentality etc)

Add more countries. Very popular for nowadays is playing in Qatar and Cyprus

[Guest meakers]

This has most likely been suggested but i think tapping up and also being punsihed by the league for it should be introduced.

How about money making pre season trips abroad?

And settin training sessions for international games

[Jordi_FCDB]

Maybe include the Webster-clause is a good idea?

[MKL92]

The Player Interaction needs to be looked at - if it hasn't been already.

How about more player interaction concerning transfers - such as "You think that X will fit in perfectly", or "You think that X would miss a fantastic opportunity if he doesn't join."

[Iwan Owen]

Originally posted by Äktsjon Männ:

Right. Let's start with stuff that I would not like to see in future versions of the game. At least in a state that they are in in FM07 and 08.

Chairmen selling players. They can't seem to get it right, 80% of scenarios that involve this are daft and it adds absolutely nothing to game experience. I'm playing FM08 with Notts County and my chairman just accepted a bid of £1m for my striker... from Nottingham Forest. What they of course also failed to acknowledge was a 30% sell on fee which meant that they actually got 100k less than his value for this player. So the club earned about £700k which I now have to spend on a direct replacement. Make this feature work or get rid.

Tedious media items. Player X set to meet former club. Notts Co set to sign some hopelessly useless player whom I have scouted 2 years ago to unmask his attributes. Manager X says Player Y needs to be stopped - Media reckons player Y needs not to be stopped... Aargh. I don't want to read this carp. I really don't.

Team talks. Again, make it into a proper feature or get rid. If I have to talk to my players to get results at least add some more options. And make more suitable options available for certain situations. When I'm 3-0 down at HT, what use is it if I tell my players that I expect nothing less than a win? Why can't I just be angry instead?

Sliders for tactical adjustments. But that's a part of a much larger issue that I'm going to write about further down the post.

Then the things that need to be improved or revamped.

Board Confidence. While useful, it's annoyingly broken. Lose the new signings bit or make the fans understand the difference between established players and future stars. Make the board expectations - reactions consistent. Improve the match confidence bit so that the fans' view is not that simplistic and they could actually consider the strength of opponents when making judgements on results.

Match engine. Still too many daft things happening. Why do my central defenders think it's a good idea to start playing one touch pass and go triangles... with my GK... in the midfield? Why does my defensive minded midfielder constantly stop when in possession before doing two 360 degree turns and losing it due to inevitable pressure thus gifting a high quality chance for the opposition? Why can't the players have a bit of a mind of they're own - when my midfielder has through balls often he should still realise after putting 5 straight passes to my right winger out of play that this might not work and perhaps trying passes through the middle would be more successful? Why can't strikers spot obvious runs? I could go on but since I think all this has been covered already I'm not going to.

Tactics, tactics, tactics. The system is confusing, complex, unrealistic and most of all, unintuitive. I've found myself watching more and more matches on full length, which is good since doing that I'm usually been able to spot obvious weaknesses with my tactics. But when I go to the tactics screen I often have no clue how to solve my problems. My players are all holding on to the ball, can't spot a pass, can't get strikers involved. Right. What shall I do to solve it then - 5 clicks less width, 2 clicks less time wasting, 3 clicks more tempo and set the strikers two clicks less attacking. Oh so intuitive all this, isn't it. It's quite obvious why newcomers struggle with this game. Plus there's no explanation on what half of the settings do. How does width work, is it the willingness of players to pass through wide areas or is it just the way players stand on the pitch? I know it's the latter because I've watched hundreds or thousands of matches but is it obvious to new players? Similarly, what does mentality actually mean? What does time wasting do? Why isn't it comprehensively covered in the manual? I can go in the Tactics and Training part of the forums and read hundreds of theories on most of the settings and I'll still be none the wiser in the end. If you're going to have a system that complicated at least make the functions of the sliders clear for everyone - through the manual, ingame assistant manager, however possible.

Morale. Professional football players are not twelve year old schoolgirls. When I bollock them after an awful performance, even if it was away from home, they shouldn't be throwing their toys out of the pram. Even when unhappy, a class striker should be able to finish a high quality chance, bad mood shouldn't increase the occurence of daft back passes or own goals. Morale should not be that fragile nor should it have such a huge effect on professionals.

Finally the things that I'd like to see in FM.

More player interaction! When one of my players is acting the **** I want to be able to have a 'nice quiet chat' with him. When they're unhappy about something I want to have tools at hand to help me solve the situation. A 'wrong' media comment can get a player seriously upset but as it is there is nothing you can do after the damage has been done. Real life managers like Sir Alex Ferguson are respected and adored by the players that have worked with him - that's not achieved by him saying 'player X is the first name on the team sheet' to the media or signing their favorite staff. I want to be able to communicate with my players, just like real life managers do.

Asking for specific feeder clubs. When I need a feeder for work permits there's no use offering me a connection with an Angolan second division team. If there are no suitable clubs available then just state that, I don't want to create numerous useless connections over several years to finally be able to get the one I need.

Responsive User Interface. I know my computer is a bit outdated. I can accept that as such it shall take longer to process fixtures, save or load games or compute the results of my matches. However I can't accept that it takes four clicks on a button to make it respond, that it's a nightmare to drag and drop players on the tactics screen and that such sluggishness often results in undesired substitutes. 'I still don't believe that the manager really wanted to play outfield player X in goal' says the post match comment. Of course I didn't, you fecking plum. But since I had to make seven clicks for the dragging to work I accidentally selected a wrong player for the position. Which begs the question - why can't the game warn me when it's obvious that I've made a mistake? Just a simple dialog box asking 'are you daft or something' would do.

I think that's just about enough for today.

Great post. Most of the things pointed out rang a bell with me, and i had a good few chuckles at reading about many of the same frustrating things that has had me tearing my hair out in frustration happening to someone else as well (such as accidently putting an outfield player in goal, a mistake i failed to notice for 3 whole games once, all of which i lost miserably, needless to say!). Good work...

[lstables]

A few suggestions for FM09

Why not:

When you begin has a manager you have to gain a FA/UEFA license otherwise you can't manage.

Start as a player for like 3 week before doing the above.

Loans from banks

Advertising management

Sponsor management.

Try and make the actual game smaller so you can run more leagues without it slower down ( iknow it has a lot of data)

Just to name a few

[backpackant]

Originally posted by meakers:

This has most likely been suggested but i think tapping up and also being punsihed by the league for it should be introduced.

SI will not introduce "tapping up" any more than they would bribing refs. If it's against the rules you can't do it. Plus, AI managers wouldn't be able to do it until they were all regens - legal issues arise when you have real managers doing that sort of thing.

[Matt1288]

-Change the times in which players get cards, I mean come on? A yellow card in the first minute of a match? Its far too common.

-Lower AI transfer fees, they are too common, unrealistic and ridiculous.

-More depth in scouting

-More depth in scouting opposition

-More depth in team talks, greater variation and based on circumstances - such as against rivals

-Players possibly wanting more to move nations, ie. English going to Italy.

[LRJ]

I think this is a good suggestion.

Just conceded a pen in a game, and apparently its controversial, so i complain its ruined the game for us and get a warning(i like to complain), now how am i possibly going to know if it should of been a pen or not by looking at 2D dots?

My suggestion is that for these matters (same with sendings off and other things) that we have a short 3D clip so we know wether to complain or not?

Wouldnt care if it was poor quality just enough to know wether to complain

People will probably just say dont complain, but if i dont then whats the point in having the feature?

[KingLara]

One thing i would like added is something that hads bothered me senseless recently. My chairman has the annoying habit of accepting offers for my best players. This is very frustrating when i'm trying to keep the team together to survive in the premiership. I would like to be able to plead with him to reject the offers. Basically have the ability to interact with the chairman, directors and tell them certain things. such as have an option where you can tell the chairman either what players you want to stay or how much you'd sell them for.

[KingLara]

another thing is more interaction with the players. From personal experiece there are certain days of the year (anniversaries) that i really wouldn't want to play. I'm sure next season frank lampard won't want to play on the day his mother died. i know you get the "??? is fired up for the game" but a news feed saying;

Henry jones had requested not to play today

I think this would be good and realistic.

[Chris Ritchie]

I don't think anything like that will ever go in the game.

[csusmatt]

one word: gambling. You already give us the odds on every match, let us gamble dammit! I want to be able to blow my transfer funds on a meaningless league one match and have to explain what happened to the board. Alternatively i'd love to be able to triple my transfer funds and be able to buy players way beyond my means...

[city321]

My idea is that I feel we should have an option to give the players a day off after a win or force extra training after a Succession of defeats.

This could make them happy, less tired and offer them a reward for winning. Although on the down side it could also mean they will not improve in training so much.

[axehan1]

man mark positions and not player names as the ai constantly swap.so my fullback(left) to man mark specifically whoever plays opposition right midfield as player"a" might swap positions.

[Canabary]

Youngsters who can hold their own against real life players...

[luisenrique_21]

Originally posted by Äktsjon Männ:

Right. Let's start with stuff that I would not like to see in future versions of the game. At least in a state that they are in in FM07 and 08.

Chairmen selling players. They can't seem to get it right, 80% of scenarios that involve this are daft and it adds absolutely nothing to game experience. I'm playing FM08 with Notts County and my chairman just accepted a bid of £1m for my striker... from Nottingham Forest. What they of course also failed to acknowledge was a 30% sell on fee which meant that they actually got 100k less than his value for this player. So the club earned about £700k which I now have to spend on a direct replacement. Make this feature work or get rid.

Tedious media items. Player X set to meet former club. Notts Co set to sign some hopelessly useless player whom I have scouted 2 years ago to unmask his attributes. Manager X says Player Y needs to be stopped - Media reckons player Y needs not to be stopped... Aargh. I don't want to read this carp. I really don't.

Team talks. Again, make it into a proper feature or get rid. If I have to talk to my players to get results at least add some more options. And make more suitable options available for certain situations. When I'm 3-0 down at HT, what use is it if I tell my players that I expect nothing less than a win? Why can't I just be angry instead?

Sliders for tactical adjustments. But that's a part of a much larger issue that I'm going to write about further down the post.

Then the things that need to be improved or revamped.

Board Confidence. While useful, it's annoyingly broken. Lose the new signings bit or make the fans understand the difference between established players and future stars. Make the board expectations - reactions consistent. Improve the match confidence bit so that the fans' view is not that simplistic and they could actually consider the strength of opponents when making judgements on results.

Match engine. Still too many daft things happening. Why do my central defenders think it's a good idea to start playing one touch pass and go triangles... with my GK... in the midfield? Why does my defensive minded midfielder constantly stop when in possession before doing two 360 degree turns and losing it due to inevitable pressure thus gifting a high quality chance for the opposition? Why can't the players have a bit of a mind of they're own - when my midfielder has through balls often he should still realise after putting 5 straight passes to my right winger out of play that this might not work and perhaps trying passes through the middle would be more successful? Why can't strikers spot obvious runs? I could go on but since I think all this has been covered already I'm not going to.

Tactics, tactics, tactics. The system is confusing, complex, unrealistic and most of all, unintuitive. I've found myself watching more and more matches on full length, which is good since doing that I'm usually been able to spot obvious weaknesses with my tactics. But when I go to the tactics screen I often have no clue how to solve my problems. My players are all holding on to the ball, can't spot a pass, can't get strikers involved. Right. What shall I do to solve it then - 5 clicks less width, 2 clicks less time wasting, 3 clicks more tempo and set the strikers two clicks less attacking. Oh so intuitive all this, isn't it. It's quite obvious why newcomers struggle with this game. Plus there's no explanation on what half of the settings do. How does width work, is it the willingness of players to pass through wide areas or is it just the way players stand on the pitch? I know it's the latter because I've watched hundreds or thousands of matches but is it obvious to new players? Similarly, what does mentality actually mean? What does time wasting do? Why isn't it comprehensively covered in the manual? I can go in the Tactics and Training part of the forums and read hundreds of theories on most of the settings and I'll still be none the wiser in the end. If you're going to have a system that complicated at least make the functions of the sliders clear for everyone - through the manual, ingame assistant manager, however possible.

Morale. Professional football players are not twelve year old schoolgirls. When I bollock them after an awful performance, even if it was away from home, they shouldn't be throwing their toys out of the pram. Even when unhappy, a class striker should be able to finish a high quality chance, bad mood shouldn't increase the occurence of daft back passes or own goals. Morale should not be that fragile nor should it have such a huge effect on professionals.

Finally the things that I'd like to see in FM.

More player interaction! When one of my players is acting the **** I want to be able to have a 'nice quiet chat' with him. When they're unhappy about something I want to have tools at hand to help me solve the situation. A 'wrong' media comment can get a player seriously upset but as it is there is nothing you can do after the damage has been done. Real life managers like Sir Alex Ferguson are respected and adored by the players that have worked with him - that's not achieved by him saying 'player X is the first name on the team sheet' to the media or signing their favorite staff. I want to be able to communicate with my players, just like real life managers do.

Asking for specific feeder clubs. When I need a feeder for work permits there's no use offering me a connection with an Angolan second division team. If there are no suitable clubs available then just state that, I don't want to create numerous useless connections over several years to finally be able to get the one I need.

Responsive User Interface. I know my computer is a bit outdated. I can accept that as such it shall take longer to process fixtures, save or load games or compute the results of my matches. However I can't accept that it takes four clicks on a button to make it respond, that it's a nightmare to drag and drop players on the tactics screen and that such sluggishness often results in undesired substitutes. 'I still don't believe that the manager really wanted to play outfield player X in goal' says the post match comment. Of course I didn't, you fecking plum. But since I had to make seven clicks for the dragging to work I accidentally selected a wrong player for the position. Which begs the question - why can't the game warn me when it's obvious that I've made a mistake? Just a simple dialog box asking 'are you daft or something' would do.

I think that's just about enough for today.

great post. i support u on everyone of those.

[hatipoglu]

Hello everyone. I think we should be able to, when adding a new manager, to include a playing history of the manager we're adding. That is, using the same format for players, we should be able to indicate for which club he played in which seasons, how many he played, how many he scored, int apps., int. scores etc.

I also would like to see the "history" feature that was appearing in the earlier versions. I mean the historical information about the legendary old players & clubs.

[Guest 1r15h]

Players adaptivity to other leagues - Just as in real life, different players either can or cannot make it in various leagues, perhaps because their game doesn't suit the way the league is played.

Much more realistic transfer costs - Much of the time I find that to sell my own players, I must sell at a much lower price than their value, but when I wish to buy a player, more often than not I find myself paying rediculous fees. Instead of drawing the line at who a club can buy through whether the player wants to go to that club, and not extortionate prices.

Players who are sold or bought in part-exchange dealsare accounted for in fans confidence in signing - Players who are bought in part-exchange are not shown in the fans confidence, which I feel should be.

[reo hustler]

I realize the game is called Football Manager but I believe it could be a lot more. I'd like to be able to just simulate games. Think of it as a "holiday" game . . .

[liam-24]

- Player testimonials for the club legends when they retire.

- Being able to somehow spend your wages made as a manager, otherwise the wages are pointless.

- Media interaction should vary with more specific questions.

- Better player interaction. They should interact more with you and with each other.

- Kit design. Kits change in real life so you should be able to design new kits in the game.

- More interaction with your board eg. you could have disagreements with the chairman.

- Appeals over red cards should at least have the possibility of being sucessful.

- More interaction with your backroom staff.

- Players could get spotted in nightclubs for example and this could be reported in the media.

- Better commentary in the match engine.

- Transfers should be more realistic eg. Roma should not be turning down a £70M bid for Daniele De Rossi and surely someone will take Phillipe Senderos off my hands for £500,000

[DontCallItSoccer]

Some thoughts...

Match Engine

Having played now to 2021 with FM 8.0.2. I'd like to see more events in the Match Engine to reflect better what goes on in a real game.

Having just watched all but 4 of the Euro 2008 games on telly, I started comparing the goals (and the moves that led to the goals) to what FM can do. Sad, I know, but...

There were loads of things IRL that do not happen in the Match Engine, and the challenge for SI is to improve.

Some examples:

Germany v Portugal

Podolski plays a "double 1-2" with Lahm (or Hitzlsperger) then with Ballack to then squeeze by on the left wing and cross for Schweinsteiger, who came in off the right wing. Great move, great goal.

Russia v Netherlands

Fantastic team move for Arshavin to finish.

Switzerland v Turkey

The rain was so heavy, parts of the pitch became almost unplayable, so the ball just stopped dead, such as for Switzerland's goal.

Another aspect of the Match Engine that needs improvement is the angles at which a ball can be played.

For example, in FM, a player may be running full tilt after a ball heading for the goal line. When the ball is played, it is cleared at 180 degrees to the direction of the run, and with a force that would simply not be possible with a back heel.

At Premier League level, players going for headers when defending a corner more often head the ball for another corner than I would have noticed IRL.

The Match Engine has "cute" touches, such as physios running onto the pitch, but it's half baked. Either leave it out or make it consistent:

* If a physio comes on, escort the player to the nearest touchline, then have the player run back around to the technical area to come back on.

* In penalty shoot outs, have the players of the same team huddle or lock arms rather than be randomly assembled in the centre circle.

* In penalty shoot outs, have the assistant referees take up their correct positions.

* Have a fourth official, give them something to do.

* Have the trainers and co-trainers visible, including "yourself".

* Add graphical elements to signify when a player is on the ground, jumping, making a slide tackle, that sort of thing

* jumping = add a shadow, similar to when the ball is in the air

* on gound = some kind of indentation maybe?

* slide tackle = a couple of short lines on the outside of the "dot" in the direction of the slide (a bit like speed lines in comics, perhaps)

* crunching tackle = a short "blip" of light around the "dot", maybe, to signify a really hard tackle

Commentary

The original commentary system was great. With the introduction of the 2D match view, the commentary has become like a relic of another time. (Yes, I know some players play with commentary only.)

It's also logically inconsistent, giving you a radio/TV view of events, when you're the manager and you should be getting different information.

* Have the option to switch off the commentary in 2D view mode.

* Alternatively, make the commentary more relevant to what's on the pitch, e.g. I don't need to know "X passes to Y" because I can see that. But make the commentary what your co-trainers are picking up from the game, like "X is out of sorts today, pull him off at half time" -- give your assman an opinion!

* If you must have the commentary, make it more contextual, like taking note of the weather conditions (already happens with rain), but also pointing out if someone is fading in heat or humidity, some southern team is looking uncomfortable in the snows of Moscow, whatever. Don't have someone slide on both knees during a goal celebration if the ground is hard and dry...

While talking about the conditions...

Fix the Weather

Having coached Hamburg for 12 seasons, I didn't think much about the constant rain, that's what you'd expect, but I took a job at Real Madrid and I'm sick of seeing 3 degrees on a July afternoon, then 30 degrees in November. Get the basics fixed so they stop being an issue.

Transfers

Sometimes it becomes impossible to shift players, that's a recurring theme. Only a few players should refuse to move when transfer listed, and there should always be some club to make an offer.

* If you declare someone unavailable for Loan, don't have clubs make loan offers.

* If you set "Accept offers of X or better", then stop having clubs make offers of less. I'm not going to go lower!

* Every player should have a price that's realistic

More when I think of it.