# Championship Manager 2001/02



## Orikoru (Feb 13, 2019)

Fans of football management games may remember this one as possibly the best they ever made. I was reading a series of articles online where the writer was playing this game and writing about how it went, and it made me want to dig it out again. As luck would have it the disk was still at my parents - but as it turns out (and some of you may hate me for this), you can actually download it for free now at ChampMan0102.co.uk. 

Fired it up last night, just as addictive as ever! I've started as Wigan because they're in Division 2 (League One as it's known these days) but with a solid budget of over Â£6mil. I've brought in a couple of the old legends - Taribo West, TÃ³ Madeira, Mike Duff - and a few players that my scouts have recommended. Been trying to sign the classic Swedish legend midfielders like Bakircioglu, Selakovic, Kallstrom, but they all refuse to leave their clubs! So my midfield is still a bit pony at the moment. Luckily Madeira has struck up a good partnership with Lee McCulloch and fired us top of the league.   They have another forward called Andy Liddell who's playing very well for me in the number 10 role as well. Strategy is a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 at the minute.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 13, 2019)

Get Maxim Tsigalko in. The Madeira-Tsigalko partnership is just guaranteed goals. I had a spell of playing CM01/02 again a few years back and it's bloody fun.


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## SteveW86 (Feb 13, 2019)

was this the edition where you could buy anyone for free with a little in game trick? No editor required!


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## Orikoru (Feb 13, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Get Maxim Tsigalko in. The Madeira-Tsigalko partnership is just guaranteed goals. I had a spell of playing CM01/02 again a few years back and it's bloody fun.
		
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I knew you'd reply to this, haha. Unfortunately signing Tsigalko was nigh-on impossible so I've given up. Minsk rejected all my offers claiming he was indispensable, and my scout reckons he won't get a work permit anyway. Lee McCulloch has been banging them in anyway, he scored a hat-trick in a 3-2 win with us having ten men since the 15th minute. 

It's been much harder to sign some of these players than I remembered. As I mentioned, Selakovic, Bakircioglu, Kallstrom all refused to leave their clubs, Tonton Zola Moukoko wasn't interested either. Pep Guardiola was available on a free, but he chose to join Lille instead for some reason. Perhaps Wigan isn't very appealing?


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## Orikoru (Feb 13, 2019)

SteveW86 said:



			was this the edition where you could buy anyone for free with a little in game trick? No editor required!
		
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I don't know? If there is, I haven't been doing it since I don't think I know what it is. Unless you're on about adding a manager as the selling club to release the player. I wouldn't bother with all that, the game was not too difficult to succeed on anyway if you know what you were doing and made some good signings.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 13, 2019)

SteveW86 said:



			was this the edition where you could buy anyone for free with a little in game trick? No editor required!
		
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Nah, I think that was CM4. You'd make an offer for a player, have it accepted and could then go back and change your offer to Â£0 without the selling team being able to do anything about it. That game was so broken.



Orikoru said:



			I knew you'd reply to this, haha. Unfortunately signing Tsigalko was nigh-on impossible so I've given up. Minsk rejected all my offers claiming he was indispensable, and my scout reckons he won't get a work permit anyway. Lee McCulloch has been banging them in anyway, he scored a hat-trick in a 3-2 win with us having ten men since the 15th minute. 

It's been much harder to sign some of these players than I remembered. As I mentioned, Selakovic, Bakircioglu, Kallstrom all refused to leave their clubs, Tonton Zola Moukoko wasn't interested either. Pep Guardiola was available on a free, but he chose to join Lille instead for some reason. Perhaps Wigan isn't very appealing?
		
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Haha, love me some CM/FM. Gutted, Tsigalko is such a beast on that game.

Ah, Tonton Zola Moukoko, what a player. What about Cherno Samba? He up for joining Wigan?


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## Orikoru (Feb 13, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Nah, I think that was CM4. You'd make an offer for a player, have it accepted and could then go back and change your offer to Â£0 without the selling team being able to do anything about it. That game was so broken.



Haha, love me some CM/FM. Gutted, Tsigalko is such a beast on that game.

Ah, Tonton Zola Moukoko, what a player. What about Cherno Samba? He up for joining Wigan?
		
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Dunno about Samba, I made a few bids which were rejected then stopped because I was focusing on the others. I might revisit that one. But I think he was at Millwall and they were Division 1 so he'd also be taking a step down. I really need midfielders first and foremost. My original squad had barely any for some reason, and since I've failed to bring in a Scandinavian superstar we're still a bit short. Signed a guy called Kevin Street my scouts liked, and he got sent off in his second game for shoving someone.   There was one guy already there called Ian Kilford who's pretty good, and I'm trying to sign this guy from the cheat player lists called Rousef who looks amazing, but his club aren't budging either. So we remain very light in the middle. I did at least manage to get Billy McKinlay on a free for CDM.


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## Kellfire (Feb 13, 2019)

Never understood why anyone would play these games and then go and look at who they should buy on forums etc. Where's the challenge there?!


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## Orikoru (Feb 13, 2019)

Kellfire said:



			Never understood why anyone would play these games and then go and look at who they should buy on forums etc. Where's the challenge there?!
		
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I'm doing a bit of that because once you know you can sign To Madeira for 300k and he'll bang in 50 goals a season, it's difficult not to! I'm scouting as well though so my squad will be a mix. Long term though my aim on this rerun of the game will be to sign players I recognise from real life. The likes of Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho and so on are around 19 years old on this game. But they're probably still not coming to Division 2, so once I've claimed to the Premier League with the Champ legends, I'll set about bringing in some real life legends.


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## Captainron (Feb 13, 2019)

Why not do it like real life.

Go with Tottenham and spend nothing and go nowhere


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## Kellfire (Feb 13, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			I'm doing a bit of that because once you know you can sign To Madeira for 300k and he'll bang in 50 goals a season, it's difficult not to! I'm scouting as well though so my squad will be a mix. Long term though my aim on this rerun of the game will be to sign players I recognise from real life. The likes of Ibrahimovic, Ronaldinho and so on are around 19 years old on this game. But they're probably still not coming to Division 2, so once I've claimed to the Premier League with the Champ legends, I'll set about bringing in some real life legends. 

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I've currently got a game with Leicester going in CM0102 and I've avoided looking anyone up to sign. Which is probably why I'm doing so poorly...


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## Orikoru (Feb 13, 2019)

Captainron said:



			Why not do it like real life.

Go with Tottenham and spend nothing and go nowhere 

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I'll have you know we spent big on the likes of Gus Poyet and Christian Ziege that season. 



Kellfire said:



			I've currently got a game with Leicester going in CM0102 and I've avoided looking anyone up to sign. Which is probably why I'm doing so poorly...
		
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Fair play! In real life I see they finished bottom of the Prem that season so your work was cut out. What formation do you use?


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## Kellfire (Feb 13, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			Fair play! In real life I see they finished bottom of the Prem that season so your work was cut out. What formation do you use?
		
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Depends how the previous week went... I haven't played it in ages tbh, the last thing I want to do is use a computer most nights after work!


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## Dan2501 (Feb 13, 2019)

I've just simmed a year in FM19 and taken over Spurs. The transfers made by the AI have been very on-brand:







De Roon has settled in well, was already on the transfer list when I took over, and after offering him out I've had bids of Â£19m from Burnley and Â£21m from Brighton so bit of profit there. Also, the AI managed to get Â£7m for Janssen, so that's one positive.

Also, the only thing thinner than Spurs playing squad is the coaching staff, jeez it's thin on the ground. Barely any Coaches, very few Scouts, no DOF, 2 physios, no sports scientists. Pochettino must have taken them all with him.


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## Orikoru (Feb 14, 2019)

Finally had a bid accepted for Tsigalko, and he rejected my contract because he was worried about the change of culture and learning the language. So that's dead in the water. Shame. TÃµ Madeira is remarkably on a 4 game goal drought as well! We're still winning though so it's all good. Beat our main rivals Port Vale to go top last night, they were unbeaten before that but last their next game after it as well (us beating them hit them hard clearly), so we're 5 points clear now. It's coming home!


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## SteveW86 (Feb 14, 2019)

This makes me want to dig out champ manager 97/98


The original classic!


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## Dan2501 (Feb 14, 2019)

I actually played a little bit of CM2 a few weeks back, that was the original CM game I played. Runs really nicely on Mac using the Boxer application.


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## Orikoru (Feb 14, 2019)

SteveW86 said:



			This makes me want to dig out champ manager 97/98


The original classic!
		
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I had that one as well. On the old enormous desktop machine - that was the one where you had to restart your computer in MS DOS mode and type \\cm9798 something or other to make it run wasn't it?? Different age... It's amazing I can still recall this but I used to use the most bizarre formation on that game. It was three at the back, but comprised of one centre and back and two full backs, then a CDM had an arrow going backwards to become a 2nd CB. Three CMs, AMR & AML and one ST, but the two wide CMs had arrows going all the way forward into the box! Must have worked somehow. 



Dan2501 said:



			I actually played a little bit of CM2 a few weeks back, that was the original CM game I played. Runs really nicely on Mac using the Boxer application.
		
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Since I fired up 0102 on Tuesday night, played it again last night, and both nights I went to bed at half past midnight as a result. Just like old times. I've got through 13 league games with a record of W11 D1 L1, and we even managed a giant-killing in the league cup when we put division 1 Barnsley out with a 4-1 win!


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## SteveW86 (Feb 14, 2019)

having to join the fun on this one and currently downloading the game.

My FM14 save is going to have to take a back seat, thought 40 seasons in its probably about time


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## Orikoru (Feb 15, 2019)

I had forgotten how easy this game was to be fair. Playing again last night, I have now reached the League Cup semi-final with plucky division 2 side Wigan - we're beaten three division 1 sides in the early rounds, and then in the quarter-final we beat Premier League Blackburn 3-0! I was stunned by that one. 

Had an absolutely mental game in the league against Bournemouth as well. I went with three strikers, and we came flying out of the blocks to be 4-0 up after half an hour - when my keeper Isaksson decided to get himself sent off, giving away a pen. Their keeper was a on a 4/10 so they subbed him off at half time as well, meaning the match featured four goalkeepers in all! We held on and ended up winning 5-2. 

I signed an 18-year-old Jermaine Jenas as well, I just need to retrain him to play in the middle as he's an 'MR' for some reason. I've also signed a cracking looking striker called Bojan Brnovic, but I'm awaiting work permit and I'm not holding my breath on that.


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## 4LEX (Feb 17, 2019)

Always rated FM05. They had the pitch sim spot on and the game wasn't too complex. 

It had some glitches though. I once got England to a WC final and it was 1-1 after extra time but the penalties never came. The game simply carried on for another few hours until Holland scored against the run of play


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## Dan2501 (Feb 17, 2019)

I had a great glitch on FM05 where I had a South African winger called Junior Khanye who would get 10.0 every single game without fail. He just became absolutely insanely good and would score and set up at least 2 goals a game, was mad.


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## Orikoru (Feb 17, 2019)

4LEX said:



			Always rated FM05. They had the pitch sim spot on and the game wasn't too complex. 

It had some glitches though. I once got England to a WC final and it was 1-1 after extra time but the penalties never came. The game simply carried on for another few hours until Holland scored against the run of play  

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Ah yes, 05 was my favourite version of FM. I've located my old disk for that as well for when I get bored of CM! I remember I was Everton on that game because they had just sold Rooney in real life so they had a good budget. Ended up winning the Champions League, my strike force of Podolski and Pazzini were unstoppable. James McFadden who I didn't even have to buy became an absolute world class left winger somehow. And of course the man, the myth, the legend, Lebohang Mokoena.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 17, 2019)

Lebohang Mokoena, Anthony Vanden Borre, a little known Belgian called Vincent Kompany, Diego, Fredy Guarin. FM05 had some incredible wonderkids.


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## Cake (Feb 17, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			It's amazing I can still recall this but I used to use the most bizarre formation on that game. It was three at the back, but comprised of one centre and back and two full backs, then a CDM had an arrow going backwards to become a 2nd CB. Three CMs, AMR & AML and one ST, but the two wide CMs had arrows going all the way forward into the box! Must have worked somehow. 

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Iâ€™m pretty sure it was CM 97 where I used to play with an EXTREMELY unrealistic 0-5-5 formation (no defenders at all)... handed out thumping after thumping with that.  No idea where the thinking for that approach came from, but it was crazy successful for me.


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## 4LEX (Feb 17, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			Ah yes, 05 was my favourite version of FM. I've located my old disk for that as well for when I get bored of CM! I remember I was Everton on that game because they had just sold Rooney in real life so they had a good budget. Ended up winning the Champions League, my strike force of Podolski and Pazzini were unstoppable. James McFadden who I didn't even have to buy became an absolute world class left winger somehow. And of course the man, the myth, the legend, Lebohang Mokoena. 

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Tevez, Cavanaghi, Mascherano, Kompany, VDB and the Dutch midfield of De Jong, Sneijder, Robben and VDV.


Dan2501 said:



			Lebohang Mokoena, Anthony Vanden Borre, a little known Belgian called Vincent Kompany, Diego, Fredy Guarin. FM05 had some incredible wonderkids.
		
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Mohamed Zidan and Mauro Espisito.......Â£5m the pair and they'd get 20 goals and 20 assists for 8 years.


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## Orikoru (Feb 17, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Lebohang Mokoena, Anthony Vanden Borre, a little known Belgian called Vincent Kompany, Diego, Fredy Guarin. FM05 had some incredible wonderkids.
		
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Yeah I had a Guarin and Hitzlsperger midfield, guaranteed a screamer from one or the other per game with 'take long shots' on.

My current champ game with Wigan has gone amazingly well. Played the first leg on my league cup semi-final last night against Liverpool and bloody won it 2-0! We're in cloud cuckoo land. And I've signed Zola Moukoko on a free for next season as his contact expired (140k tribunal though or something.. peanuts).


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## Orikoru (Feb 18, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			My current champ game with Wigan has gone amazingly well. Played the first leg on my league cup semi-final last night against Liverpool and bloody won it 2-0! We're in cloud cuckoo land. And I've signed Zola Moukoko on a free for next season as his contact expired (140k tribunal though or something.. peanuts).
		
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I shouldn't have said anything - we lost the second leg 3-0 to go out, haha. Oh well, it was a great cup run. And we've secured the division two title now anyway. Over 100 points and well over 100 goals scored. Double centurions.  And we have the LDV Vans Final against Luton to look forward to.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 18, 2019)

Right. I'm getting CM01/02 installed tonight. Won the league and CL as Everton on FM19, now to do it on CM01/02.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 18, 2019)

Well I'm regretting picking Everton already. Squad is bare bones and what we've got is terrible - Gazza is a starter for instance. The finances are so bad we sold Niclas Alexandersson for Â£5m and I got Â£0 added to the transfer kitty and we're now in receivership meaning any offers I get for players HAVE to be accepted, so I've already lost promising youngster Stephen Schumacher. I have managed to sign Taribo West on a free and have just about got enough to afford To Madeira but whether he'll accept me or not who knows. Can't afford to buy anyone else and have already missed out on Kerr who has gone to Chelsea. This is going to be a proper grind, just going to have to try and survive the first season I think.


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## Orikoru (Feb 19, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Well I'm regretting picking Everton already. Squad is bare bones and what we've got is terrible - Gazza is a starter for instance. The finances are so bad we sold Niclas Alexandersson for Â£5m and I got Â£0 added to the transfer kitty and we're now in receivership meaning any offers I get for players HAVE to be accepted, so I've already lost promising youngster Stephen Schumacher. I have managed to sign Taribo West on a free and have just about got enough to afford To Madeira but whether he'll accept me or not who knows. Can't afford to buy anyone else and have already missed out on Kerr who has gone to Chelsea. This is going to be a proper grind, just going to have to try and survive the first season I think.
		
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Tough times! I actually scouted Wayne Rooney on my game as I noticed he's there as a 16-year-old, but my scouts didn't rate him. That game must have been out before he really emerged. 

Finished season 1 last night with a record of W37 D5 L4, GF129 GA46, 116 points. Division two was just holding us back. Unfortunately we lost the Vans final to Luton, stupidly, but that's just a mickey mouse cup anyway. Started trying to strengthen for the next season. Liverpool bought my 2nd choice keeper for some reason so I just replaced him with CM legend Chiotis. Man Utd bought my centre back De Vos for Â£3m, so I'm trying to bring in a worldy centre back to replace him, but I'm struggling there. Clint Hill, who looks like a beast, joined Port Vale instead which was really annoying, as they just finished 2nd in D2 behind us! Clarke Carlisle looks good but QPR are playing hard ball. I've found another guy at Colchester called Ross Johnson who looks to have really good stats and will be a lot cheaper so I might take a punt on him. Once I've got that sorted I really want to find a good versatile squad player, a proper D/M/F R/L/C or as near as possible, that I can stick on the bench and cover lots of positions, since working with a bench of only 5 players is surprisingly hard.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 19, 2019)

Game crashed on me last night, which was annoying, as I'd just had a board takeover, had been given Â£5.25m to spend and had signed some decent players (Madeira, Duff, Chiotis, Farnerud). Was playing miserably though, bottom of the league and without a point after 5 games so losing my save isn't the worst thing   Gonna try and find a more stable Mac-Windows emulator tonight and get it set-up and have another go.

The starting Everton squad is absolutely dreadful though. Gascoigne on Â£20k a week, only 1 decent winger in Alexandersson who I sold, no decent goal scorer (best striker Radzinski starts the game injured), wing-backs are awful (Tony Hibbert's got potential though), central midfielders are even worse. The only remotely decent players are Gravesen, Weir, Stubbs and Radzinski, the rest are awful and will all end up sold. First season is going to be incredibly difficult and then hopefully I can start building my own squad, but yeah, have to survive the sack first season before that can happen.


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## Slime (Feb 19, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			Fans of football management games may remember this one as possibly the best they ever made. I was reading a series of articles online where the writer was playing this game and writing about how it went, and it made me want to dig it out again. As luck would have it the disk was still at my parents - but as it turns out (and some of you may hate me for this), you can actually download it for free now at ChampMan0102.co.uk.

Fired it up last night, just as addictive as ever! I've started as Wigan because they're in Division 2 (League One as it's known these days) but with a solid budget of over Â£6mil. I've brought in a couple of the old legends - Taribo West, TÃ³ Madeira,* Mike Duff *- and a few players that my scouts have recommended. Been trying to sign the classic Swedish legend midfielders like Bakircioglu, Selakovic, Kallstrom, but they all refuse to leave their clubs! So my midfield is still a bit pony at the moment. Luckily Madeira has struck up a good partnership with Lee McCulloch and fired us top of the league.   They have another forward called Andy Liddell who's playing very well for me in the number 10 role as well. Strategy is a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 at the minute.
		
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If that's Mike Duff from Cheltenham, you also need to look at Cheltenham's Jamie Victory and play him and Duff as wing-backs in a 5-3-2.
They did me proud, back in the day.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 19, 2019)

Was looking at Jamie Victory last night as a possible replacement for Pistone/Unsworth but Cheltenham wouldn't sell him :'( 

Have managed to get CM installed using Wine and seems to be running okay, will give it a proper test tonight! Failing that I'll just use the Crossover free trial.


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## Orikoru (Feb 19, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Game crashed on me last night, which was annoying, as I'd just had a board takeover, had been given Â£5.25m to spend and had signed some decent players (Madeira, Duff, Chiotis, Farnerud). Was playing miserably though, bottom of the league and without a point after 5 games so losing my save isn't the worst thing   Gonna try and find a more stable Mac-Windows emulator tonight and get it set-up and have another go.

The starting Everton squad is absolutely dreadful though. Gascoigne on Â£20k a week, only 1 decent winger in Alexandersson who I sold, no decent goal scorer (best striker Radzinski starts the game injured), wing-backs are awful (Tony Hibbert's got potential though), central midfielders are even worse. The only remotely decent players are Gravesen, Weir, Stubbs and Radzinski, the rest are awful and will all end up sold. First season is going to be incredibly difficult and then hopefully I can start building my own squad, but yeah, have to survive the sack first season before that can happen.
		
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Don't you have the legend that is David Ginola as well??   I played against Ginola on my game - he was on loan at Millwall, lol. You should have a young Leon Osman too, I scouted him because I thought he had good stats for a 20-year-old, but my scouts only said he was 'fairly good'. Were your board expectations just to stay up, or are they expecting more than that?



Slime said:



			If that's Mike Duff from Cheltenham, you also need to look at Cheltenham's Jamie Victory and play him and Duff as wing-backs in a 5-3-2.
They did me proud, back in the day. 

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It's certainly that Mike Duff, the one and only. He was a well know CM legend, cost less than 100k and could basically play at any level. He was one of the first players I bought because the right backs in my starting squad were both poor.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 19, 2019)

Nah, Ginola's not in the game at Everton by default, you must have an updated DB. Osman's there though, and yeah, he's been promoted to the senior squad 'cause he looks decent. Him and Hibbert both seem to hae decent potential. Yeah, Board "expect a tough season", so basically, should survive so long as we stay in the PL. Bloody tough though, the team are rubbish.


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## Orikoru (Feb 19, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Nah, Ginola's not in the game at Everton by default, you must have an updated DB. Osman's there though, and yeah, he's been promoted to the senior squad 'cause he looks decent. Him and Hibbert both seem to hae decent potential. Yeah, Board "expect a tough season", so basically, should survive so long as we stay in the PL. Bloody tough though, the team are rubbish.
		
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I couldn't remember if he was on loan from Everton or someone else, I don't have updated DB because I installed it straight from the original disc. I just looked up Everton's 01/02 on Wikipedia and saw you had him then, probably signed after the game came out.

Looks like you'll be raiding Sweden for some bargain quality players then, ha. For some reason that doesn't work on my game, 95% of the Swedish guys just refuse to leave their clubs, it's weird. I've failed with Bakircioglu, Selakovic (who later went to Newcastle, git), Lunden, Kallstrom, Risp. All of them just flatly refused. Managed to get Isaksson, the keeper, and a defender called Jonas Stark who turned out to be not very good.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 19, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			I couldn't remember if he was on loan from Everton or someone else, I don't have updated DB because I installed it straight from the original disc. I just looked up Everton's 01/02 on Wikipedia and saw you had him then, probably signed after the game came out.

Looks like you'll be raiding Sweden for some bargain quality players then, ha. For some reason that doesn't work on my game, 95% of the Swedish guys just refuse to leave their clubs, it's weird. I've failed with Bakircioglu, Selakovic (who later went to Newcastle, git), Lunden, Kallstrom, Risp. All of them just flatly refused. Managed to get Isaksson, the keeper, and a defender called Jonas Stark who turned out to be not very good.
		
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Yeah, he was at Everton in '02, but he joined in Jan/Feb so guessing he was on loan at Millwall from Villa on your game. I'm glad he was, the fewer overpaid old boys in my squad the better.

Oh I definitely will. Just need to hope when I restart tonight I get the takeover quickly so I don't miss out on Kerr, could really do with a decent midfielder to join Gravesen. Really struggled last night to find a tactic that worked either defensively or offensively, no matter what I did we got hammered by everyone we played. Fingers crossed I can figure it out today.

Bakircioglu was one I tried to sign last night but they wouldn't sell up, Selakovic moved right at the start and then couldn't get deals for Lunden, Risp or Kallstrom despite trying. I tried really hard to pick up Assane N'Diaye as well but Shakhtar would not sell for any price I offered, he's basically the perfect DM and exactly what I needed given our defensive frailties, but nope couldn't get him. No matter what DM I went for I couldn't get them - tried N'Diaye, Battaglia, Kehl, Said, Milevskiy, Sable, Medina and none of them were for sale. So annoying!


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## Orikoru (Feb 19, 2019)

In terms of tactics I usually stick by a few basic rules. One is that narrow ones work best - no wingers needed, just pack the middle. Another is always use a DMC. Just seems to make you vastly better defensively. In my game I use a narrow 4-1-2-1-2 (like a diamond), occasionally pushing the AMC up front so I have three strikers instead. Very occasionally drop him back to MC so it's a 4-1-3-2, if I'm protecting a lead against an onslaught, or something. As a bonus it helps keep the squad size down slightly since I don't need to buy any wingers. 

You've probably missed him already but Guardiola is on a free at the start! I tried to bring him to Wigan, but strangely he opted for Lille instead.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 19, 2019)

Okay, I'll give a 4-1-2-1-2 a go. Everton's wingers are crap anyway, so not a big loss playing without width. What do you go for team instruction wise? Do you mess with the on-the-ball/off-the-ball stuff? I can design a tactic happily on FM19 but really struggled with the lack of options and instructions on CM01/02 last night. Will have another bash tonight.

Guardiola picked Ligue 1 over Division 2 with Wigan? Is he mad? I've not started my save again yet, so will keep Pep in mind when I start again after work tonight


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## Beezerk (Feb 19, 2019)

Is this the free one you can download but is an absolute bitch to get working in windows 10?


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## Dan2501 (Feb 19, 2019)

Can't be anymore difficult getting it to run on Windows 10 than it is on Mac


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## Orikoru (Feb 19, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Okay, I'll give a 4-1-2-1-2 a go. Everton's wingers are crap anyway, so not a big loss playing without width. What do you go for team instruction wise? Do you mess with the on-the-ball/off-the-ball stuff? I can design a tactic happily on FM19 but really struggled with the lack of options and instructions on CM01/02 last night. Will have another bash tonight.

Guardiola picked Ligue 1 over Division 2 with Wigan? Is he mad? I've not started my save again yet, so will keep Pep in mind when I start again after work tonight 

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I looked up a bit of a guide on with/without ball but it was a lot of faffing about really. In the end all I did was move the full backs more narrow on the 'with ball' screens. I left the without ball ones alone as they are already narrow on there. If you do set the with ball ones, be aware that if you go back and draw a new arrow on a player it resets the 'with ball' for him anyway, lol. So you can probably just draw the arrows and it's all good. I have small forward arrows on the full backs, the MCs and the AMC in the 41212.

I followed some online advice for the team instructions which seems to work, I use attacking, short passing, pressing on, offsides on and hard tackling. When I need a goal I put passing to direct, when I'm hanging onto a lead I can go from attacking to normal or defensive. If someone gets booked I turn their personal tackling setting back to normal, because I got a few red cards beforehand.. 

Yeah there's no accounting for taste. I had to settle for Billy McKinlay.


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## Orikoru (Feb 19, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			Is this the free one you can download but is an absolute bitch to get working in windows 10?
		
Click to expand...

I have heard that - they have technical support on the forum on the site you download it from. As I mentioned I still had the disc lying around so wasn't a problem for me. The problem with the download on windows 10 is that you need something to trick it into thinking you have the disc in there, I think.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 19, 2019)

4-1-2-1-2 is the answer it seems. Managed to salvage my save I started last night and won 4 on the bounce since switching tactics. Mark Pembridge has become a star in the new system, has 3 goals in 4 games. Weâ€™re up to 7th in the league as well, definite progress!


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## SteveW86 (Feb 19, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Can't be anymore difficult getting it to run on Windows 10 than it is on Mac 

Click to expand...

Dan, how did you get it to work on a Mac. Ive followed the instructions on line but can't get it to work. I'm not as tech savvy as I thought


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## Beezerk (Feb 19, 2019)

Ok I'm confised, why can't I find most of the players you lot mention in player search? Even the most named one on Google Joao Paiva isn't there.


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## Orikoru (Feb 19, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			Ok I'm confised, why can't I find most of the players you lot mention in player search? Even the most named one on Google Joao Paiva isn't there.
		
Click to expand...

Might depend on what size database you chose when you started the game. And how many leagues you chose to add, I put the four other major leagues on as 'background'.

In other news, I've finally worn down BakircioglÃ¼! Much rejoicing! I've also signed Michael Essien, who in this game is a centre back, but that's subject to a work permit so I imagine that deal will crash and burn.


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## Beezerk (Feb 19, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			Might depend on what size database you chose when you started the game. And how many leagues you chose to add, I put the four other major leagues on as 'background.
		
Click to expand...

I've got no idea what that means ðŸ¤£
I just installed the game and tried to crack on.


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## SteveW86 (Feb 19, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			I've got no idea what that means ðŸ¤£
I just installed the game and tried to crack on.
		
Click to expand...

If you select more leagues then more players will be in the game. On some of the newer versions of the franchise you could select to play with a small/medium or large database, just another selecting it. For example if you select France as a playable/background league then all of the clubs will have a full roster of players, if it is an unplayable league you will likely find that all the clubs only have the key players. 

On another note that To Madeira player is rather handy!


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## Dan2501 (Feb 20, 2019)

SteveW86 said:



			Dan, how did you get it to work on a Mac. Ive followed the instructions on line but can't get it to work. I'm not as tech savvy as I thought
		
Click to expand...

Found it pretty straight forward using PlayOnMac, there are a few decent tutorials on Youtube how to get it set up but shouldn't give you too much bother.



Beezerk said:



			I've got no idea what that means ðŸ¤£
I just installed the game and tried to crack on.
		
Click to expand...

Go into Settings within the game and check the Database size, it should be set to large, but you'll have to start a new save.

Made good progress last night. Sat 11th in Jan. Team has changed A LOT from the starter squad. We're now set-up like:

---------------Chiotis----------------
--Kerr-----Risp-----West--Victory---
---------------Said-------------------
-------Gravesen---Pembridge------
-------------BakircioglÃ¼--------------
--------Madeira----Radzinski-------

Sold Gazza, Xavier, Cleland, Myhre, Cadamarteri and Max Moore as well as Alexandersson and Schumacher and so have Â£1.5m after adding all those players in the 1st XI to the squad + Farnerud. Also secured Radoslaw Kaluzny on a free as his contract expires at the end of the season, he has insane attributes - 7 20's, 2 19's and his only attributes <10 are handling and reflexes. Should be awesome!


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## Orikoru (Feb 20, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Made good progress last night. Sat 11th in Jan. Team has changed A LOT from the starter squad. We're now set-up like:

---------------Chiotis----------------
--Kerr-----Risp-----West--Victory---
---------------Said-------------------
-------Gravesen---Pembridge------
-------------BakircioglÃ¼--------------
--------Madeira----Radzinski-------

Sold Gazza, Xavier, Cleland, Myhre, Cadamarteri and Max Moore as well as Alexandersson and Schumacher and so have Â£1.5m after adding all those players in the 1st XI to the squad + Farnerud. Also secured Radoslaw Kaluzny on a free as his contract expires at the end of the season, he has insane attributes - 7 20's, 2 19's and his only attributes <10 are handling and reflexes. Should be awesome!
		
Click to expand...

Decent looking side, I'm not sure about Victory though, scouted him on mine and he didn't look great! He had a few 20s for random things but poor on a couple of crucial things. My deal for Essien crashed and burned over the work permit, predictably. But luckily my bargain basement signing of Ross Johnson from Colchester is actually doing a great job, so I'm going to stick with him I think. I'm second in Division One having lost 3 games already but won the other 7 with no draws. Bit like real life Spurs, ha. I missed out on Tsigalko altogether now as he's gone to Galatasaray, but another blast from the past sprung to mind and I'm scouting Michalis Konstantinou now...

Squad looks like:
Chiotis/Isaksson
Mike Duff - Ross Johnson - Taribo West - David Pirri
Billy McKinlay
Ian Kilford/J.Jenas - - - Kevin Street
T.Z.Moukoko/BakircioglÃ¼
Peter Weatherston/Lee McCulloch - - - TÃµ Madeira​Got youngster David Poole as another attacker for rotation as well, but he'll go out on loan if I can sign another top striker. I'm not a big fan of Pirri, he's inconsistent and seems to have poor fitness a lot, so I might start looking for a new LB. McKinlay will probably need replacing soon as he's 33.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 20, 2019)

Victory has been really good for me, not perfect, but a massive improvement on Pistone and Unsworth! Is Baines on CM01/02? I presume he's just slightly too young to have been on it.

Damn. I'm guessing it's difficult to get a WP for Tsigalko? Might try and pick him up. Konstantinou is another cheap gem. Take a look at Joao Paiva as well!


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## Orikoru (Feb 20, 2019)

Nah, I didn't have Baines. He must have only been about 16 that season or maybe 15 so hadn't broken through. 

Basically impossible to get a work permit for Tsigalko I think. Perhaps in a few years when he has international caps I'll try again! I've scouted that Paiva as well, I'd never heard of him until Beezerk mentioned him above. I had agreed a deal for a class looking striker named Bojan Brnovic, but he didn't get a work permit either (he's Yugoslavian). I'm trying again with him just in case, but when it falls through again I'll go with either Konstantinou or Paiva I think. Cyriots don't need work permits do they?


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## Dan2501 (Feb 20, 2019)

Yeah, just checked and he broke into the Wigan side in 2002, so he's a year out from making it into the game. Sad times.

Don't think Cypriots need WP's, so you should be all good, and Konstantinou is an absolute beast, remember having him on one save and him scoring an absolute bucket-load. Might have to make a move for him myself as Radzinski and Campbell aren't exactly goal machines. Just feel bad that I've basically stripped out the entire pre-existing Everton squad in the space of half a season  On FM19 I've still got a great Everton core from the original squad in 2023, that is not going to happen here.


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## Orikoru (Feb 20, 2019)

Everton were pretty poor in those days in fairness. I think in 01/02 in real life they came 15th. I still have a few original Wigan players. Ian Kilford was my best midfielder in the first season. I have a young DR/C named Hugh Dickson who I try to give minutes to as he looks pretty decent. My back up left back is an original, Peter Kennedy, he gets plenty of games because of Pirri always being knackered. Still have Tony Dinning as back-up DMC. Lee McCulloch is actually really good on the game so I rotate him in up front - he has like 20 strength and heading so he gets a few goals. In the first season I was playing De Vos at the back but I sold him to Man Utd! I think that's it, I've got rid of everyone else.


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## Orikoru (Feb 21, 2019)

Jury was out on Moukoko as he's been a bit hit and miss... until this game against Grimsby where he's scored a hatrick inside the _first ten minutes!_ Unbelievable. And he was playing midfield as well. 

We had a bit of dodgy away form in September, but I've sorted that out and gone on a run of ten straight wins in the league now. 21 games played and we're 10 points clear at the top of Division One! Premier League is in our sights.


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## Beezerk (Feb 22, 2019)

Still canâ€™t see most of the players who seem popular even though Iâ€™ve selected all leagues and set the database size to maximum. What version and player database are you lot using, Iâ€™m version .68 and same for players I think.
On another note, what do you do with â€œwith ballâ€ and â€œwithout ballâ€ in the tactics page? All the players seem to be crammed into a corner in those tabs so I just set them as per the normal formation.


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## Orikoru (Feb 22, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			Still canâ€™t see most of the players who seem popular even though Iâ€™ve selected all leagues and set the database size to maximum. What version and player database are you lot using, Iâ€™m version .68 and same for players I think.
On another note, what do you do with â€œwith ballâ€ and â€œwithout ballâ€ in the tactics page? All the players seem to be crammed into a corner in those tabs so I just set them as per the normal formation.
		
Click to expand...

Erm, I don't know, mine is installed straight from the disc so whatever the default database is. How are you searching for them? 'Find' on the left tab and then 'players', yeah? Guys like To Madeira, Cherno Samba, Maxim Tsigalko should 100% be there. Try searching for their teams instead and see if they're in the squads. Tsigalko is at Dinamo Minsk I think, Samba is at Millwall. Madeira's team is called Gouveia I think.

It just means you can tinker with the player's positioning when the ball is in certain areas of the pitch. So you might want to pull your full backs in narrower on the 'without ball' screens, and also push them further forward on the uppermost 'with ball' screens. I've started using a 4-1-3-2 in some games, but rather than having a flat three man midfield, I've put the central one forward a couple of notches in the 'with ball' screens in an effort to link with the strikers better. It's that's sort of thing. As a rule you want to make your team narrow and compact 'without ball' and try and crowd and surround the box on the uppermost 'with ball' screen I think.


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## Beezerk (Feb 22, 2019)

Dinamo Minsk and Gouveia aren't even listed as teams 

Out of interest, what is Attribute Masking when you start a new game and what is the difference if you don't choose real players?


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## Orikoru (Feb 22, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			Dinamo Minsk and Gouveia aren't even listed as teams 

Out of interest, what is Attribute Masking when you start a new game and what is the difference if you don't choose real players?
		
Click to expand...

Hang on, you didn't select real players?? That would explain a lot! Attribute masking means you can't see their stats unless you get a scout report on them. I have it turned it off so I can see all the stats straight away. Just saves time really, but it adds realism to have att masking on I guess.

You must have gone with small database if Minsk and Gouveia aren't there. Otherwise this doesn't make any sense.


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## Beezerk (Feb 22, 2019)

Yes I did select real players, I was wondering how choosing the other option changes the game.
I did a fresh install with max database, I found that Tsiliski or whatever heâ€™s called by clicking on Minsk from another player so I could see their full squad, Iâ€™m confused why he didnâ€™t show up in the full player list.
Still no sign of Madeira and his team lol.
Started with Sheff Weâ€™d again, I had 4.5m to spend last time but now I only have 145k ðŸ˜‚ this game is mental.


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## Orikoru (Feb 22, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			Yes I did select real players, I was wondering how choosing the other option changes the game.
I did a fresh install with max database, I found that Tsiliski or whatever heâ€™s called by clicking on Minsk from another player so I could see their full squad, Iâ€™m confused why he didnâ€™t show up in the full player list.
Still no sign of Madeira and his team lol.
Started with Sheff Weâ€™d again, I had 4.5m to spend last time but now I only have 145k ðŸ˜‚ this game is mental.
		
Click to expand...

I dunno what you're doing but you're confusing the hell out of me. To Madeira should pretty much always be there since he's probably the most famous CM legend there is. (The story goes he was not actually a real life player, but slipped in by a rogue developer to replicate the career he never had!)

According to this guide (below) you _should _only have about 140k, so maybe you did something wrong the first time. Were you playing the right game?? lol
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/563063-championship-manager-season-01-02/faqs/18827


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## Dan2501 (Feb 23, 2019)

First season finished 12th, so not bad in the end. Made some solid signings in the summer so far bringing in:

Radoslaw Kaluzny
Gary Speed
Steve Finnan
Cherno Samba

and the the big one, the money signing, Â£16m spent on Zlatan Ibrahimovic  He smashed in 2 goals on debut as well, so a very solid start. Not been the best start to the 2nd season, was looking rosey after starting it with a 3-1 win over United but since lost 2 and drawn one. Defensively the team are still absolutely shocking despite having 4 decent defenders (Duff, Risp, West and Victory), a DMC (Said) and another DMC (Kaluzny) playing CM. Need to try and figure it out!


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## Beezerk (Feb 23, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			I dunno what you're doing but you're confusing the hell out of me. To Madeira should pretty much always be there since he's probably the most famous CM legend there is. (The story goes he was not actually a real life player, but slipped in by a rogue developer to replicate the career he never had!)

According to this guide (below) you _should _only have about 140k, so maybe you did something wrong the first time. Were you playing the right game?? lol
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/563063-championship-manager-season-01-02/faqs/18827

Click to expand...

Ha ha I installed an update or summat and I suddenly got about 4.5m so I just kept going with that ðŸ˜‚
I may finally start a proper season some time soon.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 23, 2019)

Started a 2nd save as Juve and this really is prime Serie A. So much depth in quality across the league, it's insane, particularly going forward. I've got Del Piero, Trezeguet and Salas. Roma have Batistuta, Montella and Totti. Inter have R9, prime Christian Vieri and Adriano. Milan have a 24 year old Shevchenko, Flippo Inzaghi and Rui Costa. Lazio have prime Crespo. Then across the league you've got players like Davids, Thuram, Nedved, Cafu, Mendieta, Buffon, Maldini, Cannavaro, Seedorf, Zanetti, Nesta, Nakata, Simeone, Samuel, Pirlo, the league is absolutely stacked full of talent. Should be a fun little save. Would love to bring R9 Ronaldo to Juve, what a partnership him and Del Piero could create.

I've made a few signings to boost the squad. It's a bit thin on wing-backs, so bought in old faithful Mike Duff at RB. Then also added Ibrahim Said, picked up Guardiola and Paiva on frees and then bought in Mark Kerr for Â£1.5m. Tried to go for a few big names like Patrick Vieira and made a move for Boca Juniors star centre half Nicolas Burdisso but had no joy with either. Burdisso looks insane. He's only 20 years old and already has 20 tackling, 20 marking, 20 positioning, definitely not the quickest but he can seriously defend. Would be perfect alongside the tank Lillian Thuram.

Playing a 4-1-3-2 which lines up like:

----------------------Buffon-------------------
-Zambrotta---Thuram----Montero---Pessotto
----------------------Davids----------------------
-----------Kerr------Guardiola----Nedved-------
---------------Del Piero---Trezeguet--------------

Heck of a team. Do need another world class centre half - either Burdisso or eventually Cannavaro, and need to improve the wing backs - would love Roberto Carlos at LB - but is a heck of a team. The top 2 with a 26 year old prime Marcelo Salas as back-up is ludicrously strong. Great shout putting this thread together @Orikoru - loving being back into CM 01/02, can't beat a bit of nostalgia.


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## Beezerk (Feb 24, 2019)

Itâ€™s official, Iâ€™m stupid!
I didnâ€™t even notice the â€œfindâ€ button which lets you search for every player on the planet ðŸ¤­ðŸ˜‚
Is there a workaround for the work permit thing? Agreed terms with loads of bargains only for the deal to fall through eventually.


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## Orikoru (Feb 24, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			Itâ€™s official, Iâ€™m stupid!
I didnâ€™t even notice the â€œfindâ€ button which lets you search for every player on the planet ðŸ¤­ðŸ˜‚
Is there a workaround for the work permit thing? Agreed terms with loads of bargains only for the deal to fall through eventually.
		
Click to expand...

No, that's the ball ache of managing an English club on this game. Any non-EU player who doesn't have a whole bunch of international caps won't get a WP. I've missed out on several great strikers already thanks to this.



Dan2501 said:



			Heck of a team. Do need another world class centre half - either Burdisso or eventually Cannavaro, and need to improve the wing backs - would love Roberto Carlos at LB - but is a heck of a team. The top 2 with a 26 year old prime Marcelo Salas as back-up is ludicrously strong. Great shout putting this thread together @Orikoru - loving being back into CM 01/02, can't beat a bit of nostalgia.
		
Click to expand...

Ha, yeah, they don't make them like they used to.   I already know what my next save is going to be. I noticed that Sassuolo - Serie A in real life nowadays - are languishing in Serie C2 and in debt on this game, so I'm going to try and bring them up to Serie A just as they did in real life.

I want to win a trophy with my Wigan team first though. If anything the game is getting a bit easy - we just got Premier League Watford in the FA Cup (we're still top of division one) and we were 6-1 up by half time! Ridiculous. Not sure what happened there lol. No further goals in the second half of course so 6-1 was how it stayed.


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## Beezerk (Feb 25, 2019)

Whooop so I got promoted to the Premiership with the super Owls, I did have a bit of help, I updated the game to version 3.9.68 and it gave me Â£4.5 million, Saying that prices seemed a bit higher and I only bought a few players. Was top of the league for a long time but ended badly and scraped through on goal difference 
Bought Moukoko and McPhee at the end of the season but I cannot get N'Diaye, Tsigalko and a few others due to work permit problems.
My current team is 4-1-3-2...
GK Pinheiro
DL Victory
DR Corneliusson
DC West
DC Duff
(also have Risp as DC, who is best?)
DM Crane (young lad I promoted from the reserves)
MCL Walshe
MCR Bkirkioglu
MC Moukoko 
FC McPhee 
FC Corazzin

Also got Samba but he's done sod all so far, when does he start to bloom?
Remainder of the squad is the rest of the old Sheff Wed team.
I've got Â£21M to spend now, I'm thinking I need at least a decent DCM and maybe another keeper. Any other thoughts on my lineup and shopping list?


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## Orikoru (Feb 25, 2019)

Duff isn't a centre back is he? Is that Mike Duff from Cheltenham? That must be different because of the update, my Mike Duff is a D/DM R. 

Ibrahim Said was always known as a quality D/DM C I think. Maybe look at him to play defensive mid.

That was a horrible attempt at spelling BakircioglÃ¼.


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## Beezerk (Feb 25, 2019)

So where is Duffs best position?
That bloody Man City stole Bakirwhateveryoucallhim ðŸ¤£ from me, I didn't realise there was a release clause in his contract ffs.
I've signed Palacios but other players like Quaresma etc always reject my contract offers.


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## Orikoru (Feb 26, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			So where is Duffs best position?
That bloody Man City stole Bakirwhateveryoucallhim ðŸ¤£ from me, I didn't realise there was a release clause in his contract ffs.
I've signed Palacios but other players like Quaresma etc always reject my contract offers.
		
Click to expand...

I'm saying in my game Duff is only a right back so his best position is his only position. I've no idea what he's like at CB on your database. Is he a DR/C then? I seem to remember his positioning wasn't that high so if his stats are the same he's probably still better at RB. 

Haha, you gotta watch those clauses. I negotiated for ages with BakircioglÃ¼ because I tried taking out the release clause, he declined, then I set it to like 10 mil, he declined, eventually I set it to about 6 mil and he agreed. I'm sure his value will be approaching that soon though so I'll have to give him another new contract to take it out or set it higher.

I secured the Division One title, with 7 games still to play. I'm 19 points clear of Derby with a game in hand. Premier League here we come! Leeds just won the Prem in my game, so apparently they're just giving it away.   The legend that is TÃ³ Madeira scored his 50th goal for the club as well.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 26, 2019)

Have to say, I'm really struggling with CM01/02, even as Juve. I've had a few great results, like a 4-1 win over league leaders Inter but we're so inconsistent. Defensively awful and even with Nedved, Del Piero, Trezeguet and Salas we're not scoring enough goals. I've experimented with tactics but just can't get one working properly. I tried a 4-3-3 with a flat 3 in midfield and 3 strikers, I tried a 4-1-3-2, and a 4-1-2-1-2 but just can't seem to get it working on a consistent basis, it's really frustrating. I've been knocked out of the CL Group stage on head-to-head, and honestly could end up getting sacked. I brought in Roberto Ayala for big money to try and sure up the defence, and was thinking Buffon, Thuram and Ayala with Davids sat in-front would be unreal but leaking goals like nobodies business. Just praying I can turn the form around and survive the season but not looking great right now.


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## Orikoru (Feb 26, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Have to say, I'm really struggling with CM01/02, even as Juve. I've had a few great results, like a 4-1 win over league leaders Inter but we're so inconsistent. Defensively awful and even with Nedved, Del Piero, Trezeguet and Salas we're not scoring enough goals. I've experimented with tactics but just can't get one working properly. I tried a 4-3-3 with a flat 3 in midfield and 3 strikers, I tried a 4-1-3-2, and a 4-1-2-1-2 but just can't seem to get it working on a consistent basis, it's really frustrating. I've been knocked out of the CL Group stage on head-to-head, and honestly could end up getting sacked. I brought in Roberto Ayala for big money to try and sure up the defence, and was thinking Buffon, Thuram and Ayala with Davids sat in-front would be unreal but leaking goals like nobodies business. Just praying I can turn the form around and survive the season but not looking great right now.
		
Click to expand...

When I went up to Division One I lost a couple of away games, so I developed a different tactic for away games to the one I use on home games. Stuck with it all season and it worked perfectly. At home I use 4-1-2-1-2 (all narrow) with the full backs, MCs and AMC moving forwards, with attacking mentality, short passing, pressing & offsides on, and hard tackling. For away games though I've dragged the AMC back one so it's a 4-1-3-2, and I change passing from short to direct, since I expect to have less possession. 

With ball/without ball can seemingly make a big difference as well. I've dragged the full backs much narrower and high on the with ball screens, and narrower again on the without ball screens so there is less gap between them and the CBs. I made tiny alterations to the AMC/middle MC in both formations as well so they're not flat in line with the strikers or the other MCs, I wanted them just behind the strikers in the 41212 and just ahead of the other two MCs in the 4132. 

Also, click through the individual settings from the drop down menu. I noticed that some of those were contradicting my team settings after I moved a couple of players about. For example it had the defenders set to no pressing, so you need to click it back to 'team' so everyone is on the same page. Also my DMC was set to make forward runs so I had to turn that off. Another thing I use this for is during the game, when one of my players gets booked I set their tackling back to 'normal' so they don't pick up another booking thanks to my hard tackling team setting.


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## Orikoru (Feb 26, 2019)

Season two is over, my team turned to absolute rubbish as soon as the league title was secured, but whatever, it's over now. Final record is W34 D6 L6, GF102 GA33 Pts 108. 18 point gap over 2nd place Derby. 

Roll on the summer, time to bring in some Premier League quality recruits!


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## Beezerk (Feb 26, 2019)

Stayed in the Prem first time after a good run of results near the end, top 4 so far in the second season but I can't put a run of results together. Been playing 4-4-1-1 (Crusade I think it's called) with Moukoko behind Skiladis, seems to work well with Victory and N'Diaye as central midfielders. Seem to be getting loads of injuries at crucial times though which is costing me games.
I've had some players on the transfer list for over a year and no one has tried to buy them lol, are they valued too high?


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## Orikoru (Feb 26, 2019)

Done some tidy transfer business in the summer. Signed Luca Toni who looks an absolute beast of a striker, Corneliusson who can play either full back position, Ibrahim Said who was languishing at relegated Nottm Forest and should start at DMC, plus Steven Reid who can play basically every position on the field, turned me down for about two years straight but I've finally got my man!

Meanwhile I forgot to arrange any friendlies. Hopefully that doesn't matter on this game because the league is about to start.


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## Orikoru (Feb 28, 2019)

I must say, our first season in the top flight is going well. Despite 3 losses, we're top of the table after 10 games, having won the other 7. Best of the bunch was beating Arsenal 3-0 away! Somehow! Proud of the lads. #itscominghome


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## Beezerk (Feb 28, 2019)

Won the PL last night, pipped Man Utd by a point lol.

I need to beef up my centre mid and defence as I'm short handed when I get an injury or a ban, any top notch players I should be looking at?
Had Said taken from me on a contract clause again  Skiladis is an absolute beast up front, scored 5 goals in one game


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## Orikoru (Feb 28, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			Won the PL last night, pipped Man Utd by a point lol.

I need to beef up my centre mid and defence as I'm short handed when I get an injury or a ban, any top notch players I should be looking at?
Had Said taken from me on a contract clause again  Skiladis is an absolute beast up front, scored 5 goals in one game 

Click to expand...

Wow, don't know who Skiladis is but fair play. Did you say you already had Fredrik Risp because I've heard he's a great DC on the game? In all honesty, if you go to Player Search and put in Interested:Yes, pick defence centre, and in the attributes tab put like 17+ for positioning, tackling and maybe marking, then search - scout anyone who comes up that you can afford and if they say 'excellent signing' then go for it. I did this, ended up buying a guy from Colchester for 300k and he's been an absolute machine, averages like 7.6 over the season. Positioning, tackling and marking seem to be the key stats - if they have all of them then go for the one with the most strength & pace. I always make sure they have good determination as well, because apparently that's really important in this game.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 28, 2019)

Burdisso is the CB I normally go for. Has insane defensive attributes, just need to have enough money to tempt Boca to sell him. 

Got some solid transfers coming in at Juve, just not sure I'll survive long enough for them to actually join  In the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup and the final of the Italian cup but not sure that'll be enough to save me at this rate. I had a nice run of 8 straight wins but then lost 4-1 to Lecce, this game is weird.


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## Orikoru (Feb 28, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Burdisso is the CB I normally go for. Has insane defensive attributes, just need to have enough money to tempt Boca to sell him.

Got some solid transfers coming in at Juve, just not sure I'll survive long enough for them to actually join  In the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup and the final of the Italian cup but not sure that'll be enough to save me at this rate. I had a nice run of 8 straight wins but then lost 4-1 to Lecce, this game is weird.
		
Click to expand...

It certainly is sometimes. One of my 3 defeats this season was getting done 4-0 at home by Newcastle - but we were down to ten men for the whole second half. Every now and then you come up against a random super-keeper as well. Had one last season where we had about 15 efforts without scoring, their keeper was on a rating of 9. I clicked on him to see who he was, he was their 18-year-old third choice with about 9 for handling.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 28, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			It certainly is sometimes. One of my 3 defeats this season was getting done 4-0 at home by Newcastle - but we were down to ten men for the whole second half. Every now and then you come up against a random super-keeper as well. Had one last season where we had about 15 efforts without scoring, their keeper was on a rating of 9. I clicked on him to see who he was, he was their 18-year-old third choice with about 9 for handling. 

Click to expand...

Game certainly isn't as consistent as the more recent titles. Someone has built a CM03/04 DB for FM19 which has been getting rave reviews, so might jump onto that for my Nostalgia kick instead


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## Beezerk (Feb 28, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			Wow, don't know who Skiladis is but fair play. Did you say you already had Fredrik Risp because I've heard he's a great DC on the game? In all honesty, if you go to Player Search and put in Interested:Yes, pick defence centre, and in the attributes tab put like 17+ for positioning, tackling and maybe marking, then search - scout anyone who comes up that you can afford and if they say 'excellent signing' then go for it. I did this, ended up buying a guy from Colchester for 300k and he's been an absolute machine, averages like 7.6 over the season. Positioning, tackling and marking seem to be the key stats - if they have all of them then go for the one with the most strength & pace. I always make sure they have good determination as well, because apparently that's really important in this game.
		
Click to expand...

Nice one Iâ€™ll give that a go tonight.
Google Skiladis, seems heâ€™s a hidden gem, couple him with Moukoko just behind and itâ€™s goals galore although Moukoko does have a few off games but generally my other midfielders contribute with goals.


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## Orikoru (Feb 28, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Game certainly isn't as consistent as the more recent titles. Someone has built a CM03/04 DB for FM19 which has been getting rave reviews, so might jump onto that for my Nostalgia kick instead 

Click to expand...

People have done that in reverse as well, i.e. you can get a database for Champ with all current players. I'm not bothered about that though. I just love the simplicity of Champ. My mate downloaded FM19 Touch and that looks pretty good, but I still think I prefer the old school game.


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## Dan2501 (Feb 28, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			People have done that in reverse as well, i.e. you can get a database for Champ with all current players. I'm not bothered about that though. I just love the simplicity of Champ. My mate downloaded FM19 Touch and that looks pretty good, but I still think I prefer the old school game.
		
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had a go with one of those DB's that add the modern players to 01/02 and it's just not the same, not the same nostalgia. I bloody love the newer games, I've put so many hours into FM19. It has its flaws but it's still the best FM game for years. It does take a lot longer to get through a season but I much prefer the extra depth in tactics, training and scouting that the older games just don't have. I'd much rather play FM19 than CM01/02 honestly. Touch is a decent bridge between the two, slightly stripped out simpler UI but you're still not going to be able to rinse through season like on 01/02.


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## Orikoru (Feb 28, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Yeah, I had a go with one of those DB's that add the modern players to 01/02 and it's just not the same, not the same nostalgia. I bloody love the newer games, I've put so many hours into FM19. It has its flaws but it's still the best FM game for years. It does take a lot longer to get through a season but I much prefer the extra depth in tactics, training and scouting that the older games just don't have. I'd much rather play FM19 than CM01/02 honestly. Touch is a decent bridge between the two, slightly stripped out simpler UI but you're still not going to be able to rinse through season like on 01/02.
		
Click to expand...

Yeah I just found with every new FM that came out they overloaded it with detail until playing it was nearly a full time job, haha. I do love the fact I've been playing CM for about 2 and a half weeks and I've already done over two seasons. On FM two seasons would take me over a month. It's tempting to get FM Touch, but I also have FM05 sitting here for when I get bored of CM so I'm set for a while.


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## Orikoru (Feb 28, 2019)

I just saw an interview with Tonton Zola Moukoko: https://www.planetfootball.com/in-d...is-story-from-champ-man-legend-to-club-owner/

It's quite sad actually. The reason he never lived up to his potential is that his immediate family died and he just gave up football for a bit.   It must be quite funny to be the living embodiment of a computer game legend though.


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## Orikoru (Mar 1, 2019)

Having reached the top of the Prem with Wigan after 10 games I decided that save was a bit too easy and started again with Sassuolo. In real life they're established in Serie A now, but back in 2001 they're languishing in Serie C2/B, so I will attempt to replicate their real life achievements, with a budget of Â£0. I've brought in three free transfers, one 32-year-old French DMC who is too good for that level, and two strikers, one Cyriot lad with good pace and 'off the ball', the other an Israeli feller with 19's for creativity and flair, plus decent finishing. My midfield is really light still so I need a reinforcement there if I can. We've started the league alright with 2 wins and a draw to put us in 2nd early doors. This time I'm using a 4-1-2-2-1 formation that looks something like this:

```
O
      ^     ^
      |     |
      O     O
      ^     ^
      |     |
      O     O
         ^
         |
         O
^                 ^
|                 |
O     O     O     O
```


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## Dan2501 (Mar 1, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			I just saw an interview with Tonton Zola Moukoko: https://www.planetfootball.com/in-d...is-story-from-champ-man-legend-to-club-owner/

It's quite sad actually. The reason he never lived up to his potential is that his immediate family died and he just gave up football for a bit.   It must be quite funny to be the living embodiment of a computer game legend though.
		
Click to expand...

That is a real sad story, but is so common with these CM legends. Cherno Samba went through a pretty rough depression, been meaning to read his book for a while. In a similar vain - have you seen the Championship Manager documentary - An Alternative Reality? I remember it came free with one of the old FM games, well worth a watch!

Going to start a new FM save today inspired by this Cleon article:

https://teaandbusquets.com/blog/creating-a-tactic-the-paysandu-way-2

Going to start in an obscure lower league with a team that I've not decided on yet and build some weird tactic and a brand of football and see how far we can go. Might just steal Cleon's tactic as it looks really interesting and give that a go, but we'll see. I did it successfully on last years game, building a funky asymmetric 3-ATB formation with an inverted wing-back at RWB as AlbinoLeffe and took them from Serie C to Serie A in 4 seasons. So will decide later what direction we're going to go, might start in South America.


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## Orikoru (Mar 1, 2019)

It's worth selecting your team and seeing what players they have _before_ you decide the formation. For this Sassuolo save I built a slightly asymmetric formation to start with, it was a 4-1-3-1-1 where the AMC moves to one side to allow the middle MC to attack alongside him and so on, but my squad just didn't have enough decent MCs for it to work, hence I just moved to the 4-1-2-2-1 so I could put a forward in one of the AMC slots.


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## Dan2501 (Mar 1, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			It's worth selecting your team and seeing what players they have _before_ you decide the formation. For this Sassuolo save I built a slightly asymmetric formation to start with, it was a 4-1-3-1-1 where the AMC moves to one side to allow the middle MC to attack alongside him and so on, but my squad just didn't have enough decent MCs for it to work, hence I just moved to the 4-1-2-2-1 so I could put a forward in one of the AMC slots.
		
Click to expand...

I think that's true for bigger teams where it's difficult to make wholesale changes because of the cost, but I find it's pretty easy to make quick, wholesale changes in the lower leagues within reason with frees and loans, so you can generally get most tactics to fit the squad with a decent transfer window. I did it with Leyton Orient this year, I decided on a tactic and a style of play and bought the players in I needed to to fit the system and had pretty decent success with it. Obviously it helps if you've got the positions filled to begin with and can just improve the squad, but not a big deal to make a number of changes early in a save, especially as most players that start at teams in lower leagues are generally trash anyway, so you'd want to improve on them anyway.


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## Orikoru (Mar 1, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			I think that's true for bigger teams where it's difficult to make wholesale changes because of the cost, but I find it's pretty easy to make quick, wholesale changes in the lower leagues within reason with frees and loans, so you can generally get most tactics to fit the squad with a decent transfer window. I did it with Leyton Orient this year, I decided on a tactic and a style of play and bought the players in I needed to to fit the system and had pretty decent success with it. Obviously it helps if you've got the positions filled to begin with and can just improve the squad, but not a big deal to make a number of changes early in a save, especially as most players that start at teams in lower leagues are generally trash anyway, so you'd want to improve on them anyway.
		
Click to expand...

You would think, but at Sassuolo I'm struggling to attract any players. Even ones listed for loan, the parent clubs are declining the offers, presumably because the level is too low. Lots of players without clubs are not even interested in joining me. I'm having to work with what I can get at the moment.


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## Dan2501 (Mar 1, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			You would think, but at Sassuolo I'm struggling to attract any players. Even ones listed for loan, the parent clubs are declining the offers, presumably because the level is too low. Lots of players without clubs are not even interested in joining me. I'm having to work with what I can get at the moment.
		
Click to expand...

Fair enough, probably different on the older games. There are so many players on the latest game that there are always players you can pick up. Thinking I might even create my own club in an obscure league if I can't find anyone interesting and start from absolute scratch.


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## Orikoru (Mar 1, 2019)

Dan2501 said:



			Fair enough, probably different on the older games. There are so many players on the latest game that there are always players you can pick up. Thinking I might even create my own club in an obscure league if I can't find anyone interesting and start from absolute scratch.
		
Click to expand...

I remember on FM 16, Parma had been demoted to non-league, so if you simmed the first year they would come back up and be added to the lowest playable division, but with only about 5 real players. So adding a manager as them was fun, as they had a little bit of cash but you had to stretch it across building basically an entire squad from scratch. I enjoyed that game. I got them to the top 6 in Serie B before being offered and accepting the Roma job.


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## DeanoMK (Mar 1, 2019)

Oh man, I'm going to have to download this. I spent so much time on this game originally, I've fond memories of sitting up until 2/3am battling to get Luton promoted.


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## Dan2501 (Mar 1, 2019)

https://www.fmscout.com/a-red-bull-challenge-fm19.html

Just found this which looks pretty interesting. Gonna give this a go I think, see how far we can take them.


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## Beezerk (Mar 2, 2019)

I finally got Tsigalko, I read thereâ€™s a glitch where if you offer at least 40k a week wages it always gets the work permit through. Well it worked and he scored a hat trick on his debut in a 4-0 thumping of Man Utd in the Charity Shield ðŸ˜‚
Also signed Klompe as West is unsettled and the board want him out, just waiting for the right offer now.
Had a shuffle and downloaded a 4-1-4-1 tactic so Iâ€™ll see how we fare this season.


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## Orikoru (Mar 2, 2019)

Beezerk said:



			I finally got Tsigalko, I read thereâ€™s a* glitch where if you offer at least 40k a week wages it always gets the work permit through*. Well it worked and he scored a hat trick on his debut in a 4-0 thumping of Man Utd in the Charity Shield ðŸ˜‚
Also signed Klompe as West is unsettled and the board want him out, just waiting for the right offer now.
Had a shuffle and downloaded a 4-1-4-1 tactic so Iâ€™ll see how we fare this season.
		
Click to expand...

Hmm, I never had that option, my wage budget with Wigan was 13k a week tops!


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## Beezerk (Mar 3, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			Hmm, I never had that option, my wage budget with Wigan was 13k a week tops!
		
Click to expand...

I had that for a while but when my team got more successful it allowed me to offer bigger wages. It was an odd one though, he was only worth 200k iirc but my club allowed me to offer huge wages. I can't remember if I scouted him first which may have helped.


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## Dan2501 (Mar 3, 2019)

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1099339119132585985
This DB is so damn good. Being able to play FM19 but with the nostalgia of the 03/04 DB is great fun. I've just taken on Los Galacticos and forgot how bad their defence was in this era. Makelele has just gone to Chelsea, Hierro has just left for Saudi Arabia, so I'm left with Ivan Helguera and Francisco Pavon at CB. Luckily I've got a massive transfer budget though, so I can go in on Cannavaro. The attack is crazy though, just look at this lovely little assymetric formation:







Zidane, Beckham, Figo, Raul and R9 all in their primes. Ronaldo in particular looks ridiculously good....







19 finishing, 18 composure, 20 dribbling, 17 acceleration and pace. His natural fitness is pretty low due to all the injuries but he should still bag a hatful. This is great fun.


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## Orikoru (Mar 4, 2019)

Just had a massive result with Sassuolo. 4-0 away win against the side that was in 3rd - having been 2nd most of the season we've just gone top at the half way point in the season. A young Cypriot striker I signed on a free who has 5 for finishing has banged in 13 goals in 15 starts somehow.   Best signing has been my 33 year old French CDM, also signed on a free (we don't have any money), and has averaged 8.13 over 15 games!


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## Orikoru (Mar 5, 2019)

We had a horrible run of form and lost 3 in a row, but luckily other teams dropped points too. We've recovered and we're now 3 points clear at the top with 8 games to play! #squeakybumtime  Not bad for a budget of zero! Enjoying this save a bit more I think since I couldn't just go out and buy Madeira, Duff etc.


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## SteveW86 (Mar 5, 2019)

Playing a Sunderland save at the minute, which is going decently. Bit of squad building but I think Iâ€™m getting there. Need to find a good CM to play alongside Kerr and I also need to replace Sorensen in goal.....any recommendations?


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## Orikoru (Mar 6, 2019)

SteveW86 said:



			Playing a Sunderland save at the minute, which is going decently. Bit of squad building but I think Iâ€™m getting there. Need to find a good CM to play alongside Kerr and I also need to replace Sorensen in goal.....any recommendations?
		
Click to expand...

Chiotis is the best cheap goalie on the game. He's the one people always used to buy anyway. His club sells him pretty cheap and his stats improve very quickly. If he hasn't moved already you'll be able to sign him easily. I'm not sure about CMs because I tend to buy AM's instead due to my formation.


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## Beezerk (Mar 6, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			Chiotis is the best cheap goalie on the game. He's the one people always used to buy anyway. His club sells him pretty cheap and his stats improve very quickly. If he hasn't moved already you'll be able to sign him easily. I'm not sure about CMs because I tend to buy AM's instead due to my formation.
		
Click to expand...

I picked up Pinheiro early on for cheap, good goalie and well regarded but he went in the huff when I eventually bought Chiotis


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## SteveW86 (Mar 6, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			Chiotis is the best cheap goalie on the game. He's the one people always used to buy anyway. His club sells him pretty cheap and his stats improve very quickly. If he hasn't moved already you'll be able to sign him easily. I'm not sure about CMs because I tend to buy AM's instead due to my formation.
		
Click to expand...

Fixed the CM problem with getting frank lampard from Chelsea. Will look up the keeper.

Finished season 2 last night strongly and ended up 8th in the league, so pretty happy with that. Iâ€™m getting there with the first team, it currently looks like this:

                         Sorensen

Lauren.    Mexes.    Burdisso.      Arca

                 Kerr.       Lampard

 backircioglu.    Selakovic.       Alex

                   Madeira


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## Orikoru (Mar 6, 2019)

SteveW86 said:



			Fixed the CM problem with getting frank lampard from Chelsea. Will look up the keeper.

Finished season 2 last night strongly and ended up 8th in the league, so pretty happy with that. Iâ€™m getting there with the first team, it currently looks like this:

                         Sorensen

Lauren.    Mexes.    Burdisso.      Arca

                 Kerr.       Lampard

backircioglu.    Selakovic.       Alex

                   Madeira
		
Click to expand...

I would advise using a DMC in the formation. It's very over-powered in this game.


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## Orikoru (Mar 9, 2019)

We've done it! With two games to spare, Sassuolo seal the division Serie C2/B title! Not bad for a budget of Â£0. 7 points clear of 2nd place at the minute. Finding C1 quality players on a budget of zero might be tough but we'll see how we get on.


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## Orikoru (Mar 11, 2019)

Heartbreaking news on the eve of the new season. Mihalis Christofis, my young Cypriot striker who I signed on a free and went on to score 26 goals to fire us to promotion (despite having just 5 for finishing), tore his ankle ligaments and is out for 5 months! I've had to sign some old duffer on loan to cover him. That's a huge blow.


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## Orikoru (Mar 15, 2019)

I briefly started a new save last night, because I had this crazy idea of a 2-at-the-back formation with no wide player whatsoever that I thought would work, but didn't want to bugger up my existing saves if it didn't. I picked Betis since their only requirement is to be clear of relegation, and you get about Â£10mil to play with. Immediately bought Maxim Tsigalko, which is finally the first time I've been able to get him. Now see what the fuss is about. His debut was a friendly, he scored a hat-trick. Then we had another friendly, and he scored another hat-trick. One of our first few league games we battered Tenerife 5-2 and he got yet another hat-trick. Ridiculous. 

The formation went as expected, we stuffed a few teams, but conceded a few chances. Particularly as I only have three centre backs in the squad and two of them were unavailable for a couple of games.   I've signed some big names from the past, but unfortunately I missed the deadline and they won't join until December - Jay-Jay Okocha (who weirdly is a DMC), and Abel Xavier! Next one I have lined up is Jean-Alain Boumsong. I was really trying to sign 19-year-old Joe Cole as well but West Ham weren't budging on that one. 

So anyway, here's the formation:

```
ST
  ^    ^
  |    |
  AM  AM
  ^    ^
  |    |
  MC  MC
^    ^   ^
|    |   |
DM  DM  DM


  DC  DC
```
So with ball it has effectively has 3 strikers, without ball it essentially has five at the back as the DMs drop in. It seems to work about as well as the other formations I've used, despite looking a bit ridiculous.    I don't think I'm going to stick with this save long though, I want to get back to my Sassuolo lads.


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## Orikoru (Mar 19, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			We've done it! With two games to spare, Sassuolo seal the division Serie C2/B title! Not bad for a budget of Â£0. 7 points clear of 2nd place at the minute. Finding C1 quality players on a budget of zero might be tough but we'll see how we get on.
		
Click to expand...

Betis didn't hold much interest so I went back to my Sassuolo game. Secured the Serie C1/A title at the first time of asking. Only 1 league defeat all season and finished 9 points clear of Treviso! Signing Serie B level players for Â£0 is going to be nigh-on impossible so the real challenge starts now!


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## Orikoru (Apr 9, 2019)

Ok, I know this was just me talking to myself in the end but I just had to bump it and update you on my Betis squad, which is now the perfect blend of CM legends and real life blasts from the past! I'm now using a kind of 2-3-2-1-2 with wing backs...

GK: Eleftheropoulos - CM legend, fans were happy that we signed a 'big name' and they don't come much bigger than 'Eleftheropoulos'.
CB: Rustico - apparently in real life he retired at 29 to become a politician, on CM he's got near-perfect stats for a CB though.
CB: Marcel Desailly - he's about to turn 35 but is still a beast and still captains France! Ridiculous.
LWB: Seth Johnson - words can't express how good this man is. He just came 2nd in La Liga player of the season, averaging 8.04.
RWB: Fernando Varela - he was at Betis at the start, has poor looking stats but weirdly smashes it with an average of like 7.8.
DMC: Joey Gudjonsson - also starts at Betis and is insanely good.
CM: Joe Cole - new signing for season 3, looks phenomenal.
CM: Mark Kerr - CM Legend of course, seems to specialise in rebound tap-ins, but also in disallowed goals weirdly.
AMC: Denilson - starts at Betis and is really good. You may recall him being the world's most expensive player for a while in real life.
SC: Maxim Tsigalko - 35 goals the first season, 41 goals the second. Now says he hasn't settled in Spain and that it's 'time to move on' - unfortunately his 5 year contract says otherwise!
SC: Louis Saha - another new signing, from Fulham, his stats are unreal haha.

Other players:
Abel Xavier - Everton and Liverpool legend. You may remember him for his bright white hair and beard combo.
Danny Mills - Plays great at RWB but loves a red card. He just got a straight red in a friendly against our B team actually. 
Jay Jay Okocha - strangely he is a DMC on this game but I just played him at MC because his stats suit it better.
Kiegan Parker - I think he was meant to be decent on this game but he's not done much yet.
Stefan Selakovic - another supposed CM legend who actually hasn't uprooted any trees, but he's kind of back-up for Denilson.
Joao Paiva - just picked him up, he's very raw looking though so giving him a season in the B team first. 

First season we finished 2nd on goal difference, second season was disappointing as we came 3rd, but did win the Spanish Cup. Now I've brought in Joe Cole and Louis Saha, we should be unstoppable! (Sounds like something Harry Redknapp could have said back in the day, haha)


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## Dan2501 (Jun 28, 2019)

https://play.acast.com/s/quicklykevin/dccad0c0-f76a-4c89-a5a4-08c7ff10d69d

Thought it was worth bumping this thread for this podcast episode, which is fantastic. Love Quickly Kevin, and this is one of my favourite episodes, well worth a listen!


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## ColchesterFC (Jun 28, 2019)

I'm still cracking on with FM2005. Although I might have to consider my position due to the restrictions the board are placing on me in the transfer market. How am I supposed to compete with this budget....


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## Orikoru (Jun 28, 2019)

ColchesterFC said:



			I'm still cracking on with FM2005. Although I might have to consider my position due to the restrictions the board are placing on me in the transfer market. How am I supposed to compete with this budget....

View attachment 27619

Click to expand...

Ha! Great game FM05. I've got that at home ready for when I get bored of CM0102 (hasn't happened yet though). What season are you in there? I trust you have Freddy Adu up top.


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## ColchesterFC (Jun 28, 2019)

Orikoru said:



			Ha! Great game FM05. I've got that at home ready for when I get bored of CM0102 (hasn't happened yet though). What season are you in there? I trust you have Freddy Adu up top. 

Click to expand...

Up to 13/14 season. I had Freddie Adu but sold him (with a buy back clause) as he wasn't playing. Got Rooney, Robinho, Nilmar, a couple of promising youngsters Thomas Finke and Jon Jairo Mosquera. Can't remember who the other strikers are as they're injured so I dumped them in the reserves. Have had players like Ibrahimovic, Torres, Tevez etc but have sold them on as they got old. Need an overhaul of my squad as have a lot of players in their early thirties.


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## Orikoru (Jun 28, 2019)

ColchesterFC said:



			Up to 13/14 season. I had Freddie Adu but sold him (with a buy back clause) as he wasn't playing. Got Rooney, Robinho, Nilmar, a couple of promising youngsters Thomas Finke and Jon Jairo Mosquera. Can't remember who the other strikers are as they're injured so I dumped them in the reserves. Have had players like Ibrahimovic, Torres, Tevez etc but have sold them on as they got old. Need an overhaul of my squad as have a lot of players in their early thirties.
		
Click to expand...

I think my favourite 'unknown' player from that game was Lebohang Mokoena, he was awesome. I always shoved Hitzlsperger and Guarin in my midfield as well, guaranteed one screamer per game.


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## Orikoru (Aug 30, 2019)

I'm bumping this again purely to brag about the strikeforce I've assembled at Norwich. I've had Anelka all this season, and he's been incredible, up there with Tsigalko as the best strikers I've used on the game. They've programmed him to get unhappy at the slightest thing, but I've managed to keep him settled so far so it's all good. Have him backed up by Roman Vasilyuk, who's great, and Cherno Samba who hasn't fully developed yet.

Last night though, Fernando Torres renegotiated his Atletico contract and added a Â£10mil release clause, so I promptly stuck in a bid, expecting it to go nowhere really. He had quite high demands but I made an offer and left him to mull it over. Meanwhile Zlatan Ibrahimovic was stated as being unhappy at Ajax because of his contract, so I stuck in a cheeky low bid for him as well. Somehow Zlatan was happy as a squad rotation player and only 16k a week (obviously they haven't programmed him as accurately as Anelka), so I got that one over the line pretty quickly, thinking that Torres would turn down my offer. But he didn't - Torres signed a week later! Sadly Samba is back with the reserves as my strikeforce now consists of Nicolas Anelka, Fernando Torres, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and the slightly lesser known Roman Vasilyuk.   We are top of the league with less than half of the season to go, having finished 8th, 7th and 3rd in my first three Premier League campaigns. 

Current squad (back-ups in brackets)
GK: Costanzo (Maik Taylor - Jamie Langford joining on a free next season though)
DR: Prutton (Gavilan)
DL: Cicala - think he's a regen (Solari)
DC: Mellberg (back-up is some regen I nicked from Man Utd)
DC: Okoronkwo (Ashley Lythe)
DM: Cambiasso (Appleton)
MC: Mark Kerr (Stephen Pearson)
MC: Nicolas Medina (Aarsheim, some Norwegian feller)
MC^: Zola Moukoko (Zegarra)
ST: Anelka (Zlatan)
ST: Torres (Vasilyuk)

Joao Paiva and Justin Georcelin are also languishing in the reserves with Samba. I should probably stop buying strikers. I nearly signed Diego Forlan as well!

I've got one eye on Ronaldinho, he has a relegation release clause of 4.1m at PSG, and they're currently 17th! The other guy I really want is Clint Hill, because for some reason, on CM01/02 he is one of the best defenders in the world. It's mental.


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## Dan2501 (Sep 2, 2019)

Back playing FM19 here, playing as Burnley. In my 2nd season just getting to Jan and it's safe to say I've made a few improvements to the squad:

Matt Lowton > Rasmus Nissen Kristensen
Charlie Taylor > Rico Henry
James Tarkowski > Abdou Diallo
Kevin Long > Duje Caleta-Car
Ashley Westwood > Mohamed Elneny
Jack Cork > Sandro Tonali
Matej Vydra > Ryan Gravenberch
Robbie Brady > Javi Ontiveros
Johann Gudmundsson > Andrija Zivkovic
Ashley Barnes > Odsonne Edouard
Chris Wood > Carlos Fernandez

Building quite a squad. Totally dismantled Sean Dyche's squad but my net spend over the 3 completed windows so far is only Â£19m with replacing Gudmundsson with Zivkovic this coming transfer window costing me a further net Â£17m once all instalments on Zivkovic are paid up, but Hendricks, Jay Rodriguez and Lorenzo Tonelli are also departing to free up some transfer funds.

Results starting to come too. Finished a solid 11th last season and seem to be building on that this season currently sitting 8th going into the first week of Jan having played 21 games. This season we've already picked up wins over Chelsea, Liverpool, 2 wins against Leicester, a dominant win against Wolves and a draw against United, going strong and only going to get stronger with Zivkovic coming in at RW.


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## Orikoru (Sep 3, 2019)

Well I won the league in my game. Unfortunately it was heartbreak in the Champions League final. Cambiasso got sent off after 5 minutes (cheers mate), we still held Roma to 0-0 and it went to penalties, but we lost 7-8 sudden death as Okoronkwo ballooned his (knew I should have put him 10th). 

PSG _were_ relegated so I immediately picked up Ronaldinho with the minimum of fuss. I've designed a new 4-1-2-3 for the new season to fit all my array of attackers in. Will have to let a midfielder go I think. But Spurs are still being bastards over Clint Hill. Imagine a world where someone bids Â£12mil for CLINT HILL and it gets turned down.


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## Dan2501 (Sep 3, 2019)

Big clubs are so annoying. Wanted a new goalkeeper as Pope is decent but our back-up Peacock-Farrell is horrendous, not even good enough to play in the Championship. I noticed Geronimo Rulli was interested in a transfer, offered his Â£16m release clause, agree a contract and then Arsenal decide to come in for him, steal him off me and he agrees to a back-up player contract for them. Leno got POTM last month and is constantly getting lauded in the press so they don't even need Rulli, he's just going to rot on their bench. Properly frustrating. Got to try and find someone else now.

Did manage to go Regen hunting and find 2 tidy looking regens from Real Madrid and PSG that were willing to join me for <Â£3m each. The lad from RM looks unreal. Attacking midfield with stupid physical attributes for a 16 year old, he's going to be so good.


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