A bad case of the Loons

It's an accident waiting to happen. The max you can reasonably survive on as a wage bill is around £250k a day. That's if your a top team and have Premiership status. So a fifteen man squad thats average of £16k a man.

It's simple logic either you can have a very strong £16k a man team or a superstar on £50k and others on a lot less. Ok so that's with a top team. The Jakswans are not a top team, a three star rep and top 150 team, a Premiership team. My budget is a max of £12k per player or a superstar at maybe £30k.

Ok I choose youth, I know that over the next few game years I'm not going to be top 50 and expect a slow build up. The Youth policy costs so my budget is £10k max and a larger squad with maybe a star on £20k.

A decent CB, not world class but lots of potential with a Wage Demand of £12k goes today for.... guess.... £15k? £20k? £35k?

Ohh no, remember the madness has started, FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS A DAY. Ohh well, you think, if a Man Utd or Arsenal want to pay that... ohh no this club is below me in the rankings!

Insua left back 18 Years old not fantastic stats but clearly going to be a top Left Back. I would say worth £8k a day, he's young could play first team football now and be worth a lot in years to come so maybe £12, maybe £18, ohhhh no £25k a day. To a club that's ranked 250!

Now you might think that it's sour grapes that good players cost so much. Well I've got my eyes out for a few so I'm not worried :)

Case in point Amarel, like a rock Defensive Midfielder started bringing him in as a sub for Rios in the last ten mins of a game. Eventually you've got to face what your seeing with your own eyes. A 22 Yr Old on £2,500k a day is simply better then the 26 Yr Old on £9k a day.

I make no bones about it I'm concerned about my two Centre Backs, their both 30.

I got offered a Centre Back which looked ok £250k he said he wanted. I offered £250k then he says well £500k would be better. Yeah right I'm sure £5 million would be better but your not getting it.

'Look he's got a 7.06 average rating playing for one of the top teams in the Gameworld!' he claims. I start to go cold at this point, a bit of time, a bit of digging...

Check him out, ok he's not a footballer he's strong, good in the air can tackle and not a slouch. He's young as well, the killer though this 7.04 rating is not for a top team but for a bottom one.

He contract was up with bids starting at £2.5k a day, I thought I'll never get this guy for that. Did I, ohhh yes, didn't cost £250k either but £85k. As a precaution I bought three like this, a bit over the top you say? Nah, £50k is over the top, three experiments ain't.

My other most pressing problem is at left back. I have looked and looked and the best value I can get is at £8k a day. There was one I was interested in but he went for £28k a day, duh.

Meanwhile we are now a heady Top 80 in the world rankings, I don't know how. We are hard to beat I guess but I keep looking at other teams with their £40k a day stars and think we're going to get creamed.

If you are not yet in the Beta I'll give you a piece of advice don't ever pay what someone asks. Heck if you get in the same gameworld I'll happily give you some ideas on players.

Thats why we're not top the League

So I thought I'd just as well get them out of the way. 3-1, 3-0 and 3-1 later I thought right that puts the pressure on. I log on this morning to find that they're right behind us, followed the three wins. A drop in points by either or both sides could see Norks creep in who are on a great run.

Still I'm going to stick my neck out and say Premier League is in the bag, all we're playing for now is £250k and minor bit of glory. So the pressure is off.

There we go three games left and I won two but bottom line it wasn't enough. I chucked evrything at Native FC but two goals down with a few minutes to go resulted in a 4-1 defeat. Heck you gotta go for it if it's there:)

Hey we're runners up and Norks despite being the most highly ranked team can only finish third. Assuming we get Premier League I'm expecting a relegation fight but at least the money will come in handy.

Since new Managers have joined a few things have happened:-

• New Players released including a few big names however these have an army of Managers chasing them. I think I'll put in a few speculative bids but I'm not paying silly money. As I've proved there are a load of bargains still out there and I'm quite happy to run after them. I mean £35k a day you can get FOURTEEN Boyas for that.
• Lag, eesh it's bad now the server move can't come soon enough which is tomorrow AM.

Thats why we're top the League

Wow NFAQ3 looks like it could be turning into a two horse race between us and Ipplepen. With a fixture pile up I had several games in hand and thought I could stretch my lead. Sadly a little bit inconsistent.

It all started great with three wins on the bounce as I recall Leeds was two late goals and although slight concern for the last few minutes we were generally good value for our three goal lead. Naturally a really ding dong game had to be in there somewhere and we grabbed the points in a seven goal thriller with Saigon Utd.

Mini Marsdens were the first little blip, early goal for us but they did look dangerous. It could have gone either way but they grabbed an equaliser and on balance deserved a point.

Against Zincke it was blumin annoying we were two goals down in 10mins and they are bottom of the table. After throwing everything at them and clawing it back to 2-1 (20+ shots on goal easy) they caught us on the break to make it 3-1.

Although we easily deserved the win after being two goals down twice I was happy with 3-3 and a point.

Two solid wins followed and finally a trip to Blue Jays. Although Blue Jays have been inconsistent their still a good team and I was happy with a point on their manor.

So we've a four point gap now with about six games to go. There are some hard fixtures coming up but I've not go to face (as I recall) anyone higher ranked than me.

With my current squad securing Premiership status would be a big result. I suppose it's not unreasonale to think of Titles and a £1million top prize. We shall take each game as it comes otherwise I'd be sick as parrott and not over the moon :) Honestly would be shocked to us win this would be pleased with Premier League and delighted with runners up.

Although the Youths have been riding high in the World Top 10 and have secured several minor trophies it was quite nice to finish runners up in NFA U21.

Rambling On

Well with the servers being down I thought I just as well ramble on for a bit. Had an conversation with a fellow manager last night and he was speculating that the GW would end come end of beta.

This is all pure speculation on my part and I'm probably doing a 2+2 = 5 so...

I rather doubt the GW's would end as I think the game seems to me to be pretty much done apart from how a GW looks after 5/10/15 Game Years. The oldest GW will have started with a different game engine so I think the biggest test yet to be done is how GW develops. It would be SI's interests to keep GW's going so if any tweaks need to be made then they have advance warning.

The other part of the test that I think SI need to do is deal with a current big issue, lag. Everything works it's just that things just start to grind in GW6 once there are a hundred plus managers online.

I know their moving servers Tuesday and have high hopes for the problem to be solved but this is currently a Beta so you do have issue's with one log in wonders.

I'd have thought they would want the roll out come full release to be slow and I'm fully expecting for SI to ask for around £4.99 Per Month and Twelve months up front. I mean if it was £4.99 a month with no long term commitment then you'd have

• Too many users that they could cope with.
• One Log In wonders. However, if the game lags with 120 users even with the move to servers they need to test 500 users for an extended period.

There is one big feature I'd like to see and that is to allow a Manager to hand over his club to another Manager (not my idea originally saw it on forum). I played lots of different CM/FM games and I enjoyed taking a non-league team to a higher level, managing a high profile team or returning the glory days to a club. After a while it became 'job done' and you'd want to start again or move on. You could limit it so that only the original Manager could change the team name. This would add a lot of longevity to the game.

This would allow to bring in new Managers mid season if someone has gone AWOL.I think to do this though you'd need to deepen the pyramid structure. A new club starts with £100k a day and an established club with three stars pulls in £180k. I guess they can't really do this on a new Gameworld so again a reason to keep GW's going.

I thought I'd just as well update a little on the ole' Jakswans. Yesterday we did manage to grab two Top 100 scalps away from home so that should have had a nice effect to my ranking. I'm aware that we've turned into a very boring team now (both these results were 1-0) and I think I've got a Mourinho style of play. It's sad in a way as I never really thought I'd do that but being hard to beat is what came top of the list of priorities after being involved in too many 4-3 defeats :)

I have in my mind a routine for developing youngsters that revolves around U21 / subs bench / cover for first team at ages 18-21, out on loan 21-23 and finally first team football at 24-29. I've got a few youngsters though that I'm sure will bugger that plan up. One is 16 Yr Old Montero I think his name is, who by the looks of it could be first team in just a couple of years. He's already made his Senior debut. although not hugely impressive he didn't really look out of his depth. Old saying 'if he's good enough he's old enough'.

I did plan to add a little bit more depth to U17 squad and did chuck in a speculative bid for another senior forward.

With that in mind think I'll put Lima out on Loan, he's got good all round stats, high rep, low wage, at least approaching 0.5 goals per game. He's an awesome second striker but playing with one up front I don't need a second striker. At 23 in a year or two he'll be the man.

Just found out Boba is mine, great, now I have Wendell on bench for when I need pace and Boba when I need a big front man and Ogbanna to start. Mind the servers are down again with some form of reboot taking place so what I saw might not be true :(

Bargains

Why Managers are paying hundreds of thousands for transfers I really don't know. For the same money you could take three or four gambles and see if they pay off.

With the one day trial system it's made all the easier. Anyway we're now filling up with a physical side and lone man up front Eren wasn't the player for the job, he didn't have stamina for a start I wanted someone who could play and run and run and run... Lima is only 23 and it's two years too early not quite good enough.... Wendell, only 19 and more of a Micheal Owen type player, Bedi Buval, again 22 fantastic stats and scoring goals but out on loan for rest of season...

He had to be strong and not a total mug and an eye for goal. I've trialled a lot of players over the last few days and honestly was about to write this guy off.

With about an hour to go before his trial ended I thought I'd give him a run in a few games. It was only then that I noticed that his morale was poor. Naturally I hadn't yet seen the player at his best.

The biggest question was what was he like under pressure and did he know where the goal was. One Man of the Match game later and the decision was made.

Now he may not pan out but this is a £35k risk and with those physical stats he's always going to be sellable.

As another example I look at trials due to end today, Boya six Goals six games, Ochoa 11 games 8 goals, and so on. If your quick and in the same gameworld as me then there are some tips for you!

I'm drawing a line now unless a real superstar turns up I've got depth to Senior / U21 / U17 squads, ok I've got no superstars but I'm doing ok and financially I'm doing great.

If just three or four of the young players come good then the Youth policy will have paid off.

Just another day

Still brining in the trialists but none are really making me think that their better than what I've already got. I could be a git and sign them and take part in a bit of player farming but it's not really what I'm about.

My weakest area is up front Eren is only 20 and he can do it all, pace, air, strength, finish, but he lacks experiance. He's not the icing on the cake I seek :)

I've managed to give the squad a bit more depth signing a couple of utility players. I'm keeping my eye for a players at the back not so much for this season but next as two of them will be into their 30's.

I do have a good few youngsters coming through but it'll be a season too early for them I think.

Currently playing a strange 4-4-1-1 formation, the stamina and strength of the team results in the opposition becoming simply exhausted coping with the raw power of the squad.

To that end Iveagh Utd was an interesting game. I got AI rights and possibly rushed into the game. How did we get two nil down I have no idea but it happens.

At that stage their manager logs in and is naturally delighted at the score. Only to have to watch as my team pound away and eventually get level. Jemaa then goes off injured and I have to bring Klate on, bang, 3-2.

In the 90th minute they get a Pen and I was just about to type 'great game thought we had done enough' and Moya saves it... Then we have a drab 0-0 away at Pompey. Gah :(

I must say we do look good for securing a place in the NFA Premiership. It would make sense that I think I would use that money to bring in a big name at the start of next season.

On that note of the big names only Kaka and Messi are left of the big names as free agents. You can expect to be paying £45k - £60k a day for this standard of player with an Aq Fee of c. £1/2 Million. I actually could afford this and get the bank to ok it but I'd be on the breadline then.

Looking at many teams who have this sort of player they often are left scraping by wishing they could strengthen their team and no means to do it.

Phew

Phew

A big big clear out, Purovic is gone 1/2 million and another £12k per day wages. Garcia who had been out on loan went for £250k. So I now have lots of money. Then I had a lucky escape I had trialled this player who had played well alongside Wendell and after scouting him I thought he was worth a punt. Thing is another Manager was interested (he had a good record) wage demand £5k so I thought about going heavy £10000 a day but then thought nah £6500. OOOOPS I had typed £16500, noooooooooo I had just offloaded £24k last thing I wanted was that sort of overhead.

Well I must remember to do the lottery cos another Manager came in bid more! He was a decent player but 18 Yr Old? Maybe he's worth it but it's a risk and for that sort of money you'd want a bit more rep and a better answer than maybe. I wonder if SI have coded personalities into the game cos an 18 Yr Old on that money with no rep would be bound to p everyone else off that was on a lot less. Christanmus or something his name was.

I've looked at a few players and really none are taking my fancy, got so many options at U21 I'm a long way from really needing anyone but money in the bank....

I've changed tactics now, solid keeper, four experienced pro's at the back, Rios DM, Pablo CM, wingers Jemaa and Ely, Sousa AMC, and a front man. I possibly need a front man but I've got about four very decent strikers to work through for the role. Very physical side...

Results finally have come in the NFAQ3 I managed two wins, one away from home against the team Pro Rata topping the table, Marsdens. That was a hard fought 1-0 let me tell you, although I think we were worthy winners. We could still find ourselves scraping into the Premier Division, that could be a mixed blessing as I'm simply not spending silly money unless someone is huge banker on performance.

Bye Bye Lima

Chris Nash, manager of the 'Greatest Team in the World' has been nagging me for some time to flog Learndo Lima.

Although Lima will be a great player (quite capable of going past Six players and scoring wonderful goals) his lack of strength and inability to put basic chances away frustrates me.

If he was a winger I'd keep him but he isn't and I need an attacking midfield to win the ball now and again. Sousa does that and £4k a day cheaper and £80k Aq Fee and scores not only wonderful goals but takes the simple chances well.

So, £450k compared to £80k, £8k to £12k and a different player style of player but same ability wise. The only big downside is Lima is 21 compared to Sousa's 28. Lima will improve, be a superstar and worth a lot, so I negotiated a 35% profit share on any future sale.

I've been looking for a young understudy for Sousa though and I'm struggling to find one better than Montero a 16 Yr Old £300 odd a day guy.

I don't know what to make of the transfer market it's a bit 'off' in my opinion. Other teams field a player for a few days and charge three or four times their Aq Fee and seem to easily get it. Clearly if you insert any player into a winning team he's going to be performing well and getting good ratings. Surely the secret is to find players that are getting ratings above their team.... I look through the free agents and see players that on the transfer market will easily command treble their Aq Fee's I don't really understand why other managers seem ignorant of these players.

At first I was off an opinion that this was some sort of cheat and although it seems a bit cheap if you ask me this player 'farming' seems too lucrative to ignore. Perhaps others managers view 'free agents' like they would in the real world, i.e. not very good but if that is the case they clearly don't understand the game mechanics at all.

I've been testing the market to see what I could get for Purovic and no one's biting yet, he's got the record and the stats to command at least 1/2 million and with many many strikers on my books I'm fairly sure I'll find a winning combination in there.

Broken Dreams

Broken Dreams - Things wrong with FM Live

There is no doubt that FM Live is a truly stunning game. Honestly if your even a little bit keen on FM basically ring up all your friends, put an ad in the paper and cancel your life, it's horrendously addictive, but in a nice way.

However all is not well there is one big issue broken dreams....

The game has a very flat Pyramid structure, the gameworld is broken down into Federations, each federation has a 'Premier League' and then up to four feeder 'Division One's'. The difference in money between a top team and bottom is no where near as pronounced as in the real world. You could afford to put together a decent outfit and challenge all but the very top clubs very early on. I think potential football managers is a bit like Driving, ask anyone, Are you a good driver? More importantly ask any man and I bet you get very few negatives.

There is no way to hide in this game, I'm sure that many would blame the game or their bad luck but very very few will stick around to have that rammed down their throat for long, i.e. You are a bad football manager. It's made all the worse by the activity of the manager in entering competitions....

You start a competition easily and players will enter, I have been running a Simple League for Three Seasons and I notice the same thing happening, a wide range, in terms of rank, will enter, a few from the top 100, couple next 100 and so on. A common routine follows, the bottom ranked clubs either rise quickly through the ranks or go inactive.

Half as an experiment I thought I'd try running a few Ten team Leagues, the Premier League (for clubs ranked higher than 100), Championship (clubs ranked 101-250) and so on. Now you check any competition and you will see that the top 100 teams are the most active in joining competitions yet a competition just for them and NOT ONE TEAM has joined! The championship filled up straight away, I think these top 100 clubs are protecting their rank too much.

Even though you may be a bad manager if the pyramid structure was deeper you'd have longer than the game allows for having 'You are a rubbish manager' rammed down your throat. I think most football fans don't actually want to manage Man Utd but would be happy to be managing Wrexham and slowly guiding their route to glory over six or seven game years with a great youth policy etc.

The game needs a deeper pyramid structure to it's competitions and a kinder way to climb through the ranks.

I did have another idea, taking a real world analogy, assuming Liverpool could play as many games as they'd liked and assuming they could choose who they played.... Well why wouldn't they play Cardiff every week, they'd slap them around good an proper. Thing is who is going to turn up... Crowds would be an issue, maybe if a big club had to subsidise playing a lower club and vice versa.

So if you were a Rep 4 team playing a Rep 2 team then you'd have to pay, e.g. the gate would not cover wages / expenses of your club. If you were a rep 2 team playing a rep 4 team, bonus, much bigger crowd than usual. Same size clubs pretty much average crowd no change....

More Tactical Pondering

Just when you think I will not touch tactics again you find yourself 2-0 down and wondering what the....

First of all I thought ok play offside and push up that's all very well but if you play against a couple of sexy passers in the back four your left with them waiting and pinging long accurate balls and are gonna get caught.

That's why I took Sousa off and brought Rios on, and played with three up front, not only push up / play offside but close them down! No space, no time, to be breaking offside trap. Everything was going through the middle.

I know this formation looks odd but of course with us both playing offside it's a very small area of the pitch your playing in. Jemaa who I took off on the left was knackered anyway. By the time I had thought of all this and spot him playing off side we were 3-0 down...

Two Games Two Defeats

The first was rather silly I just clicked Game and thought it was a compo. Their team looked a bit shaky and I would have been well advised to leave alone but of course you've got to fiddle with the tactics haven't you.

So as the second half started and my fiddling gradually made things worse, although the had yet to have any sort of big chance you just knew it was going to be 1-0 to them. Then some serious tactical fiddling really buggered it all up so at least it wasn't 1-0 but 2-0, ahh well. Newton Town or something, anyway gg.

I knew Norks had been around the last few days and I knew I was going to lose, could just feel it in my water... One Nil up, lost 2-1, their a good side mind, think he has at least one £20k a day player. The manager Tim is a tidy enough bloke as well so I don't really mind and it could have gone either way.

Looked at a few kids (one's 20 and one's 16) and sold Mosotoo (spel?) for £18k and £3.5k a day so he'll pay for both of them.

On a more positive note the U21's did manage to win away to St. Helens Clowns who with their £64k a day away squad who have got to be top four in the NFAu21. Now it's odd cos really I just watch the U21's and U17's and I hardly touch the tactics, I don't really care win / lose just as long as it's a gg.

Must learn a lesson from this, oh well no FM Live tomorrow (server being moved) so may do a rant on what's wrong with FM Live.

Boring Boring Jakswans

I got AI rights to the game against Leeds Utd AFC and I had knocked them out of the Cup. We grabbed a tight 1-0 away against his AI team.

Last night I made a double swoop in the transfer market and secured Sousa and Jemaa. Sousa is 28 and really was only meant to be bought as a sub but he's gradually made the position his and now starts most games.

Jemma is a 6ft odd strong fast winger, boring player really but he does everything right. The one thing I've noticed is that Ely or Klate struggle a little bit now and again as they come up against strong full backs so I wanted a player who could win the ball.

Having done that I then found we were very tight but had lost our sparkle. So Dano has come back in for Limre, although Dano generally likes to slam the ball in the back of the net (which often leads to much shouting at screen from Manager as he slams it over the crossbar) he does have a spark.

To be fair I had previously played him on the wing so an extended run in this position might see him find his shooting boots. If I wanted to be really really boring I can always play Pablo on the right and bring Rios back.

In keeping with my theory the 1-0's have continued. It's quite a mature squad of players now especially at the back which is pretty much what I wanted. Odd though that morale of the squad is now Good, no one on superb, nobody low or okay, but Good.... We are turning into an Italian International team here :)

What I really need know is someone in the middle up front with a lot of sparkle wish I could think of someone..... Learndo Lima who I've loaned out for the rest of the season, grrrrr.

Hopefully the rumors are true that if you keep your youths fit and give them match practice they'll improve a lot. Hopefully SI will see sense and spot that Aq Fee's are too low so I can turn a profit and hopefully I can keep these youngsters until they mature and the Gameworld doesn't come to an end.... I'm very hopeful about a great deal of different things :)

Financially we're ok, still got a £40k a day surplus. I'm fairly sure it's £2 Million in debt or a projected balance of -£100k for Bankruptcy and I'm not anywhere near those. I've got two players left to buy both youngsters on £600 ish a day and I'm pretty much not looking at anything then until I shift someone.

I'm bouncing around the 100-150 rank mark at senior level and top ten in Youth. I'm doing well at U21 I don't know how as my U21 squad wages are £24k a day and I've played players that have U21 squad wages £124k a day. We still manage to compete in this situation though which is strange but good.

Balls in the Air

There is one team I seem to have constantly lost to Chessington Villa. This is an extreme example of his formation but generally he put numbers up front.

I don't think the match engine works quite as realistically as it should but in this game after looking at the line up and being 1-0 down I'd put my balls in the air and take my own advice.

I pushed the defensive line up as far as up as it would go and played off side. Now like I said I normally lose 3-0 to this team and we did put them under a lot of pressure and got it back to 1-1. Stupid DC got sent off then so lost.

I think the tactics that would work best against this would be, not tight marking, zonal marking, push up, play off side and I know this is going to sound bonkers but soft tackling.

The soft tackling part is very much a theory but I thought I'd try it. When his team are attacking he has situations where it's 4v4 if one of my Defenders commits to a tackle and fails we're done, goal down, now if they don't commit and only commit when the ball is there to be won then there is less risk....

It's a theory I'll try it out....(you'll probably see me here later whining about how I lost ten games on the trot)

Typical

This is against a team in the top 100, even though clearly a good team we put them under a lot of pressure but just can't seem to finish them off. The main problem though against teams much lower down we're playing very plainly and end up either losing or scraping a win \ draw.

However it's rare we don't create a glut of chances. In real life I think you'd be inclined to wait knowing that soon those chances will start going in, I suppose it's better than getting played off the park and winning 1-0 at the end... Mind sometimes I do think. Perhaps I should be looking to try out a couple of highly paid strikers.

We did play one game and a left back managed to keep Ely quiet then another manager joins the game and starts talking off making an offer about this left back. I must admit somewhat tempted to chuck an offer in myself.

It's odd you can clearly see that teams of this level are faster / stronger more accurate yet ole £5k a day Ely still continues to torment most, only 20 as well...

Injuries

Pablo is out for a few days and I had just put Learndo Lima out for loan, no sooner had I realised I'd need him for cover but he had gone.

Still £12k a day saving will allow me to trial a few players with a view to adding more depth. I had a German Left on trial and he was ok nothing fancy but then noticed Camara (who was previously DC) could play in that position.

Having just snatched a DC, 30 Yr Old from a club that was just trialling him over and over I thought I give this a try first.

Beddi is back out on loan, he's 22/23 and bangs in goals but I've got too many strikers and as I've stated before it's pointless selling at current prices.

With Learndo out the way I'm working on a surplus of around £40k a day. Current players prices mean you can grab a bargain and I shall just trial a few players a day until someone impress's.

I've recently started with a clean sheet of paper with regard to tactics. There were so many customisations for certain players in the old one. You then end up forgetting half of them.

Essentially I now start with a 4-4-2 diamond but when Pablo is fit drop him back to DM. Should I need to change he can play MC and if needed Dano on for Klate and push the wingers up.

Should this start working out my next position that needs looking at is Left Midfield. Dano and Ely once they get the ball (Ely is more consistent) things happen their explosive and have bags of flair / pace the issue they have is getting the ball.

Now Ely is only a £5k a day and I've trialled players on nearly twice that who are not even close to him. I'm pretty sure I can find a £9k who is twice as good as Ely for Left Midfield... now that is the trick.

I generally play FM on my laptop and one of my workmates is really into FM he is madly jealous of my FM Live Beta test access :) I really must stop telling him all about it I can see the pain clearly in his eyes. He then goes off to keep pressing check mail for half an hour in the hope that SI will inform him his time has finally come :)

I'm actually not looking forward to it as he is a sad git when it comes to FM, sometimes playing a season a night. I was hoping he'd be a hacker but tactically he seems to talk a good game, we'll see. After the Beta I'm sure we'll enjoy a few 'derby' games :)

A mare

Well I've started having a mare again but I few signings later and it seems to have sorted itself. Despite the bad run in form I've actually managed to secure another six NFAQ3 points.

The was an AI team Saigon which was a 3-1 affair, but Pollock Utd who I think I lost 1-0 away and have taken points off the leaders... Well just see for yourself how lucky I was to grab a 1-0. Truly, a T-Shirt over the head moment.

Good Grief - Must stop buying strikers

I don't even know how he came up on a my radar, I was looking for a young Defender at the time. Anyway that height, that fast, that finishing? Aggressive, determined....

I almost forgot I trialled him so chucked him on for a few U21 games. Well... I've had a LARGE chunk of money lost when players like this were £150k and I simply could not ignore £24k cost and measly £2k a day. I know players go through purple patch's but his morale was low when he started. He just looked a handful.

Anyway I've now got the following strikers:-

Garcia - Out on loan, big lad good in air, 22 ish.
Mustoe - 31, doesn't make many mistakes knows where the goal is, currently listed.
Purovic - £12k a day and well worth it when I compare to some strikers on £20k a day.
Dano - Play him as winger young fast if he sort's out his finishing he'll be a superstar.
Wendell - Not overly impressive but has a knack of springing from no where, 19.
Lima - Solid Striker 23 at least a goal every other game.
Bedi - Loan looks really decent soon as he signed I put him out on Loan (I knew I had overdone the striker thing.)
Eren - See above.

SEVEN strikers and none are really duffers. Can't really see the point of selling any youngsters now with the price drop. When you can pick up a player like that for £24k you just know it's silly not to.

Actually when I think about had I signed Vaugn, he went for £25k a day, actually that pretty much covers the cost of all the other apart from Purovic.

Shopping Plan

Having just secured Pablo (a truly delicious signing :) ) on just over £9k a day, to a man now all my players apart from one one would be capable of playing Premier League football.

Pablo plays DM, DR, DC and CM, he was ideal, not only being young (23) being a great all rounder, good value, and playing in the position I was weak on. The icing on the cake was his ability to play CM making it extremely easy for me to change the focus of the side when I need to put pressure on by just moving him up from DM to CM. I'd been wringing my hands thinking should I risk going that much overdrawn to get him at £450k, yesterday's decline in Acquisition prices saw his price go down to £250k and it was a no brainer.

I have one more weakness in the squad now in Torres at Left Defence, he's not a bad player but does get out his depth when going up against a classy winger.

The squad is really young my oldest player Rios is 26 apart from Rahn who is c. 29. So I need an old head in the there somewhere.

With the collapse of players prices it's well within my grasp to secure someone but my wage bill would start getting out of control. I've got Learndo Lima on the bench for most games and at £12k a day it's a luxury I can't afford.

Given current prices I see no point in selling him and think I'd be best advised to look for a loan. The overdraft in the bank is a long way from being a problem but things are not going to improve unless I make cuts.

For the rest of the season then I'll have an eye out for youngsters as cover / U21 team and wait until next season to find a superstar to play alongside the big man.

A Tactical Flux

Currently don't have a starting position for Learnado Lima, normally Attacking Midfielder on 12k a day. He's such a frustrating player can waltz past defenders as if their not there and miss consistently from six yards out!

He's also a bit lightweight, he'll improve (only 21) so think I'll hang on to him. He's a fantastic sub anyway.

Well the tactical plan now is flamboyant (the game called us this the other day) out and out wingers Dano & Ely the big man Purovic with Lima up front (this Lima, can actually hit the net sometimes which helps).

It looks a bit odd the formation but both the Defensive midfielders move up a fair bit and the wingers move in, so in reality it's a variation on 4-4-2. Does it work?

Well when I find out I'll let you know, sometimes it's like my players just can't be arsed and then they turn on a show. Take last night... I play a game against a team ranked in the top 200 and lose 5-0 at home! The I play Mitz90's rather scary outfit the Mitsubishi Warriers and win 3-2 away. Man for man they have stronger team and in fairness we lost 1-0 at home but a top 50 ranked team by some margin and we really give them a game.

I can always bring Klate and Learnado off the bench and just move back to a 4-4-2 diamond. As I've stated before you can't just do a tactic and expect it too work all the time but I think to be competitive you need to have a number of tactics that you can jump to with minimal faffing about.

Si rather annoyingly have buggered about twice with player values, there are a large number of unattached players that at any time you can sign on a 1 Day trial, if you like you put in a bid and pay an acquisition fee. A few weeks back they put them all up (about 150%) and clearly I then didn't have the funds to put together a scary first team so I thought I'd put a U21 squad together and at least have some strength in depth.

I personally don't see the game coming out for some time so I expect the gameworld to last at least six months so my 21 Yr Old could be 27 then and worth a fortune. Anyway rightly or wrongly that's what I did but now of course I could have added a few major talents, grrrr. Not only that but say Ely who was a £170k acquisition is now only likely to be worth that in five years time anyway.

The results, most of the games are just mini tournaments the main event is the leagues so here are my recent results.



Played a couple of games unlucky for me Rahn, Gado and Dano were all banned for the game at Pollock Utd. We had a few chances but in fairness Pollock were no pushover and were good money for their win.

We were coasting against Heysham (who are a very good team) and 3-0 up and I didn't notice any tactical change but rather that his 'star' Lua Lua decided he'd quite like to make an impression. It made for a rather nail biting last ten minutes as I watched in horror as Lua Lua just seemed to having a jolly decent day in the park and enjoying skipping through my defence as if they had just taken some rather heavy drugs.

Anyway as it stands NFA Q3 (first season you have Qualifying Leagues I'm assuming a top six postion would be Premier League status next term), looks like this.



The P/Pts on the end I assume stands for 'projected points' which puts me top pro-rata, as you can see just over two points per game. In the real world this is normally promotion material but not title winning material and it proves that all teams played so far have taken points of each other.

Personally I think the Jakswans will be in the 'play off zone' and for the big games will do well but will drop points everywhere else. I'd be happy with getting in the Premier League for next season after which I expect to be down the bottom in a relegation scrap (there are some top players in the NFA).

Finally after a blinding run of about 17 wins in twenty games we were courting the Top 100 (115th ish) however I've now gone five games without a win so I expect a return to 150th ish in tonights midnight update.

Ipplepen 2 v 1 Jakswans - NFA Q3

In my opinion Ipplepen are the favourites for NFA Q3, their a strong solid side with a great manager. We had just bought a draw at home, (I say bought cos I chucked on anyone that had flair in the second half) and we managed it in the end.

For the game on their manor I thought I'd have to go tight so I went with two wingers two men up front and two Defensive Midfielders and played Counter attack. I knew it was going to be hard so I put them on go in hard, as you can see it was a war. Gutted that Purovic was off after two mins as he was just the man for the job, all 6'4" of him :)

I think I'm going to have to run with this formation long term, teams are getting stronger now and it's not just a case of putting 11 better players on the pitch and watching the show.

I have just put a bid on for another winger but I'm starting to get a serious debt now so will have to stop there. Mind I notice another manager has come in for him so fingers crossed it doesn't work out, I've got my eye on aanother DM.

Tactics Done Quick

I suspect that some players have come up with a tactic that is hard to get around and now find themselves running high in the rankings.

I have to be honest and say I never really did tactics in FM but if you don't do it on line you've a painful experience ahead. One of the most common ones I saw early on was a team full of pace. How the heck do you counter that?

Although not easy I eventually figured it out, drop back the defensive line, they have to play through you then and they won't be catching you on the break.

Another tactic I see is four or five men up front, depends on your squad but I've got quite a pacey back four and it's risky this strat. Push up and play offside, they have four men looking to break whilst your effectively playing the entire game in their half.

Tomorrow I'll do a report on the big match in NFA Q3, I have never seen so many yellow cards (two reds as well).

The Jaks are going up

What a turnaround, heck good luck, an inspired choice, selective opposition. What a run...

In fairness I noticed that Dano had poor finishing stats and a guy who wasn't on form was not what you'd want. Lima came into the picture and since then we've been awesome.

I still use Dano as a sub late on he can play attacking right or left midfield and with his stats he really takes the pressure off. I gues it will all end in tears but lets enjoy it whilst it lasts.

Morale, Morale Morale....

So morale is coming back slowly and I have to play against a team that's in the top 20. We held off for the first half but they have better players and they have massive morale. I expect to lose don't me wrong but I check after and.......



It doesn't half start to get old after three days of this now. I mean it's like us say a Championship side playing a top 15 world team, that's Inter Milan territory how the heck does morale floor after that!

Bugger it think I'll just chuck the side on and on till it sorts itself out. I suspect that I'm going to lose out and fall in rank (don't care) but I REALLY mind if my rep falls as then I'll be stuck in a rut I can't get out of less money coming in.

If that happens I'm going to take a very long break.

Start of the Season

How I lied... I signed up Dano and he has a tendency to move into the channels. This combined with good technical ability means he's a nightmare to pick up and has the skill to lay it off.

The bad morale thing meant I had to take some action. Lima is 21 so I decided to field him in some U21 games and a solid run which has left us ranked 14th in Youth improved his morale.

Also I've been much more selective about who I play and when. Slowly things have improved... The league games I have to admit to being a sad git and scout the opposition first.

I'll go through this in more detail... first though future plans for the squad. I suspect Camara who can also play DM is much better in that position, although Rios is very capable Camara offers more. Hopefully a non ranked compo will kick off soon so I can give him an extended run in this position. Should he do the job then I will look to offload Rios (shouldn't be a problem as he's well worth the money) and pick another quality defender.

Moya is the only player I've really 'gone for', his Wage Demand as I recall was around £7k and another side were interested. He is a great goalie and I knew securing him would be worth 20 goals a season. I think I bid over £12k a day and good job cos I got him at £10,001 a day.

To the games...


I looked at Perth and even with low morale I felt we had enough to win. It was tight and we had chances but there you go. Ninja I had looked at and noticed he liked to play lots of men up front, he's got a decent squad so I thought I'd sacrifice Purovic and bring on another Lima (pacey striker) play counter attack, drop the line defensive line back and hope we'd catch em on the break. Worked a treat.

Haysham have a really strong squad and play a similar style the tactic worked! We had the better of the game but had the strikers had a little more composure up front it would have been 2-1 at least. That's football though, it was quite funny though he was nagging me to play the game constantly and I haven't seen much of him since.

Reefer had a few big names in their squad but I felt man for man we'd be the better team so Purovic came on for this one. One man or two men don't make a team you need quality throughout and we destroyed them. How cunning was my plan to have cover that despite Purovic getting injured in the first minute in the away game that my cheap cover Mustoe came on an bagged two of the goals. Purovic is big lump and great in the air.

The return for Perth, well I just felt they were not as good as us and with home advantage well, they don't play anything special (4-4-2 as I recall) so I just picked the best 11 and let the game go.

I'm so glad that I missed on some of the big money transfers now, we have strength in depth and I think a top half finish in the NFA Q3 is well within our grasp.

Although I'm overdrawn I've a million pound transfer budget so I could now just sit back and wait until I have chance to move some players so can cast my eye over some Centre Backs.

Despite Purovic having been A1 his morale has remained low I can't wait to see this guy when he's playing well.

The Start of the Season

As things stand this will be the team that plays. However I've done a lot of speculating in the transfer market. I had a young James Vaughan all lined up but was starting to have second thoughts at the bid I put in.

£25k a day way too high. Luckily someone bid more, I lost out on a another decent striker, again I wasn't convinced.

Tomorrow night I'll find how many players I'd have obtained as I have a lot of bids in. Since the start Klate and Gilaney on the wings have been good finds at around £5k a day. Mostto is decent he doesn't do much wrong but he doesn't spark the game either.

Rios is dependable and was a big investment at £9k, Lima is awesome when he's on form but dire when not. Tomorrow I'm hoping it'll look only a little different.

Although I'm coming off a bad run I've just beaten a top 50 player 3-0, won away 5-1 and you can see that we have a real threat. Mostly the purchases will be on the subs bench to give me options when things are not going well.

I don't know how it started but every single player in my squad went to low morale and it was a horror show, ten games without a win before scraping a 1-0. With the season about to start I'm seeing big names being picked up for the first time and I think you have two choices:-

1. Put together a squad without much threat but generally solid and have a superstar
2. Have some strength in depth. My maximum wage is £12k a day, I've seen £50k a day on some teams.

We'll see how it works out I guess.

The Big Ten

Season One few days from Kick off, here are the early runners for glory. I do recall playing Watford and they were deadly over three games. I think lost them all. I think I managed to lose 2-1 in one game and I thought that a result!

Seemed to have tremendous pace throughout. I'd be quite happy to be a Championship like outfit :)

Chasing the Dream

Whoop I've got one and a bit stars on my reputation and my income per day is upto just £117,000. What this does is allow me to secure the services of a couple of fresh face's. Previous income was £100,000 and my wage bill was around £86,000.

Thing is now I've got a real dilemma, Owain Tudor Jones isn't what I'm after as a Defensive Midfielder and I know I need a replacement. I lack some serious firepower up front, my wingers are not the threat they should be and if I was going to spend some really serious cash a top class Goalkeeper would be money well spent. So I need.

RM - Right Midfield
LM - Left Midfield
ST - Striker
DM - Defensive Midfielder
GK - Goalie

Then I've got a £20,000 budget for five players, consider my top striker Purovic costs £12,000 a day it's pretty clear I'm not going to be getting five £12k a day players. I think with the games I play I could assume that I'll always get around £120,000 a day especially when the season starts.


If you look at Purovic he gets a goal at least every other game and that's not bad for a striker, but he'll bag a hat trick and then you won't see him for three of four games. Although I think he's a little inconsistent I still don't think I'm getting the best out of him.

I've signed five players on one day loans recently and there is no doubt with a bit of quality alongside him he's much improved. As you can see he's a strong, good in the air foward and he's got to the have the right balls in. My wingers are not providing him with the right quality so this will be next priority.

I think I'll have to hold off for the others, if I can pick a decent striker for cheap must not get tempted....

Wimping Out

Well I did wimp out and restart. I did want keep things on a tight budget but ended up with rota of 20 odd players all of which were pretty ordinary.

On restarting I handpicked my players and was thinking of a tight first 11 with a couple of stars, I'd back this up with a few cheap utility players and youndsters. Got one guy only with wages under £1,000 who can play at the back and as centre forward!

As you can see results have improved and always seem to give someone a decent game, 5-4 scoreline anyone!

Still need to work on tactics, spotted nine outfield players attacking a corner, if it had broken down we'd be caught.

It is so tempting to chuck some big money at a player though....

Out of the Cup guns blazing.

A great game though, screenshot tells the story. I made two changes at half time, got one injury shortly after. So I think we did well overall.


Luckily we missed out on the Brazilian. I must sign another forward on Trial though, we do lack firepower. I did make a grab for Sato and another Brazilian in Attacking midfield. Basically Sato can play as both Attacking midfielder and Defensive midfielder so he could be a good cover player.

Ricardinho Transfer Battle

Just read you get two free restarts in FML, only applies to first 25 Days. I think I'm going to stick with it though.

My thinking is it's pointless getting a squad of sixteen top players and scraping for money as then you've no room to move. Ok you're going to get beat a fair bit but signing the right players and playing around will save money in the long run.

Reading up on the guides etc you can get upto £300k a day for a top class team, I bet a fair few will be tempted to sign big players and make a push for the Top Leagues. Great if it comes off but deadly if it doesn't.

Stuck a few more bids in for a few players and have a couple in for trials.

Ricardinho is a player I picked up on trial and suddenly a few teams are bidding for him, like a fool I chucked a bid in as well. I really wish I waited as in his five games he's been largely unimpressive and yet to get on the score sheet.

The First few Hours

Well there you go, in to FM Live now and team duly created... Jakswans. I thought I'd be 'clever' and go on a low budget. Thing is now I have a team full of long ball larry's and a pretty dire opening record with just one win. Still we've scored plenty so I would be thinking defence needs to be my focus.

I'm playing with a 4-4-2 diamond formation. It's very easy to join comps and I duly signed up for Chuffa Championship and got beat 3-1 home and away to the group leaders but managed a fairly respectable couple of draws against the second placed team.

It's funny that the game is now describing me as 'the dreadful Jakswans', lol!