Championship Manager memories

[Disgruntledgoat]

I'm presiding over an absolute mutiny at the moment. Trying to blood 2 young centrebacks and my current 3 are not happy. I bought 2 boss midfielders in the summer but then made the mistake of drunk champ-manning on Friday and ended up with another on a free. So that leaves me 5 good players for 2 positions, all of them are unhappy with their playing time. My wonderkid 19yr old Argentine international winger is bang out of form, DCL bagged 11 in 8 games at the start of the season and hasn't scored since the other 3 strikers in my squad are great on paper but cannot score.

6 games without a win out of the CL after a home defeat to Club Brugge… I can't even walk the streets anymore.

 

[Noble Savage]

I forget which edition I played back in the day but when you took charge of a EPL team there were a very limited pool of overseas player you could buy and I tried to buy Gazza , Platt (shrug ) and Hottiger ( double shrug ) and they would never come to Everton .
At least we managed to get two of them in real life . That turned out all right .
Those were the days that regens were actually regens .
I moved from Soccer Boss on the Amstrad straight to CM on the Amiga . It dazzled me for ages.
Still play FM regularly but I'm as adept at tactics as Gary Megson and as adaptable as the big Gravy monster .

 

[Noble Savage]

Are there any teams you know follow weekly ( before the world went a bit pear shaped ) because you managed them by chance in FM/CM
I now follow Almere in the Netherlands and Smorgon FC in the second tier of Belarus football . .
Any weird and wonderful teams you came across that enticed you in because of their badge , history etc ?
I didn't know there was a Cadburys or Santa Claus FC until I played FM .

 

[NathDogg]

Are there any teams you know follow weekly ( before the world went a bit pear shaped ) because you managed them by chance in FM/CM
I now follow Almere in the Netherlands and Smorgon FC in the second tier of Belarus football . .
Any weird and wonderful teams you came across that enticed you in because of their badge , history etc ?
I didn't know there was a Cadburys or Santa Claus FC until I played FM .

Started a save unemployed with a load of obscure leagues - since then Goias in Brazil have been one of my other teams. The league structure wrecked my head, but was great signing unknown samba stars and then seeing them hit the big time in real life.

Also Houston Dynamo in the MLS, Gimnasia in Argentina and Tigers UANL from mexico.

Might start another jobless save off now and see where I end up!

 

[Lloydystark]

I’ve been a championship manager & football manager addict for years...like full on addict. I love spotting young players from lower leagues and very little cost. Too many stories to tell really, not gonna lie I don’t think I’ve ever won the league with Everton tbh....I’ve always found them a hard team to manage, when they were a relegation battling side you’d over achieve then within a season or 2 the board would expect too much. My last Everton save was on FM19 and I was 3rd in the league and in the fa cup semi Then it crashed (wouldn’t reload, just says save preview) fuming.

 

[KaiserEFC]

Are there any teams you know follow weekly ( before the world went a bit pear shaped ) because you managed them by chance in FM/CM
I now follow Almere in the Netherlands and Smorgon FC in the second tier of Belarus football . .
Any weird and wonderful teams you came across that enticed you in because of their badge , history etc ?
I didn't know there was a Cadburys or Santa Claus FC until I played FM .

I knew absolutely everything about Russian football at one point after moving to Spartak and then CSKA after being sacked by Birmingham.

 

[JobForTheMoyes]

Are there any teams you know follow weekly ( before the world went a bit pear shaped ) because you managed them by chance in FM/CM
I now follow Almere in the Netherlands and Smorgon FC in the second tier of Belarus football . .
Any weird and wonderful teams you came across that enticed you in because of their badge , history etc ?
I didn't know there was a Cadburys or Santa Claus FC until I played FM .

My most memorable Championship Manager adventure was in 99-00 or roundabouts.

I started in League 2 with a club in effective bankruptcy (Gillingham or Northampton) and I kept them up, then helped them up to the Championship. I then got offered the Bolton Wanderers job after They got relegated to the Championship. We won the league and then gradually developed into multi year Premier League champions. Then, in true Brian Clough style, after a few years of struggle we finally won the Champions League.

A big key to success was finding undiscovered Viking supermen in Scandinavia, who you could then sell on for massive profits!

I might be mixing up old games, but regardless, I used to always look up Gillingham and Northampton results for quite a time!

Another was Queens Park. For some reasonI just could not supplant Celtic at the top of the league. Mainly due to the fact we were a team of semi professionals. I had to sign players with major discipline areas to compete - I think I had Anelka and Viduka up front. We could get far in the Champions League and I always finished miles ahead in second (after bankrupting Rangers) but being amateurs kept the top spot out of reach!

 

[Disgruntledgoat]

From my laptop's lips to God's ears...

 

[ClausThomsen]

From my laptop's lips to God's ears...

View attachment 87315

Is that the latest version? Have they actually fixed manager rep and wages now? Used to annoy me no end that you could have 5 straight PL wins, multiple Euro Cups and every domestic cup under your belt but come renewal time they wouldn't go above £42k per week and any attempt to push for £45k would see the club withdraw from talks.

Then they'd go out and hire a dismal manager for 70k per week and let him put another 1M p/w on the playing bill.

 

[Disgruntledgoat]

Is that the latest version? Have they actually fixed manager rep and wages now? Used to annoy me no end that you could have 5 straight PL wins, multiple Euro Cups and every domestic cup under your belt but come renewal time they wouldn't go above £42k per week and any attempt to push for £45k would see the club withdraw from talks.

Then they'd go out and hire a dismal manager for 70k per week and let him put another 1M p/w on the playing bill.

The Everton modelling is at least accurate. I've been distinctly average for 6 years, won 1 FA cup and just qualified for the CL for the 1st time and they came at me with £150k a week.

I honestly just accept whatever they offer, because it's not like I get a cheque every month.

 

[ClausThomsen]

The Everton modelling is at least accurate. I've been distinctly average for 6 years, won 1 FA cup and just qualified for the CL for the 1st time and they came at me with £150k a week.

I honestly just accept whatever they offer, because it's not like I get a cheque every month.

I used to play and once I'd got to the point of winning everything and had a more or less perfect squad with long term replacements already in the youth and reserves I'd set other targets.

Become highest paid manager and be on a bigger wage than any of my players was always fun. Meant you had to work a little harder on developing youth and also that I often had to let my big name players go elsewhere.

 

[Disgruntledgoat]

I used to play and once I'd got to the point of winning everything and had a more or less perfect squad with long term replacements already in the youth and reserves I'd set other targets.

Become highest paid manager and be on a bigger wage than any of my players was always fun. Meant you had to work a little harder on developing youth and also that I often had to let my big name players go elsewhere.

The biggest thing for me is the youth development. I have a spreadsheet that ranks their ability within my system against the in game attributes... I'm kind of a big deal.

 

[heatmeiser]

You're talking about games from this century that don't feature a serial killer on the box? GTFO you casuals!
View attachment 84851

I remember that well on the speccy 48k! I always played as Halifax for no reason at all, probably explains why I moved there 20+ years later.

Besides, the game we're talking about was last century and very much has a serial killer on the box too. I still have that original box with my original Amiga save disks in it (it also housed a Sarah Young jazz mag from years ago but that has since been rehomed in the local woods).

I remember Tranmere always started with about £150 million for some reason, I ended up playing about 30 seasons with them. Robert Penrice, 60 goal a season legend RIP.

 

[dandydan]

I remember that well on the speccy 48k! I always played as Halifax for no reason at all, probably explains why I moved there 20+ years later.

Besides, the game we're talking about was last century and very much has a serial killer on the box too. I still have that original box with my original Amiga save disks in it (it also housed a Sarah Young jazz mag from years ago but that has since been rehomed in the local woods).

I remember Tranmere always started with about £150 million for some reason, I ended up playing about 30 seasons with them. Robert Penrice, 60 goal a season legend RIP.

Kudos for the hedge porn.

 

[KaiserEFC]

Mark Hughes went from Stoke to Real Madrid on my FM once.