I gave up on Football Manager a few years ago. I had a rubbish old computer and playing a season almost felt like actually playing a season. My PC had the minimum requirements to run the game effectively (but I had to pare back on leagues and the number of players), albeit slower than a snail racing a sloth over molasses.
About six months before the apocalypse, I purchased a new home computer. I'm old, I wanted something I could sit at a desk and use; so none of these tablets or modern mobile phone rubbish, I wanted something to remind me that I'm a product of the 20th century.
To treat myself, I bought last year's Football Manager. I spent a few hours updating the editor ensuring the first season I played was going to be as close to how it looked as possible. The game, a vastly different thing to FM14, the last time I purchased it, was tough to get the feel of and I had several aborted starts while I got the hang of it. I also decided not to cheat, even if it meant losing to Arsenal (which hasn't happened so far).
I started the 2019/20 season at the end of February. The major things I did was sell Ben Davies, Moussa Sissoko and Heung Min Son. The first was out of choice, the second the board took the option to sell away from me, selling the Korean for £60million + add-ons, without me having a say in the matter. How lifelike was this new game? Son broke a leg in City's third game of the season.
To make matters worse, five days before the transfer deadline Levy sold Alderweireld for £61m to Man Utd and wouldn't let me send Ledley King on an extensive Continental A licence course. He did allow me to buy Matthijs de Ligt from Juventus for £30m and I took a gamble on a number of young inexperienced players to act as backup for key positions. Top signing was Toni Lato, an 18-year-old Italian left back, who was bought with 3½ star potential and quickly turned into a superstar when Rose kept getting sent off. His rating shot up to a potential of 5 stars and he was playing at 4 stars by the end of the season, relegating an argumentative and bitter Danny Rose to the U23 squad and being transfer listed.
Borja Emeterio was signed as a backup for Aurier (who performs consistently well in FM, remarkably), Miguel Baeza was brought in for small beans to cover Lucas and for a laugh, I popped over to Brazil to see if I could take long-time FM superstar Gabriel Batista on loan, to double up on all attacking midfield positions. I was not only amazed I got him, but I managed to get a £35m buy-out. I also attempted to find a promising midfielder and settled on Claudio Gomez from one of Spanish giants; more so in this than any previous game you see the need for attracting top scouts. Gomez came to me on loan with a 5 star recommendation, but was actually on 2½ after assessment from the coaching staff - the game recommended I terminate the loan deal because the player was not good enough.
I then played this season.
Six games in an Man U were top with six wins from six and we were second with five wins and a draw. Then we got thumped 4-1 at Southampton and lost at home to Man City and slumped down to 8th. This was only the 2nd of what would turn out to be a total of 5 defeats all season, including defeats to Real Madrid and Spartak Moscow in the Champs League and defeat in the FA Cup QF to Everton.
Spurs won the league by 1 point, beating Man City in the penultimate game of the season at the Etihad to go above them with just a win at home to Watford to guarantee us the title. Kane scored a hat trick as Spurs beat the Hornets 3-0 to win their first Premier League. I also had won the League Cup beating Leicester 3-1 and the Champions League beating Chelsea also 3-1. A treble in my first season (and Everton won the Europa League even though I wasn't aware they'd qualified for it and the Arse finished 8th).
I felt an enormous amount of weirdness to be honest. My biggest criticism of FM is that once you understand how the game worked it was easy to win even without cheating; whatever algorithms they use - in game - always seem weighted to winning. In FM14, I took Northampton from League Two to the Premier League and a 6th place finish before actually having a lousy season and getting relegated (and then losing interest...). It would appear that even modern versions of the game allow people who know what they're doing find it easier. Like the random button on MP3 players; just how random is 'random'?
Equally; how long before I would have grown bored with this new game had my FM version of Spurs become as uninteresting as the real life version? "How's the game? Oh, I finished 12th, lost my striker to Man U and won fuck all again; it was great." Is not something to inspire you to keep Football Manager in business.
Three days ago, I started next season. Lato's out with a broken leg, meaning I had to buy a player. I got Kurasawa from PSG for £22m and he's going to give me a hard time. because 9 games into his first season he's angling for a new contract. I dumped Gomez back to Barca and was amazed to find I could buy Jadon Sancho from Dortmund for £20m, so I did, even though the fans think it was a stupid decision, he's scored five goals in his six games. Parrot is now in the main squad and has fantastic potential even if he's acting like a spoiled shit. Foyth's improvement has been positive as I didn't think he would make the grade and two apprentices have been promoted to the main squad because they're too good not to: Noel Willock was literally the perfect replacement for Eriksen, even if he's only 16 and Baz Chumley is an 18-year-old centre midfielder, who the coaches feel could be world class (I don't think either of these exist in the real world).
Nine matches in and we're 4th, in a six way battle, with two points dividing everyone. We've won 6 and drawn 3 and are currently on a 38 match unbeaten streak in the league. Levy, despite the success, is still giving me a hard time with budgets and I'd say 80% of the problems I've had with unhappy players have been down to the chairman; either not allowing players to have improved contracts or simply selling players without asking me (and then in the manager appraisal Levy tells me the fans thought selling Toby was bad business!). One tip for aspiring future players; a player's potential and ability will drop if you consistently don't offer them a new contract, even if you want to. Levy only wants to pay Lucas Moura what his potential says, which means, despite being a key member of the team, I have a ceiling which the chairman will not allow me to go above, even if I fiddle with the budgets. It's like the game knows Levy is renowned for this kind of thing...
If only real football could be as easy as FM, eh?
Stay safe, footballing chums.
