Flirting with Premier League

Slightly turned the corner in Voller had a hairy game against the current top side really ding dong ended 3-3 and that's with three first teamers out injured.

My other good kid Holzer has in a handful of senior games scored and put in a 60yd pass for an assist think I'll hang onto him. If he can do 7+ at Premier / Championship level that's going to save a heck of a lot of cash.

Does seem odd he plays so well at this level despite being 18, mind there are teams filled with these players so go figure:)

Lots still left to be done we're borderline 6th in EFA 1st run and I need to average 6th across the three runs.

We're less than 24 hours away from being classed as rich in both GW's :)

Big Sale

Sold an 18yo DC for £2m in Voller and a 17yo DM for £1m in Turk.

I tried the DC at senior level and he was uninspiring I think he'll do great at Division One level but in the Premier / Championship he's a long way off being good enough. He was on a low wage and I'm sure he'll go great guns but the opportunity cost of £2m was too much to ignore.

Armed with this cash now coming in over 8 weeks I've spent half of it on the stands. These never offer a return so always a big capital investment and fully funded by this sale. Looking good:-



It's strange but even if he could perform his wage demand would rise quickly (bugs aside) and I'd then end up with another problem.

Anyway bottom line in both Turk & Voller I have around £2m cash (in Voller £4m projected) not a bad squad and stadium well under way.

Form wise it isn't great anywhere, once again the Voller team has is drawing a load of games P8 W1 D6 L1, they did this last season and with me needing to average a top 6 finish across the three runs in EFA it's not good. We're a tough team to beat but is that going to be enough.

In Turk I started with a 4-1 defeat so then got a £1m Aq Fee right winger who was awesome in a 1-1 but then went out for five games, doh! Slight silver lining I had insured him so I've not been rushing to play that many games as I'm £30k a day better off whilst he's injured:)

FML Casual Only

A chap in Voller was rage quitting and a discussion started about the state of the game. A few of the managers in there posted to the mailing list that actually you were far better off not really stressing over the game and just playing it casual.

I must say this is exactly my position now it does play a lot better if your casual. In some GW's Whiteside being one I think I went seasons without playing any live games, often the answer to a teams form is time so why stress out about it.

I'd skim though results and they would go WWWWLLLWWWW the LLL had I been around I'd have fiddled and no doubt made it worse.

I'm still convinced that for us more normal users that would actually like to play more then three hours a week a faster GW would be much better. I've got some half tidy youths in Voller and it's six months before they hit their peak, I think my sub runs out before then!

Read that some teams are now able to support £200k wage bills in some GW's, this isn't funded by success on the pitch but their success at Football Trader Live. In turn this is possible, even easy with heavy inflation.

FAism

Strange one I'm finding the EFA is actually not much good for me, I log in everyday and if there is a game to play I'll play it if not I'm gone.

As the season moves forward I end up not getting any AI rights so then not logging in which leads to less AI rights which leads to less logging on.

Pity I enjoyed the pace of it as well

I stuck a bid in on a 29yo World Famous winger in Voller and immediately regretted it. £35k a day basic demand luckily someone else came in for him.

I've done the same silly thing in Turk with a 30yo and hoping someone does the same, I don't know why but yesterday I got it into my head I needed these players without looking at costs too much:(

Turk Season 3 Squad

Well this is the Turk squad for season 3, it's showing 7.3 in biography and the cost is £51k a day. I don't really know how I've done that apart from shopping in the gaps.

It's nuts all anyone seems to want is an Under 24 5star PA, not sure my strat is the right one remains to be seen if I get Premier League or not. Anyway as you can for the most part solid mature cheap players plenty of cover as well although if Coroza gets another long injury we'll miss him.



GK- Vitorino £6k Wage £600k Aq Fee, why did no one else bid? 28 too old, only six seasons left in him:p
DL - Valeri Came in starting pool nothing too fancy gets the job done though.
DC - Gonzalez Bit of a loon with massive aggression and other mentals.
DC - Said Still £230k Aq Fee on his last season mentals still green getting slower now though.
DR- Dossary I don't know how I pick these up, high concentration and other mentals pacy right back who can play wing.
MR - Medina £3k a day can play wing and MC
ML - Zouaghi The winger who played much of last season as MC and still pulled an Av Rating of 6.8 in a poor team. Flair Agility looks a big threat.
MCd - Bagalini another lunatic chopper type, undervalued player 18 Natural Fitness so few seasons in him
MCa - Coroza In the pool a nice bit of culture in this young un.
FC - Alvardo Can play on either foot, not super strong or fast but seems to know where the goal is
FC - Andrade Solid no nonsense striker

Sub
Gorski - Might use him a lot this season.

Was chatting in Turk yesterday and managers with £60k wage players are seemingly delighted with their purchase. There is me thinking do I need to bid another £300 and their contemplating another £30,000:)

Another chap peeped up he signed a bargain £700k for a £26k AF striker who wouldn't get on the bench in the squad above.

Anyway lets not get too cocky I still play 4-4-2 which is quirky and we're not an established Premier League side yet.

Inflation is Great

I reached the semi finals of the FA Cup last season and won £250k, meanwhile I've put all youth players on auto accepts, sold two straight away for £500k!

In Turk still looking for a LW I found a strange one, £190k Aq Fee with no bids and a low average rating. I checked he played most of last season as MC, signed for £3k a day.

I think both squads are strong enough to secure Premier League football now and both are quite low wages. If they are, then the plan is to build the stadium as quickly as possible whilst trying to hold a Premier League spot.

Rep Next Season

Looking at Coppell seems the best you can get is 9 not 10/11. Looking at it it seems to be a high 9, like 9.7 ish.

Reps in Sample FA Coppell:-
Tier One - 9 to 7
Tier Two - 6 to 4
Tier Three - 4 to 1

Income Ready Reckoner

This is a bit rough and ready but gives you an idea of potential income at various levels. The highlighted area is Premiership rep levels.


Maybe now you can understand why I want to be in the Premiership! I won't go on about inflation again:)

Price of Failure

I was looking at the team in Coppell, this is a team I let go at the start and didn't really bother with. Since then I've tried to turn the corner. The first season saw us finish a dismal 18th in the Qual group and then won the 2nd tier.

So then I started looking at finances, it seems the price of my mismanagement is severe, by my reckoning the Voller team will be turning over £6m next season but the best I can hope for in Coppell is £3m, maybe £4m.

Although the prize money isn't that much difference it's the lack of stadium options and lesser commercial income that really hurts.

It'll all work out of course and my aim has to be Championship football come season 4 for the Coppell team.

Shopping in the Gaps

Well I chucked a few bids around in Turk and whilst your 23yo strikers go for £40k I'm left bidding £3k a pop on my targets.

The shopping list is:-

DM (or DC)
MR (or DR)
ML

I'm not really after World Famous at this stage more players that will hopefully get me into the Premiership cheap. So in this desperately competitive market for players do we have value?



Yes not mega star but must have some PA with that Aq Fee, plan to play him as midfield right as opposed to a winger. Will always be handy to have due to his ability to play MC.

A controversial 31 again he's no technical wonder but looks mental and quite capable of being mental physically. It's not really a gamble on any level taking a DC/DM of this type as they'll always serve a purpose.

Not too bad shopping list of three and two done in a day. I might leave the LM until the season starts and go for one of the £1m+ Aq Fee players, such is the lunacy of FM Live managers a player who's demand is £40k a day sometimes won't get that.

More thoughts on the ME

In the cold light of day after playing a tonne of games and whining like a silly forum poster at times I've come the conclusion that the ME is..... not too bad actually.

I don't know seems to be a lack of appreciation to how good it can actually be, of course you do tend to remember the bad times.

In Coppell on the way to winning the league it was frustrating to struggle quite consistently against the teams down the bottom of the division and something isn't quite right there. However those players you would assume have something to prove.

Maybe I've got too vivid an imagination but I have this 29yo in Coppell and we were 1-0 down, he gets injured and then gets booked I swear he goes fucking apeshit. Two minutes later he goes past three players and hits the ball so hard into the net and then runs to pick it out of the net and does exactly the same thing five minutes later.

It doesn't happen all the time but players do seem to posses a personality which is pretty amazing for a few dots moving around a computer screen.

It's not perfect and probably never will be but it often captures football just right, the good and the bad:)

Meanwhile the wage auctions have started in Turk it's quite scary.....

No Megabucks for Kids for me

I had a few offers for those youths but they were not the million+ level that I hoped for.

I'm not anti youth but I think £1m is too much so was prepared to leave them go at that price any less and I just as well keep and sell them later, their not going to turn out rubbish:)

We scraped by in Turk in the end although I do need at least one player, going to be a long slog in wage auction to find some value as Voller is getting £15k bids for £85k players, yikes.

I must be a little twisted as I do get a massive amount of satisfaction in finding players on low wages in a highly inflated world. The 21yo I got in Turk Gorski is showing 4.5 PA and some dam fine stats now, took a lot of looking and bagged him on base wage demand.

Here is he again:-

Seems to be quite the handful when he comes on at senior level, still a bit young yet especially for top tier. Nice roll of the dice though!

High Youth Prices

I don't really much care for youths comps and been told by a few of the chaps that i could some serious cash for some youths if their High PA so I kicked these two in Transfer Auction:-




Dunno if anyone will buy but starting them at £1m a pop.

Two Stage Increase in Rep

Didn't realise this but the increase in rep that you get in season 3 will happen in two stages.

Stage One: At the end of Season Two your final rep for that season will be awarded.
Stage Two: Start of Season 3 your minimum rep for Season 3 will be awarded assuming it is higher.

Limping....

Ohhh I think we've done enough in Turk to get top tier £1m in the bank as well. I have an AMC there that got a 15 game injury and he's by far the best player so the bad run when it came was no surprise. The £400k keeper I signed was made to work hard for the last few points we've managed to grind out.

Looking at the squad I'd like a DC or DM, RB or RW at a push a LW and that should be enough to get us through the next season.

I must be twisted because I really 'enjoyed' the injury or the challenge of coping with it.

Meanwhile in Coppell is a breeze being so empty I kind of left this account idle at the start of the GW but chucked in some time towards the end of last season. We've gone from dreadful to being ok, looks like the Tier 2 title is in the bag as well.

New Blog Worth a read

Well worth having a read of Big Hairy Andy's blog where he mentions the importance of a captain and gives an insight to just how deep the ME is.

Season 2 Voller Squad End of Season

Well Season 2 draws to a close with just a couple of games left. The target was top tier for season 3 on a fairly strict wage budget.

Apart from Stage 1 in the EFA we started slowly so it looks like it is going to be 2nd / 5th and 7th ish. The high point was a second major cup final a narrow 1-0 defeat in the end saw us finish runners-up. Although disappointing in a way better to have loved and lost etc.

Now the focus switches to an attempt to secure Premiership football next season. So time to consider what I'm after in wage auction and how much I'm going to spend.



GK Tommaso - He was in the pool not super sexy but a safe pair of hands in goal, only 29 so many seasons ahead.
DR - Friday a natural DC but DR as well can't jump so poor Averages still often a commanding presence though.
DL- Contreras Shaky start though I had made a mistake here but likes to get forward and has improved no end.
DC - Lejko A good jumper so solid Av rating but still gets his foot in I'm a little concerned his lack of raw talent will see him exposed at a higher level. Maybe need someone here.
DC - Fumo very solid not a major worry 31 next season but he'll start next season for sure.
MR - Vrdolijak Still young at 24 can cause problems for many defences and contributes the odd goal.
ML - Menseguez - Can play ML MC and FC 31 next season my plan is to leave him go at 32. Will start next season and bench him at 32. Sure to feature regularly though due to his ability to play in so many positions.
dMC - Palavecino A monster a natural DC so maybe a new DM could be signed and this guy put into defence.
MC Fernandez - Low influence I don't like in the middle of the park but everything else said buy. Slow start from him but a commanding presence now who can open up a defence with the perfect pass. 28yo so many seasons ahead.
FC - Valeri a cheap wage auction signing and delivered and then some. Kids who'll rock tomorrow are all very well a 29yo who's proven on a low wage is a banker.
FC - Cisse - What an odd player, he's a poor mans Messi goes on these hazy runs. Last season it often ended in nothing, now though will often play the killer ball.

So mission accomplished for season 2 the entire focus now is on a natural left footer DC.

Although the ME has issues every player is unique, they do good things and bad things and they do it at different times. That is what keeps me playing the game this uniqueness in players.

Meanwhile in Coppell the corner has been turned although it's stupidly uncompetitive. I have young players there who would make your eyes bleed on base wage.

Light relief...... Tactical chat in Voller.

kris says: (00:28:35)philosophy how does it work?
andy says: (00:30:37)you read it in a book
jak says: (00:31:14)Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.

Tickled me that did.

Weird View on Players

It's blumin odd had my eye out for a Goalie in Turk and one 28yo pops up. There are others same value £400k Aq Fee but they are younger c. 23, they go for £20k plus and the one I signed is on his base demand £6k a day.

Of course he's old and will only last let me think........ 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34 six seasons!

More thoughts on Form

After the shocking result team seemed to kick on and coast to wins in the next two, I'm thinking that maybe the team isn't on any stage of form currently just neutral. The team I played were coming off a long line of defeats.

I'm convinced it's rank or more likely a hidden FA rank and team strength in the Biography, dependent upon how they match up then your more or less likely to enter a period of form.

This isn't a new theory if you read back though my blog.

So just to recap that result their team strength was 5.3 and mine was 7.3, the players after a string of results focus on the game and start hitting form.

7.3 V 5.3

Stands to reason they'd be confident of getting a result at home and be really up for the game.If it was a scale of 20 then it would be:-

18.25 V 13.25

Then no amount of form is going to overcome that difference.

If this is true we'd have youth teams doing adversely well due to the current low scaling of this part of the game. The other thing that would happen is that inactive teams would be very dangerous to play as they'd be heavily under-ranked.

Read T bag's recent post and he mentioned that he suffers a Stage 7 this really really adverse run. It actually doesn't surprise me that he gets that. I think T bag is a tactical marvel compared to me.

Therefore he often manages to get teams way over ranked and then this system eventually catches up and puts him through hell.

I don't play any non FA League games at senior level now as trying to cope where I was in this system and competition form my head would explode.

Is it bad?

Eventually it should work out the youth teams will start to struggle as the scale will be more extreme as we roll into season 4. So hopefully won't see a 17yo own a 30yo seasoned pro unless he's Rooney like.

For the game.... well form in football plays a massive part so I don't mind it being in, keeps me busy trying to work it out anyway:) I've asked and asked for SI to make it more transparent so that at least expectations are managed a little better.

Lots of managers sign players and think their team will be turned around sadly players coming in can make form go the opposite way.

I've seen a lot leave in a huff never really knowing that their signings will make a difference in the long term but short term may be bad. I think if their were given a clear indication that eventually things will work out might save a few subs.

Certainly would make the ME look a let less random anyway.

A part of me says it's football follower syndrome. Take the England team, I have listened to many fans and media after a narrow defeat in major competitions ask 'Whats wrong with English football?'

The answer, not a lot it's a world game, there is no right that England have to have a great world beating side. A population of £50m where it's just one of many major sports means your never going to be quite as strong as others.

Long rambling post sorry.

Is the Match Engine b0rked

I'm just watching a game where my team is playing away, the away team is shown as 5.2 ability and mine 7.3. They are mostly 16 and 17 year olds and even those don't have massive Aq Fee's.

My U17 team beats their U17 team.

Yet senior game we lose 4-2?

The odd thing I watch the game and they have this U17 striker that walks past my DC like he isn't there.

This is the DC:-



and this is the striker:-


Now I'm not saying the youth isn't a half tidy player and I'm not saying Fumo is John Terry but come on there is no way that U17 should be able get past Fumo any day of the week. He was breezing past him:)

Anyway the Jakswans are now firmly in stage 4 or 5. I'll be honest I think form should be in the game have no issue with that and I've no issue with attempting to grind out a result. However when all reality has gone out of the window then to be honest I'd rather not bother.

I would post on the forums but looking at Beta match feedback I can one of the most respected beta testers has already provided many examples.

Don't know how the ME got into such a mess, I've got a RB in Voller thats a £200k Aq Fee his jumping is low so he's scraping a 6.7 rating. I'm convinced that this effects his confidence and so has an adverse effect on his overall performance. Been told that isn't the case.

Don't know what to make of it all, it feels b0rked, it looks b0rked if I could smell it I just know what it would smell like:)

So It Ends!

Facing off against a team that is on a hot run in the league with a WWWWW record I was expecting the worst. Game starts and after 30 mins they haven't had a shot I'm expecting the worst but there it is nice little exchange in the middle onto the strikers right peg to slot home from 10 yds.

Strange that's it no more shots from them dominate the game throughout, cost to 1 -0 and first win in 5 games.

My experience of the of BF hasn't changed much:-

• Stage One - Team playing delightful football, your marvelling at how great you are at FM Live, tactics & signing players, your a genius.
• Stage Two - Team not playing so good but your riding your luck a little.
• Stage Three - It happens, a late goal, sending off, missed pen, other team comeback from 2 goals down. This is it the beginning.
• Stage Four - This is the low point your team play badly now can't seem to catch a break. You don't think your a genius anymore but this is where the frustration kicks in.
• Stage Five - Sometimes this is even worse but it's the opposite of Stage Two your not getting luck but your team are playing great. Drives you mental as nothing you do seems to get the result your desperately need.
  
• Stage Six - It ends, for a time you won't be in any stage if your good with tactics you might get Stage One on again and if your really good at tactics make it last for a long time.

More BF

Defo gone pear shaped in Turk, as I said I can tweak tactics but when your opponent one shots you then gets a pen for the second shot it's not going to be your day.

It does drive me a little crazy at times but I've got to be honest that team isn't that good so whilst I might take issue with the manor of some defeats. Frankly the defeats are a fair enough especially if you consider the amazing run at the start of the campaign.

I know what I need to do is buy one of these £400k players on the FA list but whilst I'm bidding £10k the GW is bidding £20k.

We're still looking good for top tier though so we're not in desperate mode yet.

BF City & Internationals

Cor we seem to have BF all over now. Losing games everywhere, I'm not really sure that tactics do anything as I can fiddle to create more chances but it's invariably finished off with a shot at the keeper or super save. I still find it crazy that your own BF affects the oppositions goalie. I suppose just need a jammy win to turn it around.

Or all my teams and tactics are dire, still not sure:)

Still not quite enough to do hopefully Internationals will come in 1.6, I doubt it but nothing like hoping.

I did post a thing on that on the forums:-

Starts in Season 4.

Open Bidding System for the International Managers job using RP this bidding system is run the previous season.

Once the season starts International Managers have a new squad called the country, e.g. 'Brazil National Team'. They can pull players in and out of this squad as they see fit. This works like a shortlist the players don't actually move.

There is an International Cup, which runs regional qualifying of groups of six teams top one or two (depends on numbers) go through to finals of 32.

Three times during a season there are 'International Days' where 3 or 4 of these qualifying games are played. Players at midnight arrive in the squad on a 0% 24 hour loan, (Loans shouldn't count towards rep in Biography anyway?). They will only be eligible for the new game classification 'International'.

International Games can result in injuries but never cure players. Injured players can't be called up.

The Qualifiers are played in quickplay format where the home manager sets the time, could actually do this using home playing rights.

The finals are held in the close season, all International Players move to their International team during this time on a 5 day 0% loan.

Targets and Achievements - Managers love the Biography page, something like that on the managers profile, International Wins - Group & Finals stage. e.g. As an International manager Joe Bloggs has a proven record taking the unfancied Jordan to the finals in Season 14 and taking Italy all the way in Season 6.

Other Notes
Managers can opt out of having their players called up but their contract Negotiation skill is void.
The number of grads coming from a country is made more transparent and directly correlates to performance in the International Cup. This is crude concept numbers but say Italy normally produces 100 normal grads a season if they win the World Cup then bumper harvest following season of maybe 150. If they don't qualify then it's down to 50 if they got knocked out at group stage then it's 75.

I really want something else to do and if you are having a dismal time at senior and youth level and lets be honest everyone does at some point then this could provide the perfect relief.

Heck you could even make an entire sub game where you seed teams and award RP on the target. So say San Marino were lowest seed you'd have 1m RP for finishing 4th in their group where as Brazil you'd get 1m RP for winning the International Cup.

Bland One

Not much going down today, yesterday made the Final of the FA Cup in Voller which is going to make my Club Profile pretty with three entries there now. We did a mini rally form wise to finish 5th in the 2nd stage of EFA. By my reckoning that's the top tier in season 3 in the bag.

The semi final was interesting, a team that didn't look good on paper and 5th in the second tier, squad was rated at something like 5 ish. For the first 30 mins it was like a knife through butter 4-0 up, but good ole ME I knew what was going to happen it was going to get scary, I think their next three shots on target went in before we bagged another to finish the game off quite late on.

It's weird my DC's seemed quite content for players to walk past them, perhaps they felt sorry for them.:)

Was fascinated by T Bag's take on the stats in his recent post, seen that linked a lot in the lobbys of various GW's now. Tis weird as back in Beta GW6 I loaned a LB off a mate and I said he was bloody awful, he had amazing stats apart from one thing, low concentration. I looked back at goals and it was always him making the wrong choice or not making a challenge or wrong position.

Luckily I've always been careful to pick defensive type players with that quality ever since.

In Turk we're really starting to limp mainly as my 22yo AMC is out for the rest of the season, he's young so we see patchy form but when he's on form then game over. We've still got some breathing space, think we're projected 4th still but a bad run in the last ten or so games could cost us dear.

I've literally not spent a penny here and with wages sitting at just over £50k I'm looking solid financially. I think the squad is actually good enough to get a top half finish but it lacks depth and the missing AMC proves that point well.

I suspect that many are out of cash now £30k young signings is all very well but unless your heading for the top flight then you could stumble. Certainly seeing 28yo's come though with high wage demands be left for a few days on the free agent list.

I'd go for one of these myself but if I can avoid getting one and still finish in the top half well that's going to save a lot. Even with this high inflation I know I can pick up a 30yo massive player for wage demand easy such is the youth madness.

The Turk squad will defo need some attention if their going to get Premiership football so busy close season ahead!

Stadiums and Projected Rep

Been pondering stadiums recently. Next season player will scale from 1-12 (well probably 4 -12 as it's broken) and the top tier will award from 9-14.

So I was wondering the effect this will have on rep. I'd like to hit the ground running so if I get rep say 9 at the start of season 3 I want the stadium to be in place before I get there.

Here are my wild calculations:-

Lets explain that a bit. Max team rep now is 8 and my team is 7.5 so 94% of max, if I project that to a scale of 12 then that's 11.25.

I've already reached the Cup Semi - Final so earning a 7 for that and assuming I get top tier once the season starts I'll pull a 9.

So overall almost 11 rep. Now this could change the player rep (despite being broken) is relative I think so if everyone signs better players than this could go down. I might not get top tier football as if I finish last in the final stage of the EFA I'll be second tier.

I'm going to have a look at a 9/10 stadium, even if I get top tier in season 3 then I'm almost assured championship football season 4 so gives me some security.

Why Now?
A two tier stand takes at least a week to build and another week to get the seats in, so if I need one it needs to start happening now.

Ok so rep 9 is 9,000 fans straight off the bat I can see I need a new stand. What to go for.... If I'm pretty confident of Premiership football then the Ospitalita is the one to go, I'm going to have a mass of corps and their where the money is.

So I've got a nice upgrade path in place, if I was playing it a little safe then Aziendale.



Now I'm not going to click build on that yet I'll get the stand up then build the rest but that's my thinking anyway. This is a £2.54m upgrade that'll pay for itself in 150 days.

As I'm going to get 56 days to pay it'll knock a third off the price, that's a bit rough and ready but principle is sound.

I've taken the most expensive seats as this will help a lot at lower rep levels. If your really confident of hitting high rep and staying there then go for cheaper seats which pay for themselves much faster.

To demonstrate that point:-

As you can see I've had to take my rep up to 12 just to fill the corps out but it pays for itself very quickly.

Almost Rage

I managed to kind of turn things around in Coppell in fact it's pretty much a walk in the park in there as it's so dead.

However I have the BF and it's quite funny seeing opposition players that have played 20 games got a 6.6 av rating and not even score all season pile drive 30 yd screamers. I think I've signed too many in too short a time at least the players are not all superb morale so have some feedback.

I have no idea what makes them superb morale or not or indeed if that makes any difference anyway. To be honest other than Aq Fee and Biography the players might in fact be dire or it might the tactics or it might be form or morale.

Been playing two years now and still have no idea just a little message as the timer goes down that's all I ask 'your team are hungover' 'their team fired up' can accept it then.

I mean if I don't get it after two years what chance does a n00b have, kind of nuts then that there are some pondering the massive churn rate the game has suffered from.

I do sympathise with the forum chaps that suffer from this to be honest my cure is to log off I find in less than 60 seconds I don't give a monkeys anyway:) Casual gamer must think and act like a casual:)

Anyway I calmed down and logged on again and thought about at least trying to sort it out. Boy have I signed some young un's the starting team had one player over 25. So once again losing 1-0 to a very dodgy long shot I think bollox to it and bring two £18k 29yo's, one sets up the goal, 1-1. Next game 2-0.

The odd thing is they play the same but I'm just luckier.

I'm convinced the Biography page is bugged, and I'm convinced the ME sets up player confidence levels in accordance with biography. So a 6.8 team plays a 4 team your on bad form so you lose.

The scale should be 13 to 3 so even though your players are not exactly purring the 17yo rubbish teams would still get slapped about. This is why the ME seems off.

I won the Lottery Well kinda

I know the academy system is kind of like a lottery and is brilliantly explained at the FML Analyst blog you have a clear choice. Get 16 kind of ok youths in an obscure nation or chance your arm in one of the big nations and have a chance of a future mega star.

I was looking really to just have a youth team and hopefully one or two would be decent enough to come through. Of course there is always a chance in an obscure nation that you'd get high potential but more likely you'd get 2.5 - 3.5 star potential players through.

For that reason I took the safe bet and chose Libya, hardly a footballing mega nation but if a 3 star comes through with the right hidden stats then happy days.

I got four the first season (none this season) and they all looked a bit rubbish. There was one though that I looked at and though well he could go well.

I started him out on the wing and he isn't really that sort of player so tried him in the middle. He's a little demon!

Death of the FML Awaits

Ohhhh I do like being a drama queen!

Been thinking about the economy, it's going to explode unless something is done.

I hear the Miller economy has finally slowed but bear in mind the activity is half that of retail worlds, with a mature draft system the player database doubles in size and the wage modifiers are kicked in..... AND they had only four FA's think it might be five now.

Retail we have double the number of managers, have six FA's (two extra Premier Leagues), less players and won't see wage modifiers until season six. BOOOOOOM!

So I'm expecting that inflation will get much much worse. This is very bad I've heard some managers claim Inflation isn't bad but that's nonsense.

I'm sure some are reading this thinking 'omg he's off again predicting doom and gloom' two choices:-

1. Listen and try and get SI to do something.
2. Hope that I'm wrong.

Grrr BF

I got the BF horrible thing, game starts 3 or four clear cut chances in the first 10 mins you know the game is saying 'yeah good team nice tactics but confidence has gone'.

I just accept it as a fault\feature of the ME, does do my head in a little but if we won all the time then it would be boring. Of course there is a cure to this, getting better players!

I keep looking for players and bidding but whilst I'm thinking £6k the GW seems to be thinking £30k:)

Ahh well three days till another game in Turk gawd this game is slow.

Economy Worry

Booya
Youth Academy Prediction
Cor if I was as good at FM Live as I was predicting the behaviour of FM Live managers then I'd be great.

There is some concern for the economy currently. All of this depends on how active the GW's remain. I really wish they'd tweaked stadiums to give a lower return across the board and then spread the crowd numbers further down.

Stadiums are not a money sink but a money generator, almost exclusively for the top teams as well. That's my next prediction, forum threads claiming that the rich get richer made almost entirely possible as they have access to a developed income which lower clubs do not.

I'm not turning communist, I think the stadium upgrades should be made less cost effective at higher levels and more cost effective at lower levels. We'd have more of a money sink then.

I always felt that starting income at £80k a day and scaling upwards was a mistake, should have started at £50k. I also think six FA's is going to create too many rich teams which is going to keep inflation high. I don't know really it's pure guesswork without access to the database, certainly Youth sucks a lot of money out:)

Very solid start with a 2nd spot finish in the EFA in Voller form now has gone out the window. We're still hard to beat mind so getting the odd draw but it's not going great.

Still a little puzzled at how a team with 7 ability can lose so easily to a team with 3 ability. Still hopefully we can have a hot run at some point in this stage to just scrape half way up the table, just then need to turn up for last stage to secure top tier in Season 3.

One of subs expired I'm not renewing that one, in fact they all run out by October and I still don't think I'm getting value for my £5 odd. I could do just one GW but I know I'd just get immensely frustrated.

The games appeal is to a Casual LLM Manager who doesn't mind fantasy teams, I'm not really casual or that fussed on LLM. Now if it was Hardcore Rags to Riches then I'd be very keen!

Do wonder if there are that many Casual LLM types out there, I guess SI think there are.

Waiting for The Right Player

I keep looking at these released players and whilst i would love to have a 19yo £350k Aq Fee player on £3k a day I absolutely don't want him on £30k. That's not an asset but a liability:)

There are quite a collection of 30yo's just sitting there waiting to be picked up but as I look at these I'm seeing players that are 10-20% better than what I've got but are 50% higher in price.

In both GW's projected is very healthy and wages are quite low, it's hard to tell but the way both teams have started their league campaigns their looking good for top tier in season 3.

So no real drama on at the moment and in both GW's despite it being early season it feels like I'm middle of the table and middle of the season.

Things are going to be tougher next season as we enter the final run and the fight for Premiership / Championship football will be very much on. Some nice players coming out in Season 3 and it does look like a lot of the existing managers have priced themselves out of the market.

We'll see I'm enjoying it currently even if things are moving slowly.