Championship Manager 2001/02

[Orikoru]

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 £6mil. I've brought in a couple of the old legends - Taribo West, Tó 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.

 

[Dan2501]

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.

 

[SteveW86]

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

 

[Orikoru]

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.

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?

 

[Orikoru]

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

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.

 

[Dan2501]

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

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 £0 without the selling team being able to do anything about it. That game was so broken.

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?

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?

 

[Orikoru]

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 £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?

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.

 

[Kellfire]

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?!

 

[Orikoru]

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?!

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.

 

[Captainron]

Why not do it like real life.

Go with Tottenham and spend nothing and go nowhere

 

[Kellfire]

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.

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...

 

[Orikoru]

Why not do it like real life.

Go with Tottenham and spend nothing and go nowhere

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

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...

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?

 

[Kellfire]

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?

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!

 

[Dan2501]

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 £19m from Burnley and £21m from Brighton so bit of profit there. Also, the AI managed to get £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.

 

[Orikoru]

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. Tõ 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!

 

[SteveW86]

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


The original classic!

 

[Dan2501]

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.

 

[Orikoru]

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


The original classic!

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.

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.

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!

 

[SteveW86]

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

 

[Orikoru]

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.