Ripping teams to shreds since 1877- FM12 Wolves guide

[Wonderkid36]

Setup

This is my first fm guide,so constructive criticism is welcomed.Feel free to post about your Wolves careers too.

Here are a few extracts from the game about their history :

Founded in 1877,Wolverhampton Wanderers are a professional English club currently playing in the English premier division.

Enjoying their greatest spell of success in the 1950s,Wolves have a history they can be proud of.Boasting 18 here are just some of their highlights:

Wolves won the English First Division in 1954,1958 and 1959, the FA Cup in 1893,1908,1949 and 1960,the English Second Division in 1932,1977 and 2009 and the English Community shield in 1954 and 1959.They have also won the English Fourth and Third Divisions,The English Third Division North,The Johnstone's Paint Trophy and the league cup(Twice).

Their biggest rivals are West Brom and when the two sides meet it is known as the 'Black County Derby'.

Budget

Unfortunately it says all my screenshots are 'undefined' at the moment,even though they are png so I won't be able to do any screenies at the moment,but if I they do work somehow I'll edit them in.

Anyway,for a relegation-tipped team Wolves have a very good budget.The default target is avoid relegation but that gives a tiny wage budget,so I recommend setting your objective to 'Mid-Table finish',which gives you 10.5m to spend and a wage budget of 475k.You may still need to put some of your transfer budget into your wage budget however.

Staff

I recommended clearing out;Carl Howarth,Alan Peachem,Jazz Sodhi,Tony Daley and Steave Weaver.I would promote your Youth Coach Mick Halsall to the vacant role of Assistant Manager as he has excellent judging ability and potential skills,and also a decent Motivation skill to.I would sign;Adrian Lamb(Fitness Coach),Steve Black(OPTIONAL Fitness coach),Paul Groves(Coach),Tosh Farrel(Coach),Roger Cross(Scout),David Mills(Scout),Ricky Sbragia(Scout),Alan Miller(Scout) and Peter Johnson(Scout). Of course all these guys are optional and you might not want to sign all of them anyway,as they might upset your wage bill.

Facilities

Wolves have pretty good facilities,although the Junior Coaching could do with improvement.

Facilities;

Good Corporate Facilities

Top Training Facilities

Good Youth Facilities

Average Junior Coaching

Above Average Youth Recruitment

Wolves's stadium,The Molineux has 23,995 seats and was built way back in 1889.

Affiliations.

When you start the game Wolves have two affiliations; one with AFC Telford and one with Upjest of Hunngary.I would cancel the Telford affiliation as it doesen't really benefit you(You HAVE to organise a friendly and Telford keep all gate receipts.),however having a feeder club is much more useful,so I would keep the link with Upjest.At the start of the game you should be able to ask for another feeder club or a parent club.The Wolves board usually accepts if you ask for a feeder club,although I'm not sure about a Parent Club.

[Wonderkid36]

Wolves's strengths and Weaknesses

Goalkeepers

Wayne Hennessey-A solid,dependable Number One.He's pretty good all round,though his One On Ones and positioning are a bit low.He's home-grown which is an added bonus.He's also 24 so you will be able to get a good 8 or 10 years out of him.

Dorus De Vries-Signed from Swansea on a free,he's a good backup keeper.Has no stand out attributes but,could improve his Rushing out and,like Hennessey,his positioning.This guys 30 though,so he's not a long-term option like Hennessey.

Carl IkemeA decent,third choice keeper,he's paid crumbs as well so he doesn't swallow up your wage bill to much.Like Hennessey is home grown.His weakest attribute has to be his throwing which needs improving.You could get him or De Vries to tutor young keeper Jonathon Flatt.

Who Should I sign? You don't need to strengthen this position,but if you want to offload Ikeme or De Vries I would sign french free agent Simon Pouplin.

Young Star:Jonathon Flatt.2 and a half star potential.

Fullbacks

Ronald Zubar-Your definite first-choice Right-Back,in my opinion.You will probably need to renew is contract though,as it ends in 2013.Has a good Tackling stat,which is useful.He can also play as a center back and provides good cover.

Kevin Foley-An equally good Right-Back as Zubar with a tad less wages,although his contract also needs renewing.A good Utility player,he can play as a Right wing Back,Defensive Midfielder,Central Midfielder and Right Midfielder.Surprisingly played for Luton Town before Wolves.

Sebastien Bassong-I was surprised to see that Bassong is actually are strongest Left-Back,although he's stronger in the Central Defender position.Unfortunately only on loan from Tottenham,and anyway he only has a 2 and a half star rating so i would go with one of the options suggested.

Stepen Ward-In my personal opinion he's not worth his 15k wages and I would sell him ASAP.He can also play as a emergency striker if needed,although his finishing stat is pretty poor.Another option in this position is George Elokobi,who has less wages than Foley.

Who Should I sign? I recommend Kleber,who plays for Internacional or Clemente Rodriguez,who plays for Boca or Mexican side Morelia's Adrian Aldrete.If you struggle with Work Permit for those guys try AZ Alkmaar's Estonian left back Ragnar Klavan or 'Boro wonderkid Joe Bennet.

Young Star : Kristian Kostrna.4 star right back.

Central Defenders

Sebastien Bassong-When you've signed a new left back Bassong should definitely be your first choice Central Defender.Strong,good in the air and exceptional at tackling Bassong needs to be a definite starter for your Wolves side.

Roger Johnson-The 4.5m signing from Birmingham doesn't get paid 30k a week for nothing.Even better then Bassong at tackling this tall Center Back,like Bassong will play a key part in Wolves conceding as little goals as possible.

Christophe Berra-He was once Wolves's first choice center Back,but,with the arrival of Bassong and Johnson is now 3rd choice.He's certainly not indispensable and if you decide his 15k per week wages are too big could easily be sold.

Who should I sign? If you want Berra to go your first choice should be Craig Dawson and Black Country rivals West Brom should have him on the transfer list( I don't know why,he's an excellent player)Winston Reid and Rafik Halliche are also good CB's,but ask for bigger wages than Dawson.

Young star : Nobody.

Central Midfielders

Karl Henry-Henry's got impressive mental stats,which,along with his physical abilities,make him Wolves's first choice midfielder.You should play him at the Ball Winning Midfielder Defend role,where,in my opinion he's best.His only stat that needs improving is his dribbling and that's no important for a ball winning midfielder.

Jamie O'Hara-Another great English midfielder who joined for 4.5m from Tottenham after impressing in his loan spell.He does however receive bigger wages than Henry(30k p/w!) so,if you want to keep you wage bill tight,I would sell him.

Nenad Milijas-Milijas is Wolves's third choice midfielder,but is more than capable to put in a shift if Henry or O'Hara get injured.He's played best as a advanced playmaker support and has high Creativity and long shot ratings,but his pace and dribbling could do with improving.

Who Should I sign? Beram Kayal should be your first choice if O'Hara leaves,although he could cost 5.75m.Ruslan Rotan is an option,but it might be hard to secure work permit for him.If you want more youthful options I suggest going with Wigan's James McArthur or Crewe Alexandra's Nick Powell who is very cheap.

Young Star : Emmanuel Frimpong,who is on loan from Wolves has 4 and a half star potential but is only rated 2 stars currently so he should be used as backup.Other than that Wolves have David Davis and Rob Parry,but they only have 1 and a half star potential.

[SRL88]

Have a look at some of the other team guides which can be found here. There are some really good ones which you could use as a guide to improve this mate.

Decent start though.

[Wonderkid36]

Have a look at some of the other team guides which can be found here. There are some really good ones which you could use as a guide to improve this mate.

Decent start though.

Thanks.I do think it would be a lot better if I could do screenshots though.

[DirtyJoe]

Geez $10M is a decent whack of money for any Premiership team.

Good analysis WonderKid, look forward to the rest of the thread.

[Welshace]

always thought bostwick would make the perfect wolves signing aswell..

[wanderer89]

Fantastic, always wondered when someone would make a Wolves one, I'd have done it myself but wouldn't have any idea where to start!

Being my hometown club, I always start with them, but this year has been my best save with them, winning the league first year, Europa League the second and third, and I'm on course to win the league again in the fourth, the team at the start has massive potential already with a few additions you could do what I did, I'd definitely improve the left back spot, Ward just doesn't cut it, put Johnson and Bassong in the middle together, unbeatable in the middle together, I'd also sign a quick right back, someone like Vrsaljko or Romario from Vitoria.

As for the midfield, I found a central pairing of Henry & JOH did the job with Henry winning the ball, and JOH spraying the passes and creating chances, Jarvis/Kightly on the wings, with backup from Anthony Forde and Zeli Ismail, Zeli's a wonderkid, so if you get him playing right, you've got a star on your hands!

Now for the strikers, the main one for me, is Fletcher, he's been my top scorer and the leagues, for the past couple of seasons, he hit 65 in all comps and 39 in the league! He's a beast, the backups are Doyle and SEB, I'd recommend bringing in a proper goalscorer, for me, Leo Bonatini did the trick, as Doyle and SEB just don't take their chances.

Also, improve the staff, if you can sort the staff, get them all sorted, at least 4 star, then, you've got a platform on which to start building.

Hope this helps anyone starting a Wolves save.

[SRL88]

Thanks.I do think it would be a lot better if I could do screenshots though.

Screenshots are easy to do fella. Which ever screne you want to take one of, click Atl+F9. This will save a screenshot into the folder My Documents/Sports Interactice/FM12/Screenshots. To upload one you need to go onto a photoshop site such as imageshack or photobucket. Upload the photo onto the site and to post a picture of it in here you need to copy & paste the 'Forum Code'.

[wanderer89]

Screenshots are easy to do fella. Which ever screne you want to take one of, click Atl+F9. This will save a screenshot into the folder My Documents/Sports Interactice/FM12/Screenshots. To upload one you need to go onto a photoshop site such as imageshack or photobucket. Upload the photo onto the site and to post a picture of it in here you need to copy & paste the 'Forum Code'.

Wouldn't it be easier to paste the IMG Code?

[SRL88]

Depends which one you use. Imageshack is the forum code and I think Photobucket is the image code.