With all the hype around the new FM, not to mention the launch of the XBOX one, new Halo, Call of Duty and games like GTA V & Fifa 14 already grossing millions of sales our bank accounts are getting pounded but how do you know what to spend you hard earned cash on first? Lets investigate.

For me this period is all about 5 key releases: GTA 5, Fifa 14, Xbox One, Football Manager 2014 and COD Ghosts.

Obviously the first two on that list are already up for grabs and I’m sure many of you out there have already bought them but if you haven’t here are my thoughts.

Fifa 14 is the best version of the game I can remember, it really is, but only a certain type of player will think this.

For example, I play like the real world teams like Arsenal in the game, slow, methodical, technical play, passing, through balls and finesse opportunities with a solid back line.

My Fifa buddy is more direct, a counter attacker who isn’t the best finisher but relies on the sheer number of chances generated by lobbed-through-balls and crosses to win games.

The new Fifa is massively beneficial to my style of play and the in-game seasons reflect that, I can’t lose a game on Professional but my buddy struggles to get over mid-table even though we are the same team, if anything they would always be better than me on previous Fifa’s.

If you enjoy the technical side of football, this Fifa is the best one yet. If you don’t its just another evolution for you and you probably wouldn’t notice the difference if you solely played online.

For me this is an essential buy and apart from FM, should be the first on the list.

Our order of priority – 3rd

GTA 5 has taken a shed-load of time to develop and all the hype leading up to it speaks volumes as its a masterpiece, I can actually say it’s the first game in the series that i have not been able to put down from start to finish, the online play is also epic.

The only gripe I have is the length of the campaign, though the side-missions are a pleasing distraction, the actual game-play is only a few days work for those of us with jobs. Whether I think this because of perceived opinion of the other GTA’s (in the fact I thought they were ridiculously long because I never completed one) or its ‘as standard’ I don’t know.

The game is definitely longer than many other campaigns I have taken on in other games but I was expecting more and I was expecting to be able to spend more time roaming and causing havoc.

Our order of priority – 4th

The XBOX One isn’t far away and I for one have already pre-ordered mine.

I’ve always been an XBOX man, never once owned the dreaded Playstation so it was a natural progression for me, especially with a new Halo in the offing (which would have made this list if it had a release date).

This new version has been coming for a few years and IMO it’s a bit soon to bring it out as the technology advancements coming in the world of tech are monumental, Microsoft could have waited another 9 months and capitalised on those but hey ho, I’m sure this will be an industry leading console for years to come.

Our order of priority – 2nd

I felt slightly let down by the last COD instalment, I felt the online play wasn’t as good as the previous release, largely because of the small and claustrophobic maps so I wait with bated breath for what the new Ghosts has to offer.

Of course the campaign will be awesome, they always are, if a little short.

I’m sure this will be one of the flagship releases for the XBOX One and the graphical advancements that will come with it may see this game being slightly more astronomical than it would have been on older consoles.

Our order of priority – 5th

Last but not least, Football Manager 2014.

What could we possibly say here that would be new to you, not much, you are here because you love the game and so do we.

All I can say is I hope the likes of us, the veteran FM players are satisfied with the new updates because I for one felt let down by FM 2013.

The game seems confused in the fact it tries to be as ‘real’ as possible without actually trying to be real. Ultimately the game is fantasy until things like the 1-20 stats are ditched for real scouting knowledge.

Its either a ‘game’ or its a management ‘sim’ – which one is it.

That said the game will be epic, it will tick a lot of boxes and I will spend hundreds of hours sitting in front of it, I just wish SI listened to the cult following that the game has built up.

Our order of priority – 1st

You don’t even know the best part yet, it’s all free, well next to free.

Let me tell you how I got to this, for the last few weeks I have been relentlessly loading up old FM saves, clicking space bar a few times than systematically getting bored and turning it off, this ain’t right, we need some fresh enthusiasm and I think I have the cure.

I just bought 5 awesome classic games online from Amazon (which by the way is far cheaper than anywhere online or off) and like a kid at Christmas I just can’t wait for the postman to come in the morning to drop them off, I got’em all for under a tenor including delivery, there’s some real classics here that are sure to sit in my collection for years to come.

For those who prefer playing on a PC/Mac

First up is the legendary Championship Manager 01/02, this has to be the most played game in football management game in history and for me has never been bettered.

Though compared to the previous release there wasn’t too many new features or additions apart from player masking being an optional extra, it was the gameplay itself that really got fans purring.

A game that is leaps and bounds above everything else for one reason alone, the balance between fun and football simulation was utter perfection and this alone set Championship Manager 01/02 apart from every other game in its class.

There was just enough ‘depth’ to the game and the right blend of tactical, transfer and skill was required to get through a season, which you could do at your own pace or super-fast if you wanted to hop through the years quickly.

For those who prefer a retro and no ‘faff’ management game, CM is by far the best instalment over the last 20 years and a must for every Football Manager fans’ collection.

You can get your hands on Championship Manager here from £1.65.

Next up is Football Manager 2005, what a game this was. With 158 divisions and 51 countries to choose from it was first game to also feature the media interaction element that is common-place in the more recent games.

Another awesome new feature of the 2005 version was the ability to start unemployed, this gave the user the ability to ‘play the field’ and possibly holiday for a number of days, months or seasons until the right job came up. Something that I thought really enhanced the options of the game.

Football Manager 2005 was the first FM to really have a smooth match engine, it was stripped right back and is a lot more predictable with dodgy players doing dodgy stuff and better players being more reliable from 4 yards.

You can get Football Manager 2005 from £0.71p here.

Console gamers

LMA Manager 2006 is the perfect accompaniment for the console gamer in need of a football management fix. Though the match engine and graphics are not on a par with its PC counterparts, they are plenty good enough for a console.

It’s retro feel coupled with a really cool menu system and a feature that I really liked in the ‘progression bar’, rather than seeing loads of arrows on FM you get one overall bar that shows the players progression in an easily manageable way makes this the best console option for those who like a pad in their hands.

Though the game didn’t get massively good reviews  these were because all were comparing it with FM on the PC, you simply can’t do that and for me this was massively unfair on this game, trust me its brilliant and will keep you entertained for hours.

You can buy LMA Manager 2006 here for 1p, yep that is one pence.

Second up for you console gamers is FA Premier League Football Manager 2000, though its available on PC and Playstation I reckon the console game is by far the better proposition.

LMA offers the player some awesome options and ways to build and manage your squad, think of all the players at the heights of their careers that you could sign, Rivaldo, Ronaldo, a young David Beckham?  That is enough to get the juices going and this is a great way of turning back the years and building a team that can only dream of bringing Wayne Rooney through the youth set up.

Like LMA Manager, this game is available from 1p, obviously you need to pay postage but that don’t count!

You can buy it here.

The Wildcard

I know it’s not really a ‘classic’ game yet but I had to throw this one in just for what it ‘meant’ to the Football Manager series, for me it is also the best FM since 2005 and one that I hope SI look into for the next release.

Football Manager 2011 is awesome, it just is, it’s the one that I spent the most time playing and one that has been lost by me in the transition from PC to Mac a few years ago, I just bought it, I cannot wait for this game, I will have a bear come next weekend when i smell, am pale and have no blood left in my fingers because this is going to be my life for the next week or more.

I can’t believe that its available on Amazon for £2.30, what a result.

Pretty much every review site out there gave this game a 9/10, most notably for its longevity and they are spot on.

For me the mix of classic old school players like Beckham, Ronaldinho and even the likes of Mark Viduka is a lure that I can’t resist, if you like Football Manager, any of the series, you have to own this game.

I feel like I just stole this game for £2.30 from here.

By my reckoning that’s 5 awesome games for a combined £4.68, what more could you want. I reckon that works out at less than 1p an hour for the enjoyment you will get out of all these, try going down the cinema with a chick for that!

I hope you enjoy the games, let me know if you buy them!

In little over 4 weeks we have had an astonishing 5,620 responses and if you took part, thanks a bunch!

We thought it would be selfish of us to keep the results to ourselves so here we go, lets see what you lot had to say.

The first question in the survey was “What is your overall opinion of Football Manager 2013?”

The responses matched our opinion of the game really, 43% said the game was “pretty good” and 39% answered that the game was “awesome”.

Importantly for SI, only 6% believed the game was the “best one ever”, which when you consider the game was the best-selling version of the game ever, isn’t the best feedback.

Interestingly though, not one single respondent said the game was “very poor”.

What does this tell us?: FM 2013 was by far the biggest selling version of the game in its existence, more people are buying it that ever so surely each one should be better than the last? Guess not, in my opinion 2012 is the best version in a long time and it seems everyone else isn’t too far behind those thoughts.

The second question in the survey was designed to understand the age range of the respondents.

The largest proportion of which were 22-29 years old which was more than double of that in any other age range.

What does this tell us?: Some people and some FM bloggers around at the moment believe FM is only a game for younger-heads, kids who need their parents to buy the game for them, it certainly is not. The majority (large) of our 5,620 respondents were between the ages of 22 and 29, couple that with the fact most people are playing the game ‘most days’ it seems the average FM player is a working man. That’s certainly the case in my experience.

Thirdly we asked “What ‘stature’ of team do you usually manage in your first season?”

We felt this was an important question to ask, though not relevant to much other than ‘how people play the game’ we thought it important.

The results of this question was fairly unexpected by us, we assumed that most people would be taking over at ‘top 6′ teams but the majority (28%) of our visitors were taking over mid-table teams in their first game on Football Manager 2013.

Only 8% of people take over the ‘best teams in the league’, with 7% taking over at the helm of ‘relegation battlers’.

What does this tell us?: You could be forgiven for thinking that people would follow their off-game support of football teams with their first club in-game but this doesn’t seem to be ringing true.  With only 8% of people taking over one of the best teams in the league, it seems we FM prefer a challenge over our loyal support.

The fourth question in our survey was designed to understand the credentials of our respondents.

“How long have you been playing the Football Manager series?”

By far the biggest response, over 54% was from people who had been playing FM ‘since Champ-man days’ which really added some authority to the answers we were getting.

What does this tell us?: This is a crucial question for the credibility of our answers, more than 54% of the people who got involved in our survey have been playing the game since Championship Manager days. In combination with some other answers you can start to see a loyal fan-base maybe turning slightly sour with the way the game is progressing.

Fifth in the survey was “How often do you play Football Manager?”

Only 3 answers were really used with this question, 94% of the respondents either played FM every day (27%), most days (41%) or a few times a week (26%).

The 6th question was by far the most important for our survey, it signifies what the real experts of the game think could change, the question was:

“What changes would most improve Football Manager 2014?”

Lots of the answers on the list were popular, with “Improve youth training – give ability to ‘mould’ young players” being the most popular, 69% of respondents wanted to see changes in this area of the game.

The second most popular answer was ”Improve youth training – give ability to ‘mould’ young players” with 67% of respondents thinking it would be a worthy addition.

Other notable answers included improving scout accuracy, giving the manager more control over sponsorship deals and to give the manager the ability to spend his/her personal earnings in-game. All of which were wanted by between 50-55% of the respondents.

Question 7 was designed to understand the buyer behaviours and the anticipation of Football Manager 2014, this, along with the first question gives us a realistic barring on the real-success of the game.

We asked “When will you buy Football Manager 2014?”

The answers were split across a few results but the bulk of people were either going to buy the game “as soon as it is available for pre-order” or on “the day it is released”. These made up 56% of the answers.

Question 8 was “Not including in-game issues, what is your biggest frustration with the FM series? “

A lot of the answers to this question were popular but the biggest concern was users getting bored and needing to start multiple games, 22% of respondents had the same issue.

This has to be a big concern for the game makers and I can say that I agree, I find myself getting bored after a few seasons because the game becomes ruled by regens. I know they are a necessity in the games longevity but there is ways and means of extending the life-span of any given game. For me the best way to do this would be to build a proper Youth Development structure, where you could recruit kids as young as 10, because these regens would have been developed by you, they wouldn’t be as detrimental to the future annoyance of them taking over.

For question 9 we wanted to understand what information people look for online, this was mainly so we could make sure we had that information on the site for you, the question was:

“What information do you look/search for online about Football Manager?”

Turns out you all want to see information on the best players and downloads, go figure!

The final question was ”How many of your friends play FM?”

This was a bit of a wildcard really, I have several friends that play FM but its a fairly ‘solo’ game so we wanted to know if it was the same for everyone else.

Over 28% of you have ’2 or 3′ friends that play FM, snap! Seems we are more alike than you might think.

I’m sure you are drawing your own conclusions about what this information means for the game, for SI and for the forthcoming 2014 release but what other things can we learn about FM based on these results?

For example, when you combine the age groups and the fact people play ‘most days’ more than any other result, you can safely say that most FM players work full-time.

You can also assume that because the majority prefer a challenge over team-loyalty they, in most cases, will need to find online help and guidance to find the players that suit the team they have chosen rather than knowing that already.

Do you have any conclusions? Let’s talk below.

“Lets do it on wonderkids, people love wonderkids!” was the sentence that followed.

Cutting a long story short, we have, its finished and although the sound quality isn’t the best and our nerves are certainly on show for the first few minutes we are definitely happy with the content.

In the ‘poddy’ we discuss what we have called the ‘Wonderkid Conundrum’.

The Wonderkid Conundrum is the situation you find yourself in when deciding which youngsters to buy, which ones are worth the money and which ones to avoid. In the podcasts are some real life examples, some wonderkids who really take the bull by the horns and deserve a place in the first team of the top clubs in the world.

It’s the wonderkid equivalent of our ’12 players better than Messi’ ebook.

And of course, there’s a few who are not good enough but would still fit under the ‘wonderkid’ banner and cost you many-millions to buy.

Also included in the 40 minute podcast is an interview with a sports journalist, author and avid FM player for over a decade. We discuss what he thinks needs to be included in Football Manager 2014 and why, believe it or not Womens’ football is one thing! Shocker.

Anyway, listen to the podcast to find out more, you can play it straight on this page, no links, opt-ins or dodgy webpages, just play it on this page by clicking the play button below.

Let us now what you think in the comments section.

To survive and rise !  An eight point plan we  had. Eight points to improve our standing; eight points to raise much needed cash; eight points to improve our squad. And just how did the author of those eight points perform ? Was he good enough to heed his own advice ? And did he survive his first term ?

Now my little bat-friends; my little wanderer friends; my lost wanderers … shall we turn the page? …

• Coaches:
• Scouts:

The key was HIRE SOME MORE !! … and so we did … the team was crying out for both more coaches and scouts, and by October’s end, we had three new coaches on board.

We wanted mental toughness; tactical awareness; and technical ability so our coaches could impart their knowledge and experience to our playing staff. Very happy we were indeed with our new employees; just goes to show who is out there looking for a job … even with a team such as ours .. down here in League Two. In John Murtough (oh we hope he is mucho tough!!) and Keith Ryan, we should be able to upgrade our playing level and become much more competitive.

The Board were very happy for us to add three coaches without question, and we have managed to do just that. Getting them to work straight away with the players will no doubt only help to strengthen the side.

And by the calendar year end 2010, we have also added a couple of scouts to help ferret out more talent. And also … (as you can see) come season’s end 2010/11, my assistant (or rather erstwhile assistant, as it is in the present tense) has left the club via mutual consent. Well, alright then, I actually nudged him toward the exit door, and booted him through it thoroughly once close enough. The falling out?? Well, no, of course it had nought to do with his earning more money than yours truly .. but rather .. you do remember he was tres loyal to his former boss (and also stuck in his, and those old ways) and he would mostly tend to disagree (vehemently) with my selections. So Martin Kuhl and I decided to a parting of the ways (alright – I decided – the joys of being THE boss) and prior to season’s end, Martin became … as the saying goes … history. Better to bring in a happy and new face in the new season to come, someone eager to prove himself, someone not spoiled by the old ways …..

Affiliated Clubs

It took a wee while to obtain our desire. We were twinned with Brentford of the second tier for a while, and then we landed the plum of Tottenham Hotspur. Oh the joy ! They pay us £44,000 per year, chicken feed for them (but we have a lot of chickens here at Wycombe—and some who fancy themselves roosters) We also now get to keep the entire gate receipts when Spurs come to Adams Park for their yearly sold-out friendly. In addition, they will usually loan us a very promising youngster from their ranks and cover 100% of his wages to boot. Nice, very nice.

 Youth

Our youth recruitment policy has always been fairly basic with just the bare bones of facilities. My feeling is, it will take many years of hard slog to build up a half-decent academy. We were turned down by The Board for our request to upgrade. Reason: lack of funds. So the local lads we attract are very low on skills and most likely will not be sticking around very long. They will be wandering but not Wanderers. (unless Bolton or Wolves pick them up J )

My young friend, above, is a case in point. Already 18 years of age, horribly low on technical ability; and no where near the mental strength to feature even in OUR first team. As a defender,  tremendously low in marking; tackling; concentration; technique – oh dearie dearie me !! I could go on and on and on …. Stamina ; strength ….the only thing Man U about Leika is his name !! … and he is about the standard young “starlets” we are attracting to our under-18’s. It is a revolving door policy mostly – in one year and out the next … even offers to other clubs – even those non-league sides – attract not a jot of interest – I don’t think even exceptional coaching can save the first few years crop !  ….

And , I am afraid, it will be quite some years before we have enough spare funds lying around to work on upgrading the facilities, and thus attract the quality of youth we want and need. In the interim, we will have our scouts look for promising youngsters elsewhere and hope to grab a few on ‘a free’ and build up the under-18 squad. – Unless of course, we attract a sugar-daddy (or sweet momma) with deep pockets. Yes, it is going to be a very slow process and methinks we will be fortunate to find two or three youngsters graduate to the first team in the un-for-see-able future.

Friendlies

We had mentioned friendlies, especially home matches, as a good way of obtaining some much needed income. In addition to evaluating your squad and how they perform, friendlies get them into match-shape for the coming season. Don’t forget to arrange matches for your reserve and youth sides as well. And pop down to the under 18 games once in a while and see for yourself just who may be worth a call-up to the big side.

Yes, we arranged quite a few friendlies for the team, with lots at home, and also inaugurated a yearly tournament: ‘the Wycombe friendly cup’; each year in pre-season we will invite three different sides to compete with us in a competition at Adams Park. Its fun, it draws crowds, teams from the world over, and creates some much needed cash for us, all at the same time. It also gives us a glimpse at our players in matches against diversified and top sides, as in future, even premiership sides will be keen to attend.

The Board

If the Board is good enough to hire you in the first place, do not ever be afraid to approach them every so often with a shopping list of your requests. You may wish for more staff – coaches; scouts; physios. Perhaps upgrade the training facilities – perhaps ask for more transfer funds – perhaps a new contract for yourself – perhaps help to sign a really big transfer target you believe will really make a difference. Never be afraid to approach them, they may say ‘no’, but as yet, they could surprise and help out and release funds you thought you were locked away in the vault and would never see the light of day. Although my own Board turned down my, I thought, reasonable request to build a youth academy, they did say ‘yes’ to relaying our mangled pitch; ‘yes’ to requests for more scouts and physios; ‘yes’ to obtain affiliated clubs, both parent and feeder; even ‘yes’ to raising the wage budget !  (although Mr W Rooney still remains out of reach!). So always make the approach, I feel the Board are there to help and not hinder.

Loans

And here, we come to the crux of the matter. It is not only loans, but transfers, and especially,  FREE TRANSFERS, where elevation of the club is paramount. Of course, most times, you do have to free up funds by dumping those you deem unworthy. (oh dear, as in my case with Chris Westwood, among others) … but at least you do not pick up the tab for the loan signings, and well, as regards the frees, one must be circumspect with weekly wages and stay within budget whilst still striving forwards as a club.  Here’s a look at our dealings in the market during our first season.

As you can see, each and every transaction was a FREE. We garnered four loan signings in our first season, including two from Liverpool ! It does not harm to ask the big clubs, as they may be very willing to send their players even to a club in the fourth tier. Also the players themselves sometimes recognize playing time is much more important than just sitting on the bench at their parent club. In fact, our four loan signings played a total of 106 matches for us in the season, just goes to show how valuable they can be, and Victor Palsson came back once again the following season on loan and played a further 34 games. Alexis Nikolas, our first ever signing, on a free, played 35 matches during the season and added steel and guile to our midfield. He had been with Chelsea for four years, but never played a game; released to Brighton in the Championship, he made 44 appearances over two years without scoring and was let go on a free to St Albans in the Blue Square Premier from whence we reeled him in. This is the way of life at the bottom, surviving on the scraps; the shrimps the big fish throw overboard; dining on the krill, before the whales and sharks gobble it all up; attempting to turn  Abyssobrotula Galatheae  into beautiful, sleek, fast swimming Dolphins. (is it possible??)

Tutoring

Approach as many of the senior players and request they tutor the youngsters. Nearly all will be delighted and ready to help. Attempt to match positions and personality types. You will find this goes down a treat. The younger players will learn and become friends with their mentors if all goes well. This has the added effect of creating squad harmony. The younger players will learn and the older ones will be happy to impart their knowledge and will appreciate being asked by you. Just be careful not to match volatile personality types, but for the most part, tutoring can only but help the club and draw them closer together as a unit.

Summary

So when all is said and done … as the saying goes … just where did we finish ? Remember the Board wished for a straight return to League One, and despite backing me all the way, I was still afraid I was only going to last only the one year. As the season wound down, and March saw us winless in four, I thought the barnacles were on the anchor, and knew it to be impossible. Even four wins and a draw in our last six matches did not matter. I anticipated I would be walking the plank at the end of the season … our lack of goals (as fore-seen) only 50 in the league, was a sore we were unable to heal. At the end, we finished 9^th, and I feared the powers that be would cast me overboard.

The only reason, I gathered why they let me survive to fight again the next season, was that I had built up a good relationship with the team, the players, the Board themselves, and kept slowly, slowly, slowly building.

They gave me another chance … another chance to avoid the jellyfish and the barracudas that prey on the weak, another chance to struggle for oxygen and to sorely glimpse the light far above at the surface ….. but I knew it was a chance I had to take next year …. I knew next season I had to rise to League One at the very very least … I knew … if I failed … by next season’s end … I would be the one sealed up in Davy Jones’ Locker …  the rusted key dissolved in the sandy brine below the Titanic … and me … a barnacle-encrusted relic … telling tall salty tales in the local coffee house ….

(the tales of eamonn o’hanlon)

UEFA is becoming more supportive of the idea of supranational leagues. This idea is not new, because some European leagues were already investigating the feasibility of a competition grouping several countries: Belgium, Holland, Scotland, Portugal, Denmark. You can mark them as countries with a glorious past in European club football, that have slipped away in the last 20 years. So why is UEFA now positive towards these international leagues?

The answer seems clear. UEFA wants to have more balance between the different leagues in Europe. At this moment, there is a rather big gap between the big money leagues (Premier League, Primera Division, Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1) and the other competitions. If some of these smaller countries and leagues bundle their forces into one competition, this could increase the quality level and the budgets for the clubs that play in them. So only a positive story, or not? And how can these leagues be formed in Football Manager?

 United = Stronger

Nations that unite will be stronger. That was also the starting idea for the BeNe League, that is to say the BeNe League for women that kicked off in the season 2012-2013. Eight Belgian teams and eight Dutch teams played the in first part of the season games in their country, after which the four best teams of both countries challenged each other in the BeNe League A. Dutch team Twente defeated Belgian team Standard in the last match to win the BeNe league, but both clubs became champion of their respective countries. In other words, no representative for European football was lost. And all clubs of the league attracted larger budgets and more spectators. Finally, the quality of play for the Belgian teams, at this time the lesser of both countries, was increased. In the long-term, this is a win-win situation for all clubs and supporters. So why was this example not yet followed by their male colleagues

Supporting the idea

Simple, there was still too little support by smaller clubs of both countries: fear of being left outside, holding on to traditions, rivalry between neighbouring countries,… Too many obstacles. So we will have to be patient for another few years, but the creation of supranational leagues seems inevitable. Because it is the only way of ever competing against the European top clubs with a reasonable chance of actually winning those games. Not only for Belgium and Holland. But think also about a possible Scandinavian league, a Balkan league or Central-European league. It’s all about removing the obstacles and keeping an open mind.

Superleague: step too far?

Just to be clear: a supranational league is not the same as the superleague that was proposed. This is the idea of some big European clubs, leaving their national league and getting together in some kind of everlasting Champions League. The result would be devastating on different levels: for the league they leave, for the other clubs that already can’t close the gap and for the present European competition. It would mean a revolution within modern football and a total change of the landscape. So who knows, are we evolving in 10 years to one big European competition with different divisions? With clubs as Anderlecht, PSV and Celtic somewhere stuck in a third or fourth division? No thanks! Although we have to respect that some football supporters would just love the idea and already fantasize about it.

So why not develop this fantasy features in FM?

Limitations

However, the FM editors amongst us know that league creation was somewhat limited up till FM 2013. The gamer can only edit existing leagues or create new leagues within one specific country. And more, this country can only be one of the official states.

First, this means no type of BeNe league or other league that unites countries, because you can’t select two or more countries in edit league mode. If we select one country to insert all the clubs (e.g. all Belgian and Dutch clubs into a BeNe League with one of both countries indicated), we will face problems with home-grown player rules and other regulations.

Secondly, the supporters of fantasy leagues with top clubs of different countries have presently no option to create this. So no luck for fantasy players or those fans that support the idea of European unification.

Finally, there is no way of creating leagues for new nations. So no strange fantasy league in a faraway galaxy… Yes, I know. Not the typical FM gamer profile, but it’s all about finding those future extra’s that will increase and entertain the FM audience.

So dear FM developer, please increase the league editing abilities for the creative FM fans.

Tom Schelfhout

From all the football books that I read a year, below are my top 5 books that I think are a definite for all us Football Managers to help us improve our game.  These books range from gaining a better understanding of the beautiful game from tactics to player strops, speaking with the people who created Football Manager and FM’ers who have taken things a little too far.

1) Football Manager Stole My Life: 20 Years of Beautiful Obsession

This has got to be the top book every FM obsessed fan needs to read.  Not just to have a laugh at others misfortune, but just to remind us that there is actually a real footballing world out there no matter how good FM is.  This book is written by Iain Macintosh (a sports journalist in Singapore), Kenny Millar (sports writer for The Sunday Post and not the ex striker of Celtic and Rangers) and Neil White.

The book goes into details about Nostalgia, Inspirational stories, and failed FM world beaters who never made it in the real world.  These stories range from a boy taking full use of his parents going on holiday and hooking his laptop up to the big screen TV, to Tonton Moukoko getting calls to this day from avid fans asking him where it all went wrong, and an FM addict is put on the psychologists coach to discover what 20 years as a virtual football manager has done to him.  These are just a handful of some of the funny stories which are within this book.

2) FC Barcelona – A Tactical Analysis: Defending

“If you never concede a goal, you’re going to win more games than you lose” – Bobby Moore.  There has never been a truer word spoken and is exactly what this book is for.  What better team to base your defensive tactics on than Barcelona who went 30 home league games unbeaten during the 2010/11 season.

Pep Guardiola’s blue print to get Barcelona so tight defensively was so good, that it didn’t matter who took over from him when he left, it’s legacy still worked without much effort or changes having to be made by the new gaffer.

This book goes into detail about what defensive tactics Barcelona use and could be used by you for your own FM team or potentially against Barca when you next come up against them.

3) Set Plays: Organizing and Coaching Dead Ball Situations

A slightly older book which was published back in April 2005.  It is still worth a read though as it takes an in-depth look at the single most important aspect of scoring and preventing goals from dead ball situations such as Free kicks, Kick-offs, Goal kicks and Corners.

Good set-pieces can be the difference between no points, one point or three. Taking advantage of the numerous dead-ball situations within FM which occur in matches can work massively to your benefit and by reading this book.  We would all love a Steven Gerrard or Gareth Bale in our team to score a direct free kick, but what do we do with indirect free kicks?  This book can certainly give you plenty of food for thought to how we set up our team in the different situations.

4) Coaching Soccer: Match Strategy and Tactics

Match coaching is often overlooked in football coaching in favour of drills and training methods. This book tackles the tough task of preparing for, executing, and analysing the match.  Sometimes it is not always about putting out your best players but instead trying to outfox your opponent.  To do this, you have to send your scout out the week before to compile a report on how they play.  However, this is only the first stage of operation hoodwink.  It’s all well and good having this information, but what does it mean?!  This book is perfect for that to help you understand the match strategies and tactics used within the footballing world.  Once you understand these, coupled with the Barca defending tactics from the earlier book, the world is your oyster – easy!

Let’s read on and I wonder what book is next – yep, you guess it, attacking.

5) Attacking Soccer: Mastering the Modern Game

So by now, we have mastered the dead ball situations, understood the different strategies, and firmed up our defences.  All what is left to do now is score that all important goal.  This book helps football fans from around the world adore the offensive style of play based on fast passing combinations, spectacular dribbling, and the art of beautifully shot goals. The question regarding this style of game is how to coach your team to embrace fast attacking soccer.

This book is written by Peter Schreiner and Norbert Elgert, who are renowned German coaches who give their answers to the modern attacking game, including systematically approaches.  Every coach can easily shape his training programs with easy to use exercises, but is what you are doing making any differences come match day.  This book should help with making sure you are putting your players through the correct attacking exercises and hopefully bring the end of those dreaded goalscoring drought messages that I get all to frequently.

There is one final book to consider, it isn’t out yet but looks a real treat and you can actually pre-order it now.

The Manager: Inside the Minds of Football’s Leaders

This book is due for release on 29th August 2013.  The book goes into detail on all aspects within the footballing world from the post room to the boot room.  With all the big billionaire owners coming over and running the British clubs more as a business than a hobby, working there must just be like working for a FTSE 100 company.

All stories come from some of the 30 biggest names in the game.  If for nothing else, you will learn real life lessons of what these managers have learnt along their way and what methods they have used.  Could help with those tricky FM team talks or handling the media minefield.

Don’t just put these on your ‘to read’ list and stare at the titles thoughtfully every now and then. Go out, buy them, and then read them and hopefully (like me), it will whet your appetite ready for FM14.  After all, until FM14 is out, what else do you have to do!

If you found this article interesting, why not read our other article about 5 Must Own Classic Football Manager Games for £4.68.

Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, Iniesta, Rooney,… Top players, role models, heroes. Probably the reason why games such as Football Manager are a big success. To actually be the manager of these great players, to live the dream of actually coach them and to manage some of the world’s greatest teams. But who has heard of Marta, Prinz, Hamm, Smith,…? Alan Smith, you mean? No, Kelly Smith! Why is it that there is so little interest in the gaming industry for women’s football? Or is it only following the poor general interest in women’s football in real life?

I guess you can call it evolution. In lots of sports, female athletes had to struggle in getting more attention, more tv coverage and better prize money. In the individual sports – athletics, swimming, tennis – some kind of equality was reached. In team sports this equality is still far gone, with the exception of an Olympic survival every four years. And in the most typical ‘male sport’ of all times, we can still talk about a taboo. Not that women’s football is non-existing. Far from it. But let’s say that 90% of the male spectators don’t even want to discuss the topic: ‘Yes to football, women and cars. But please don’t mix them all together.’ But let’s violate the taboo for once and think about the surplus value of women’s football in gaming.

Boosting interest

Game developers react that there is no demand for women’s football. This is logical, because people don’t know the female players or leagues. You can talk about a vicious circle. Why not boosting attention for women’s football by including it in games? You get an extra dimension to the game, not by adding a brand new feature or a new country league, but by opening the game to both genders. This will open a window for new opportunities. Both male and female gamers get into contact with female players and can become more interested. More viewers to women’s football on television, more spectators to the stadiums, more income, more sponsors,…

Improving the game

Yes, I know, adding a women’s football database will not directly improve the Football Manager game. But there is a kind of attribution to the game of soccer. A few decades ago, I had to agree with critics that said women’s football was lacking in speed, technical ability and tactics. These last 20 years, the world of women’s football changed. More and more girls find the way to the football fields. A count by FIFA in 2006 indicated that 270 million persons were playing football and 26 million of them are women, that’s nearly 10 %. This percentage will only increase in the future. Let’s put it like this: if those percentages in 2006 were turned around, women’s football would look a whole lot better than the men’s game. And as some say on the internet: ‘the dribbling moves of new star Neymar look a lot like those of female superstar Marta’.

Popular teams

Even if the female players are not that famous, the teams they play for are. Also in women’s football, you will encounter teams such as Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona, Olympique Lyon, PSG, Bayern Munich, Ajax and Anderlecht. And yes, also my favorite team OH Leuven is playing in the Belgian-Dutch BeNe League. If you are a true fan of these top teams, why not try them out in a women’s football game or database? Ok, the number of spectators will be lower, wages will be lower, some player abilities will be less, but that’s again a new challenge.

Beauty of the game

We can even mention an extra factor of purity: women’s football is not yet dominated by money as much as the world of their male counterparts. Here we can still talk about passion and the beauty of the game. Lots of players play five, ten, fifteen years in the same club. Something we don’t see too often anymore in the men’s game. Foreign female players are mostly ‘attracted’ by clubs because they have a surplus value, not because the club thinks the player can be worth two or three times as much next season. So, ‘attraction’ above buying and selling… Has a nice ring to it, wouldn’t you say?

Sexier game

Game developers may argue that the mainly male audience are not interested in the female players. Are they sure of this? Strangely enough I saw the question for women’s football databases pop up several time these last few years. Why? Active football players, guys whose girlfriend plays football at a local team (yes, you can count me to this group) or perhaps gamers that like to play with female teams because… it’s sexier. Do you like to be the tennis coach of Sharapova? Of course, you do. So why not coaching female football players like Alex Morgan, Louisa Necib, Selina Wagner, Hope Solo, Rachel Unitt or Lotta Schelin? If you don’t know them, just google them. I rest my case. Or not yet…

Small efforts

At least, not before asking the main question: ‘Why not?’ My all-time-favorite game FM doesn’t require big changes. An extra database can be easily created with some ‘local scouts’ that know the local women’s football leagues. Another requirement: female pictures and names for generating new players. But that’s mainly it. Let’s give women’s football the attention it deserves, also in gaming. Let’s give gamers a choice between coaching Messi or Marta.

Tom Schelfhout

Flemish FM fan

Don’t forget to like this page below and get your friends to enter.

Did you know that on the February 12th 2004 Sports Interactive announced that they had retained the rights to the source code of Championship Manager, the game that they had previously been a part of building. Though they were unable to use the name, SI used that as a platform to create the Football Manager series.

This was a real turning point in the history of the game, it could have easily lead to Football Manager not even existing or even worse for Championship Manager to dominate the market but thankfully it didn’t and we have that moment to thank for the game we have and love today.

In 2006, in its first week of release football manager 2006 became the second-fastest-selling PC game of all time in the UK. Proving its worth and increasing the gap between itself and its competitors.

The 2006 game set all kinds of records and was the best-selling version of the game at that point. Though the game was not noted for its massive changes or universal backing from die-hard fans it turned out to be a pivotal point in time for the forthcoming success of the series.

The 2007 version of the game had to be released early, on the 18th October 2006 the game was released due to some retail outlets ignoring the official release date.

Several outlets started releasing the game early, this also happened in the years that followed and lead to the online activation procedure that Sports Interactive use today.

Everton FC signed an official deal with Sports Interactive in 2008 allowing them to use the games database for scouting players and opposition for the coming season and has since been recognised around the world as a reliable source for accurate information on both subjects.

Who can blame clubs like Everton using the game as a network for scouting, though one does wonder what they got out of it (apart from Marouanne Felaini) you could argue that more teams should do the same.

In December 2008 SI announced a lucrative deal with Arsenal, that saw an exclusive version of the 2009 game being released. Included were all official squad player photos and an exclusive Arsenal skin.

Though this version of the game didn’t go down a storm, it only had a small appeal to the fans of the club, I am slightly shocked that this isn’t an angle that SI have used more frequently since.

In Azerbaijani in November 2012, a student called Vugar Huseynzade was given the role of managing FC Baku’s reserve team because of his massive success with the team on Football Manager.

Lucky fella, I know one of our authors has FM mentioned on his CV, as well as his Level 50 in Halo 3, needless to say that he is unemployed.