Football Manager 2014 - Full Game Out Now!

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

Tell me about it. In 4 games my team has 8 shots. Thankfully they have 5 goals, but with that accuracy, I'd prefer they try a bit more. It would be one thing if we were getting trounced in possession, but we're at 52%. They just seem to have no idea what to do in front of goal.

We're even crazier I think. Under identical orders, one match we'll shoot 26 times and the next match we'll shoot 6 times. Some differences in TOP on those but not enough to account for that sort of difference.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

LOL......so remember that $210M transfer amount I had at Paris Saint-Germain? I used most of it and then the board came back to me. They decided to add another $220M to my transfer budget.

Just nuts. Thankfully, I have taken the team up to 6th in the standings in January, so I feel like I'm not going to burn all this money just to lose my job because the previous guy dug such a big hole for me in the standings.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by flounder

This is absolutely fantastic.

[vex]

Originally Posted by flounder

Well done!

[Grover]

Brilliance.

[flounder]

If one of the features of FM15 is that opposing managers will slag you off by commenting that "playing a video game is no preparation for managing a side at this level", I will give SI all the money.

[PilotMan]

Larne just managed a 1-1 draw with Fulham at home in a preseason friendly ahead of our Champions League match against Dinamo. It wasn't even close to a full squad for us. In 2 days time we welcome Rangers to our little pitch.

edit: and to add, we somehow picked up a 2-1 win over Rangers with a mixed lineup. Not a bad showing for minnows from Larne.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Larne just managed a 1-1 draw with Fulham at home in a preseason friendly ahead of our Champions League match against Dinamo. It wasn't even close to a full squad for us. In 2 days time we welcome Rangers to our little pitch.

those games really are fun for smaller teams

Have started a new save with Canvey Island (playing with a 9 level mod) in the 7th tier. Up to League 2 in 2019 with a young squad. Finances have been really tight, to the point that i have by far the lowest wage total in the league at 700k € a year (which is my full budget), 2nd lowest is at a nice round 1 mio.

Question: My board for some reason decided to built a new stadium (i suppose partly because the old one was a shitbox, surely can´t be my attendance average of barely above 1000 in a 5k stadium) and that put me in quite a bit of debt. Currently i am still at -800 even with a couple player sales. Question is: Can i take my time getting this down or do i need to do a fire sale and do everything in my power to erase that ? What happens if a don´t ?

[PilotMan]

No idea to that question, but I'll add another. We just paid over 150k to relay the pitch and it still says terrible. Why?

[whomario]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

No idea to that question, but I'll add another. We just paid over 150k to relay the pitch and it still says terrible. Why?

since you currently seem to be in the (pre)season i´d bet that it will only happen next offseason, at least that was the way it worked for me before.

Also, i just drew Newcastle on the road in the FA cup which will help a shitload with finances

[PilotMan]

We just finished the offseason where it was supposedly completed. They are also working on our training facilities that I'm hoping is a boost as well.

[whomario]

on the "board request" status, is the pitch listed as a status ?

[Grover]

Still playing that RB Leipzig dynasty I had going on the forums earlier this year. Just finished 2018/19 season finishing 2nd in the table by one point.

Signed George Thorne on a free, an excellent DM acquisition. Have an excellent crop of young players coming in and the entire Bundesliga is trying to capitalize after Bayern finish 10th.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by whomario

on the "board request" status, is the pitch listed as a status ?

In fact it is not. It says that not enough time has passed since the last request. We did get approval for it, and it was accomplished this last offseason but for some reason the pitch is listed as Terrible. Maybe we just had really shitty contractors.

[PilotMan]

Ahhh, just got the message that it was finished. I didn't realize that there would be a delay in the completion and when it was supposedly finished earlier.

[whomario]

Finances still not awesome, will downsize my squad next season and hope for internal development. Have 6 rotation-type players leave with contracts up. Also, my main playmaker is also leaving. Actually sold him last offseason to Celtic, who loaned him back to me. With his current skills, i don´t see him coming back to me on another loan.
To offset this, i gamble on a german GK on a free transfer for the highest wage i have yet paid (50k a year) with poison pill clauses thrown in. Both my GKs were so-so and contracts were up and they wanted improved contracts, so it is not all crazy.

Still, my youth players will get even more burn next season.

Finished the season 20th with no real danger of being relegated, ultimately. My savior very often was one of my the teams original (regen) players who was allready at the club in 2014 when i took over. 7 times he scored the winner or goal for a draw in the last 10 minutes of the game. Scored 20 league goals as my target man with 9 assists, that now makes 89 goals and 50 assists in 201 league games for my club.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Grover

Signed George Thorne on a free, an excellent DM acquisition.

Yeah my staff usually love him as a prospect in my West Brom games.

[PilotMan]

Well, we were 30-1 underdogs on the road in Croatia and lost, but we managed an away goal and held Dinamo 2-1. The return game was just crazy. We went from the 4132 that we played in the first leg back to our 433 and it got crazy fast. I've not seen too many games go like this one did.

We were up 3-0 inside of 15 minutes and went on to crush them 8-4. Darren Carson (18) piled on a hattrick and managed 2 assists. We were 12-1 underdogs in the home game. What an insane scoreline.

We had received a bye in the first qualification round of the CC. This is the first time that we've been beyond the second qualification round. The draw was fairly kind to us as our next opponent will be slightly easier in Zeljeznicar Sarajevo. Just playing in the next round should ensure crazy profitability for this year going forward, no matter what else we accomplish.

[bhlloy]

Heh, I also signed George Thorne for my Cardiff game. He will do a nice job for me while I wait for the 16 year old wonder kid I signed from Walsall for 10m develops.

He has an interesting skill set for a DM, one of the few guys out of the box whose best position is Regista

[whomario]

Really nice accomplishment !

I assume you are aware what kind of money you would get when actually qualifying ? But no pressure

How far have you gone in the Europa League btw ?

I got a payment of 300k "as part of the league 2 solidarity payment", no idea what this is but i´ll take it. Also got some sponsorship money (150k or so) and suddenly my balance is decently close to even. Have scheduled a few profitable friendlies (a couple EPL teams at home for 65 payment with expected revenue of 100k, also a few away games for 35-50 k payment to me). Should net me about 200k and get me even. Also won´t renew a few of my staff.

Will open the new stadium (i am curious to see how much of the 7000 capacity is seats) against Arsenal

Wage budget stays essentially the same, which means that with a streamlined squad i´m now at about 650 out of 725k a year spent for. Will sit tight and maybe pick up a veteran late in the FA period though i´ll also have to renew a few players which will put a dent in that cushion. Maybe i get a few offers for some of my players though.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by whomario

Really nice accomplishment !

I assume you are aware what kind of money you would get when actually qualifying ? But no pressure

How far have you gone in the Europa League btw ?

I got a payment of 300k "as part of the league 2 solidarity payment", no idea what this is but i´ll take it. Also got some sponsorship money (150k or so) and suddenly my balance is decently close to even. Have scheduled a few profitable friendlies (a couple EPL teams at home for 65 payment with expected revenue of 100k, also a few away games for 35-50 k payment to me). Should net me about 200k and get me even. Also won´t renew a few of my staff.

Will open the new stadium (i am curious to see how much of the 7000 capacity is seats) against Arsenal

Wage budget stays essentially the same, which means that with a streamlined squad i´m now at about 650 out of 725k a year spent for. Will sit tight and maybe pick up a veteran late in the FA period though i´ll also have to renew a few players which will put a dent in that cushion. Maybe i get a few offers for some of my players though.

Actually, I have no idea how much it might be. I've never been beyond the second game in Europa. This is completely new ground. Our 3 sponsorships bring a total of just under 50k per year. Last year our total expenditures were 1.18 M. The income alone from Champions League and gate receipts was 1.03M. We posted a profit of 231k last year. This year just between our home exhibition and CL games we've already posted nearly half of our gate receipts from last year. We are at the point where if we miss Europe though our expenses would sink us. I've convinced the board to go all in on the youth setup and we've expanded our coaching staff. Either way, a miss and it would be a 5-year setback.

[korme]

Really excited about this guy we just acquired, but I honestly cannot take him seriously.

[Coffee Warlord]

Holy mullet.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by korme

Really excited about this guy we just acquired, but I honestly cannot take him seriously.

I'm just glad he's an AMC. He'll be all business up front.

[Barkeep49]

The party is in the black. He's business in the front.

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I'm just glad he's an AMC. He'll be all business up front.

This is a much better play than mine. Well done.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I'm just glad he's an AMC. He'll be all business up front.

Well played sir!

[Grover]

First mullet I've seen in the game. Hilarious Canadian stereotyping there.

[bhlloy]

To be fair, he does look pretty Canadian. He's just in the wrong sport and about 20-30 years too late.

(I really hope there's some sort of mullet co-efficient in FM. Tell me it's so, Marc V)

[korme]

Originally Posted by Grover

First mullet I've seen in the game. Hilarious Canadian stereotyping there.

I downloaded a hair and beard expanded add-on. Adds a shit ton of new cuts. This is the first mullet I've encountered.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by korme

I downloaded a hair and beard expanded add-on. Adds a shit ton of new cuts. This is the first mullet I've encountered.

WHERE FROM!?!?!?!

[korme]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

WHERE FROM!?!?!?!

OLT Expanded Hair Pack v4.0 - 947 new

LARGEST UPDATE EVER:
This time I added more than 900 new hairs to the pack! 947 new ones, to be exact! Also, in addition to this - those are all truly unique. In the past I used to recolor a lot of hairs to add the same style in different colors. I don't do that any more. So a dark brown hair style will not have an identical match in light brown (of the new ones). That means that I actually cut 947 unique styles of hair this time. It's been a lot of work - but add so much more variety. It's worth it in the end!

ALL COLORS AND LENGTHS REPRESENTED:
As I already said above - I've made sure that each ethnic group (afro, asian, euro and so forth) have hair images for all lengths (long, short, medium) and all colors within each of these lengths. It's kinda hard to find an Afro with long red hair, for example... but I've managed them all in the end! Reason I did this was that I was hoping the problem with "false balds" would go away. It didn't - not entirely. But the problem is MUCH smaller than it used to be, so you'll rarely see shirtless balds if using the shirts version, and the Default Replacements.

BALD PLAYERS:
And, speaking of bald players. Let's talk about the "real balds". I've ensured these now appear with the shirt as well. They also come in a variety of styles, so that bald players can now have full beards, goatees, moustaches or earrings. There are even a couple of styles of spectacles and a small neck tattoo variety. I continue to try out new things to add to the variety, and I feel these things have really put some character to the players. These are very rare, also, so you won't be seeing them often. That's what makes it all the sweeter when you come across them.

NEW SHIRTS:
Last year I introduced shirts on the players. I was never really happy with that dull grey t-shirt I put them in, and I always wanted to get a proper football jersey on them. I've been trying to figure out a way to add these with color coding to represent the current team they're playing for, but I've come to the conclusion that this is not going to be possible the way things are set up right now. So, I went with one that I feel is neutral enough, and doesn't catch your attention too much. White with a blue trim. I feel it works tremendously well. Let me know how you guys feel about it, so I can keep that in mind for the future. Hopefully, colors won't be an issue, if ever there is a way of using color coding... let's hope SI

In addition to my Hair Pack, I also decided to offer an additional download to add shirts to the default hairs as well. It looks kind of weird if only players with my hairs get realistic shoulders, while the defaults still appear as heads on a stick. So make sure you get the default replacements as well!

[DaddyTorgo]

THANKS KORME!!!

[flere-imsaho]

Woah.

[Grover]

Uh, yes. I want this.

[whomario]

This is very cool, thanks a lot

Have added a ton of graphics stuff lately, but was totally unaware that sth like this was around.

As for my game, i´ve had an incredibly hot start to the 2019/2020 season, 3rd in the table at the start of November. However, i have had a few key injuries lately and my squad is not all that deep due to the low wage budget. I have however finally found an identity for my team, being able to mix my youth/physical attributes with the fact that my 2 best strikers are target-man type players. Am now playing a 4-4-2 diamond with control mentality, results in quite a few lovely triangles up front. Also finally getting my 2 MCs to contribute as Box to Box midfielders/playmakers.

Am loosing money like nobodies business, part of it is my pretty good youth setup i built up (but which is obviously expensive to maintain). Will likely have to sell another player or 2 if teams get interested. Amslightly in the black, but that is largely because i sold one of my academy youngsters for 800k. Attendance has seen only a slight hike (from about 1500 to 1750 right now), however in the friendlies numbers were way up (compared to last season against same clubs). Have an FA cup homegame against a league 1 team cominng up, hope to advance and draw a big team on the road.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Another cool FM reference in the media today.

Adu looks to restart in Serbia - ESPN FC

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Another cool FM reference in the media today.

Adu looks to restart in Serbia - ESPN FC

Cool story. Hoping Freddy can rebuild himself there - would be a nice story.

[AnalBumCover]

Originally Posted by Toddzilla

ABC - you got a README for your USA setup that describes the levels, teams, divisions, etc?

Sorry, I haven't made the time to create a write-up for this mod. So I'll just briefly put something together right now.

First of all, I make no claims that I created this file. It was created by a user in the SI forums called Mike Magnum for the 2012 version of Football Manager. Someone else adapted it for 2014, and then I brought it to FOFC with a few modifications of my own.

You can find the original file and subsequent discussion in the SI Forums here.

Without further ado:

Here's the structure of the file.

Level 1: Major League Soccer (20 teams)
features all current teams, plus NY Cosmos

Level 2: North American Soccer League (20 teams)

Level 3: USL-PRO (20 teams)

Level 4: USL-PRO 2: USL-PRO East (20), USL-PRO West (20)

Level 5: US Supplement Division: All American Premier League (20), Gold Coast Premier League (20), Colonial Premier League (20), Atlantic Coast Premier League (20)

Level 6: US Supplement Division 2: AA2 (20), GC2 (20), Co2 (20), AC2 (20)

Level 7: AA Amateur (20), GC Amateur (20), Co Amateur (20), AC Amateur (20)

Level 8: Southland (16), Gateway (16), Northwest (16), South Pacific Coast (16), New England (16), Appalachian (16), Florida Coast (16), St. Lawrence (16)

Total of 468 clubs

Levels 1-4 consist of Professional Teams, 5-6 Semi-Pro teams, 7-8 Amateur teams.

There are numerous Cup events:
North American Open Cup, containing all 468 clubs.
State/Province cups,
Lower league and amateur cups
Rivalry cups

I'm constantly modifying this file, such as changing the structure of the bottom level to minimize cross-division movement in the off season. I'm close to releasing version 1.2, but Ver 1.1 is fine to play as-is.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know so I can include it in the next release.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by whomario

I got a payment of 300k "as part of the league 2 solidarity payment", no idea what this is but i´ll take it.

Just in case you're interested - Football economics

[JonInMiddleGA]

I've seen some strange things but ...

In my 9LevelMod career I have both a Reserves Head Coach and a U18 Head Coach, so contrary to what I usually do with my careers I'm largely hands off on them. (The board actually allows me more coaches for those two squads than they'll allow me to have with the senior squad). I bother with the Reserves HC largely because he gives me an extra set of hands allowed to work in training.

Tonight I see a midweek Reserves group match, look at the box score and discover that the head coach (who has decent or better ratings in nearly all areas) started a DC in goal, replaced him at various times with two of the starting midfielders before subbing ANOTHER defender in to play in goal for the second half. I not only have 1 young GK that's specifically set for the Reserves (and had specifically ticked having all reserve team members available just prior to the match) but I also have 4 more GK on the U18s.

W.T.F. ?

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Just in case you're interested - Football economics

Thanks a lot Was aware of the workings regarding the premier league, figured that the TV money would show up as TV money in League 2 and not as solidarity payment.

Would be a really nice thing to have things like this in the "rules" section of the league or in an email at the start of the season that gives you a summary of what to expect in terms of finances (price money, tv money and stuff like this solidarity payment)

I am finding a weird issue btw: I am now in my 2nd season in the league 2 and still play in the FA trophy (reserved for teams tier 5 and below)
Am now purposely tanking the competition.

[Marc Vaughan]

Originally Posted by whomario

Thanks a lot Was aware of the workings regarding the premier league, figured that the TV money would show up as TV money in League 2 and not as solidarity payment.

Its because its not 'TV Money' being paid to the club for televising their matches - its a solidarity payment from the Premiership TV deal to help support the clubs in the lower leagues beneath the Premiership (hence it would be inaccurate to show it as TV Money to the clubs in the lower leagues).

Would be a really nice thing to have things like this in the "rules" section of the league or in an email at the start of the season that gives you a summary of what to expect in terms of finances (price money, tv money and stuff like this solidarity payment)

Thats not a bad idea - however there is a LOT of information and detail in the game and we don't want to swamp people with feeling they have to understand everything or they'll never actually start playing the game

I am finding a weird issue btw: I am now in my 2nd season in the league 2 and still play in the FA trophy (reserved for teams tier 5 and below) Am now purposely tanking the competition.

That sounds very odd - have you edited anything in the game manually or similar? ... also can you check if your team is correctly setup as professional?

[whomario]

I realize that, but knowing beforehand that you get guaranteed money is pretty up there on the "important stuff you need to know" list

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

That sounds very odd - have you edited anything in the game manually or similar? ... also can you check if your team is correctly setup as professional?

Yeah, i turned professional after promotion. I am playing with a mod, a new 9 tier english update. So i am actually fairly sure it is a problem with that and not the game.
However, other teams promoted into the league 2 (even former amateur clubs) stopped participating. I´d bet that i´m the only team to go from below the skrill conference up to league 2 though, so there might be an issue with that. I am now disabling all leagues below the skrill conference, maybe that will fix the issue. If not, i´ll just continue tanking the games

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by whomario

Really nice accomplishment !

I assume you are aware what kind of money you would get when actually qualifying ? But no pressure

So we won! 8-3 on aggregate. Next is a team that on paper looks like they should kill us, but are only marginally worse in the coefficients.

2.75M!!!!!!!!!!

Holy Crap! That's 2+ years of expenses for our team! That's if we lose the next series. If we win it's the group stage!

[JonInMiddleGA]

It took four seasons ... and several critical draws down the stretch ... but I managed to get Georgia Revolution promoted to USL-Pro East from Atlantic Coast Premier.

[JonInMiddleGA]

And in true "you gotta be kidding me" fashion ... the President wants to step down & is hoping to sell the club to a local businessman.

This has been, without a doubt, the easiest going boss I've ever had in any version of the game. A wage budget I couldn't come close to busting, zero philosophical demands, an incredibly generous transfer budget for our level.

So what's my reward for promoting? Yeah.

[vex]

Have transfer bids set to "Reject All" on my 22 yo captain. Thankfully my board isn't money hunger because we just rejected a $72 million bid for him from Man City and $59 million bid from PSG.

I'm really impressed by the AI transfer spending in '14. In past versions, no way would teams go after players like this.

[DaddyTorgo]

Just had a Sunderland-based Chairman take over Arsenal. It's believed he wants to install Pep Guardiola over me. Fuck him if he does - I'll move to one of the oil-rich clubs and destroy him.

But hey - if they keep me...I've got $52m extra transfer bucks. That's enough to splash on one super-duper star at year-end.

[DaddyTorgo]

So ummm

The guy who took over Arsenal gave me an extra $50m in my transfer kitty (boosting it to $60m), and I just noticed he DOUBLED my wage budget to $428m/year.

So yeah...I have...$300m to spend I guess?

And he wasn't even news-articled as a tycoon...

Wrinkle is - I just won the League and I'm 3-0 up on Real Madrid after the first leg of the CL Semifinal.

So I'm not sure what positions on my team I can blow $300m on.

#firstworldproblems