[Archived] Football Manager 2011

[dazmaz]

I dont think you can set a IFK taker

[bluebruce]

Gotta love this game's bugs sometimes. Just got a great message:

"Blackburn's Bruce James has praised his manager Bruce James for following his advice and signing Pablo Sarabia.

James stated that he was pleased to see his manager had followed his advice."

(Not my real surname, which I didn't want to put here...and no I don't have a player with the same name, but apparently I'm praising myself for following my own advice)

[dazmaz]

Iv had "Mitchell sacks Islam" my last name is Mitchell. He is a regen keeper called David Mitchell (incidently my first inital is also D in my u18. Completely blagged my head at first. Think I still have a screen shot somewere

[bluebruce]

Iv had "Mitchell sacks Islam" my last name is Mitchell. He is a regen keeper called David Mitchell (incidently my first inital is also D in my u18. Completely blagged my head at first. Think I still have a screen shot somewere

Heh...well I'll continue hiding my real surname, but say for example, David James had become a manager, I regularly get a headline before games against him (well, against the manager I'm really referring to) saying "Bruce not a fan of James"...always amuses.

[dazmaz]

Heres the screenshot

[bluebruce]

Heh...well I'll continue hiding my real surname, but say for example, David James had become a manager, I regularly get a headline before games against him (well, against the manager I'm really referring to) saying "Bruce not a fan of James"...always amuses.

Just realised I completely cocked up my example, must have been having a groggy day! It's Steve Bruce who keeps saying he hates me, so I get the headline "Bruce not a fan of James" from that. Same headline but didn't need a fake example manager

[awhom111]

This is what happens if a club is in decline for long periods of time:

[bluebruce]

Whoah! I didn't even realise that stadiums could get smaller or that facilities could get worse. How does that happen? Do boards engage in cost-cutting exercises if you get relegated or your club reputation falls?

Anyway, thought I'd offer what I consider to be a top tip for those who haven't spotted it. Some tinkering has shown me you can almost always offer the same amount or very nearly the same amount over 48 months for a player as the club actually wants for him if you were to pay instantly, and still have it accepted (and you can definitely always meet a min fee release clause with a 48 month offer...I haven't tried the optional extras). This is on an unpatched version of the game, so I don't know if the patches have modified it, but I'll continue. First of all, it's obviously helpful to a club to not have to splash that out up front. If your bank balance goes into an overdraft you start wasting money on interest fees. You might not have the money you feel certain you're going to have in future (through Champs league qualification, league placing, selling the youngsters you're developing etc), and paying transfers over four years can be a very good way to balance this off. And you might not even know if you're going to be at the club or playing the game in four seasons time.

But the best thing, if used wisely, is this. Whilst you pay the same over 4 years as you would pay up front, your transfer budget is only affected by a quarter of the amount! So this is essentially a way to quadruple your transfer budget. Of course, there are risks to doing all your business this way (and I don't do every purchase like this, only when I'm needing to stretch my budget) if you don't ensure there will be rising streams of income in the future. There definitely will be for me though, mostly because I hoover up every player under 21 who has at least 2.5 stars potential(if they're free and low wage, though I usually look for 3 stars) and represents excellent business in fee and wage, and because I tack sell-on fees onto every player I sell (some of the buyout fees you get offered are just ridiculous on the patched version). And I've recently realised you can make a ton from loan fees. Plus my pathetic sponsorship will soon run out and be increased a lot, and the club's status and overall performance is rising continually. Also worth mentioning that it looks like your board will give you a large loan if you go heavily under, provided they like the club and you're not already heavily indebted. Walker Trust gave me a 21 million chairman loan when I overstretched...only costs me about 160k a month I think.

This summer I got a budget of about 19 million I think. So far I think I've only increased it by about two million through loan fees and selling Brown, and probably spent more than that on some good young regens. I'll be buying Babacar (for about 34.5 million), Mussachio (8 million...I have good centre halves but don't want him going to Chelsea when I have him lined up to replace Samba in future), and Sissoko (forget his first name, but getting him from City for 6 million). So, about 48.5 million, all thanks to the 48 month rule The only problem I'm going to have is fitting them into the wage budget, but I've calculated I can make that up by selling the players that new signings have improved on.

Looking forward to this season...Babacar cost me a fortune, but he's 20 and pretty much world class, with slightly more potential left, and will line up with Dzeko, who is incredible and signing for free! Yaya Sanogo and Fabao (sick regen) as the two they'll rotate with inbetween big games, and Galvan/Wickham to fill in during injury crises or dead rubbers. Just need two awesome wingers, one on each side...didn't have rep high enough to attract Robben on a free this summer unfortunately

[bluebruce]

By the way, anybody know a way to get the board to increase ticket prices? Mine only rise with inflation and it's very frustrating, because our attendance income is pathetic and holding me back. Just spent about ten million getting the upgrade to 40k seater, but it'll take forever to see that money again at this rate, and the board just don't seem to care that crowds are great, they're still acting like it's now. There should be a feature to request a ticket price rise but there isn't. Are there any other ways? Minus using a cheating tool.

I wonder, does a board tend to properly re-evaluate the pricing policy when they build a new stadium? Which I reckon they'll want to do in about two seasons. Also, anyone know how much a new stadium for Rovers tends to cost?

[awhom111]

Facilities slowly get worse on their own. They are on a scale from 1-20, so you might not notice if the description does not change. If you do not have enough money to pay for ground maintenance, Health and Safety can come in and close some of your stands if the stadium condition is not very good.

I have no definite knowledge on ticket prices, but my guess is that they are set based on the chairman's hidden "business" stat. A stadium in England will probably cost between 2 and 3 million pounds per 1,000 seats.

[dazmaz]

Bruce.. The 48 month thing does work on 11.3. I abused it to get neymar and ochoa, also managed to land rudd van horseface on a free in the summer.

Just haf borough trying to land my left back, G Silva (young brazilian) they started biddinh at 2.7m, I rejected, just kept coming back with better bids. They give up when I said I wanted 10.5m (previous bid was 9.750m

[bluebruce]

Bruce.. The 48 month thing does work on 11.3. I abused it to get neymar and ochoa, also managed to land rudd van horseface on a free in the summer.

Ochoa is pretty awesome as a keeper, though I'm not especially sure why. His stats don't impress me that much, I used to never buy keepers with less than 15 reflexes. But the scouts said he was four star so I went with it, and they're bob on. I spent 81 million this summer with the 48 month thing. Including hoovering up pretty much every outstanding young Spanish centre mid that was available cheaply- and there were a LOT. Andrea Poli now shores up my centre midfield, and Pedro Leon was a last minute spot for the right wing, bought from Real Madrid for five million- proving a bargain. I find it strange that the board now don't care in the slightest about the League Cup...I understand its importance diminishing, but it's always considered a nice extra to win it, by any team in the real world.

But the reason I came to post is I had two fairly amusing encounters with my players. First, I put Robinson up for sale, as Ochoa as sidelined him and I have a young, brilliant keeper coming up. He was up for sale for about two months with nobody showing interest even for free (which annoys me). And then suddenly he wants to talk to me- he complains he's not getting first team football and he wants a move! So I'm like, umm, ok, and agree to transfer list him even though he clearly already is. He thanks me, we move on. A few weeks later he talks to me again, about the SAME THING! So again, I agree to sell him. What happens? I immediately get a notification saying he has gotten over his problems with me and no longer wants to leave the club! Wtf?!

And now, I've finalised the sale of Mario Santana, though it won't go through until January. He's going to Estudiantes, has already agreed the contract with them and it's been confirmed. Like, weeks ago. And now he's come out on the radio blasting me and underlining his determination to stay put, pledging to the fans he won't be driven out!

[dazmaz]

Ochoa has very average stats but is a machine. it really is weird..

was gutted, my last save decided to crash dump on my and corrupted the save so had to start a new one..

just about starting the new season, cleared out loads of dead wood and now only spending £592k on wages

RSC loan terminated.

Roberts - newcastle £1.3m

Bunn - Villa - £1.7m

Goulon - Rapid Wien - loan £500k, view to buy 2.7m

Grella - porto £2.9m

Nelsen - Porto ln £525k buy 1.7m

benjani - newcastle £1.2m

Hitchock - liverpool £1m

TOTAL: £9.25m

In

Soukouna - free

Verratti - £1.4m

Nacho Gonzalez - £775k

Jung - £3.9m

Maletic - £925k

48month

Lukaku - £7.5m

Sanogo - £6.5m

Bong - £8.75m

EDIT: I like winning the League cup in the first few seasons as it gets me into europe earlier and that = more money

TOTAL: £30m

[bluebruce]

I don't know how you can start again after a crash dump, I always stop playing when that's happened. At best I would start the game with a new team. What's with that, anyway? It always seems to happen on every version of FM I have had. Wish they'd fix it. I keep a lot of saves in case it happens, but often the fault actually stretches back through months of gameplay. I've also avoided downloading the editor this time, as I wondered if it contributed somehow since it wasn't designed by the creators yet edits the data in game in ways it isn't supposed to be changed. It may confuse the code somehow, I dunno.

[dazmaz]

Some people have WoW I have FM :-) Was needing a new save anyway. Was rather annoyed as I had just won fa cup and finished 5th. I use the rolling save, sadly that was the april one :-(

Crash dumps are cause of memory leaks caused by @#/? coding

[awhom111]

Things are not going in the right direction:

[Clitherover]

Things are not going in the right direction:

Good effort.

How did you manage to shrink the stadium to 11305, though?

[bluebruce]

You should definitely add some normal saves fairly frequently Daz, to try get around it in future.

I just had two simultaneous upgrades to my youth training facilities happening, according to the boardroom screen. I'm trying to figure out whether it was actually two upgrades or a bit of retardation from the game. I went from Average Youth Facilities to Good. Anybody know if this is one step, or if there is something between average and good? I searched most of the other clubs and only seemed to find average or good.

[awhom111]

The facilities are actually ranked on a scale from 1 to 20 where more than one number corresponds to a written description. I think the board just makes a decision on how much to upgrade based on what you can afford. I think the order is something like Basic, Fairly Basic, Adequate, Average, Good, Excellent, Top/State of the Art.

[bluebruce]

The facilities are actually ranked on a scale from 1 to 20 where more than one number corresponds to a written description. I think the board just makes a decision on how much to upgrade based on what you can afford. I think the order is something like Basic, Fairly Basic, Adequate, Average, Good, Excellent, Top/State of the Art.

Yeh but the boaardroom screen had two upgrades of it going (I asked them for one, then they voluntarily started another, or the other way around) so was just curious how much it helped.

No matter...more importantly, does the game editor allow you to change your club's ticket prices? I'm tempted to download it just for that, my ticket prices are ridiculous and don't make any sense. We've got great demand (just upgraded to a 40k seater stadium and getting 38k crowds immediately), are champions of England playing Champions League football and doing great, club valued at 206 million, and yet tickets are only £24.60, in late 2013. I'm losing fortunes because of an unrealistic pricing policy and it's annoying me lol. Then again, if I increased the prices would I be guaranteed to get exactly the same attendances? If I remember rightly, average attendance is a separate stat which probably means you get around that regardless of the price. I don't mind the crowds reducing, in a way I almost want them to, I'm just not happy with the ticket prices.

[Mayfield]

Started my first new game since the 11.3 update yesterday, can someone tell me roughly how much Venkys give you to spend in the second season? the £750k is well tight to start off with

[dazmaz]

The 750k is what we have left over from the 5m in jan. I think you get around the 5m mark.

You can easily get 7m in the first window by selling deadwood

[Mayfield]

alright cheers for the advice, going to have a clear out in the January window

[St_Jimmy_77]

I sold Grella and Pedersen on my save; Grella went to Porto for 5M and Pedersen to Arsenal for 10M. What's frustrating is that you only get 75% of transfer fees available in addition to the 15% sell on clause to Tromso for Pedersen. I may follow suit with regards to Santa Cruz and Roberts. I've kept Nelsen on as a player/coach which seems to work well. I've also been trying to flog Andrews but that's like trying to flog a dead horse. I didnt realise that 48 month installments thing worked now so will try and get some decent players

[dazmaz]

Used the 48 months thing to land Hazzard for 18m. Unreal player