FM2011 - Help me select a club

[Hutton]

I typically start out each new FM iteration by running a Spurs save. Because this is the club I grew up supporting, I end up always having the most fun with this save, so any subsequent saves with different clubs never seem to compare.

That said, I'm thinking about selecting a different club to start out in the game with. Maybe someone in the English 3rd or 4th tier. I'd never consider myself very good at this game, so I assume it would be a huge challenge to try to lead a Stockport or Doncaster to top flight glory.

Who would be a fun club to try to progress with? I'm just curious of other people's opinions on what constitutes a good club to pick.....

[MachoMyers]

My pal who just reached the 1,000 hour mark for Football Manager 2010 plays Notts County every season and loves bringing them up to glory.

He has 'sold out' though in the chase for achievements against his brothers and is going to start right away with a top flight club.

I'm going to play as local club Crystal Palace. Barely suriving in Championship last year and going into adminstration leaves me with only £250,000 for a transfer budget so, like in real life, it is going to be a seriously big challenge to stay in Championship.

[Mo]

Not a 3rd or 4th division club, but I always go with QPR.

[Hutton]

QPR is a nice choice. Big team from London with good financial backing & high aspirations.

[mdbussen]

Somebody coded up a random team selector for FM08 that I use sometimes to pick a random club to start with

http://www.proxymoron.org/llm/

[Hutton]

Quote: Originally Posted by mdbussen

Somebody coded up a random team selector for FM08 that I use sometimes to pick a random club to start with http://www.proxymoron.org/llm/

Blocked by my work interwebs filter, but I'll check it out when I get home. Thanks mate!

[MachoMyers]

Quote: Originally Posted by mdbussen

Somebody coded up a random team selector for FM08 that I use sometimes to pick a random club to start with http://www.proxymoron.org/llm/

That is cool.

Just checked Steam. Patch 11.1 has been released (despite the game not unlocked yet)

Check spoiler tag for all the changes.

Spoiler

ootball Manager 2011 v11.1.0
-----------------------------

Crash Fixes
===========
- Fixed possible crash when removing condition from player search filter dialog.
- Fixed launching from Windows Media Centre in fullscreen
- Fixed crash when generating award news items

Match
=====
- Fixed framerate glitch when the commentry bar changes colour
- Fixed issue where teams were wearing European kits in domestic matches.
- Fixed player motivation showing up as "complacent" when trailing in matches.
- Fixed a possible match divergence for matches going into extra time.
- Fixed missed shots that stayed on the pitch from showing up as blocked shots on the match analysis screen.
- Adjusted some of the pass tracking on the match analysis screen.
- Fixed issue where the start of first highlight is missed when user watches all goals/highlights.
- Fixed mac only player shirt corruption when switching between high\medium\low detail during a 3d match.
- Improved framerate of 3d match for older graphics cards running 3d in low detail.
- Fixed dynamic weather system which could often result in too much rainfall during match when not forecast.
- Fixed dynamic sounds not playing during the match when watching in "commentary only" mode.
- Fixed a bug where user confirms tactics without making a change, he can now make future tactics changes without any problems.
- Closing down player instruction now defaults to 'team' for certain positions when using classic tactics.
- Fixed issue with defensive line instruction changing when user set tactical roles for players when using classic tactics.

General
=======
- Fixed issue where players were getting preferred squad numbers instead of starting squad numbers in the first season.
- Fixed assistant manager feedback during matches about opponents outnumbering our players in defense/midfield/attack.
- Fixed text for PPM training in player profile training section from clipping.
- Fixed an assert on training screen coach assignments when no coaches at the club.
- Fixed player/non-player not accepting mutual termination when manager first joins as promised.
- National and continental reputation database filters for creating a new game were including too many players.
- Games played in position now doesn't include data for when players do not play long enough to get a rating.
- Stopped players being sent out from parent clubs when it is not possible for the loan to go through.
- Fixed starting days to gain nationality being calculated wrongly for some players in countries with the continuous living in nation requirement, requires new game.
- Fixed startup movie rendering off the bottom of the screen.
- Fixed some of the data (ppm trained, days injured) appearing corrupt on the player profile training section when no physios available at the club.
- Fixed wrong string being displayed in the affiliated clubs screen for clubs with access to other club training facilities.
- Prevented first team coaching assignments from being re-adjusted if only the youth team was missing assignments when hiring/firing staff.
- Improved weather with particular regard to reducing snowfall at higher temperatures.
- Fixed issue when applying for a vacant B team job.
- Fixed "Cannot run game failed to set up graphics". If this message persists you can do one of the following. Install the full Direct-X SDK or install shader emulation software such as Swiftshader.
-Fixed possible corruption of human training info when resigning from a club/nation when managing both club and a nation at the same time.


Finances
========
- Adjusted manager wage requests when being hired from non-managerial roles.
- Adjusted chairman club loans.
- Adjusted non-football costs for lower league clubs.
- Fixed transfer clause news item link sending manager to wrong screen.
- Fixed too little ground rent being paid.
- Adjusted criteria for semi-pro clubs turning pro.
- Adjusted non-football costs for Premier league clubs.
- Adjusted South Korea ticket prices, wages.

Interface
=========
- Human preferred formation on profile panel now defaults to 4-4-2 if the human's formation can't be calculated.
- Fixed a problem where the same string was displayed twice in the pre match analisys before a Cup Final.
- Fixed row selection changing automatically when accepting an offer in the Transfer Offer Centre.
- Fixed right side panel in tactics changing to player instructions automatically when dragging a player selection and scrolling in the left side squad list panel.
- Fixed Player Comparison panel not being translated properly when changing in-game language.
- Fixed some issues with live league table, latest scores and goal updates not working correctly on the competition screen.
- Fixed issue where the player happiness panel may not update until the game continues.
- Team record defeat records are now displayed 0-10 instead of 10-0.
- Fixed being able to click on players to take you to their profile in the Set Piece Creator.
- Custom views on squad panels now works across human and AI teams (not separate for each of the two).
- User can now not use the Past Positions tab to view the drawn groups just before the draw has been displayed.
- Fixed bug where fixtures in a group would not show underneath the group table.
- Auto team selection now doesn't pick players who are co-owned and away at the other team.
- Squad filters sometimes would be of incorrect team type and show no players for the team (mainly reserves/U23).
- Fixed a bug where goals of the season don't get shown properly.
- Fixed player training screen to not show first team match preparation workload for youth players.
- Fixed sort order when sorted by picked status (Pkd) on tactics after clicking "Undo Last" would not updating correctly.
- Fixed sort order on quad panels not updating correctly when using the top button bar to change team selection/positions.
- Fixed match widgets not remembering positions
- Penalty shootout bar is now collapsable
- Fixed incorrect sub tabs showing during match
- Holiday dialog now remembers "Return from holdiay on date" setting
- Fixed "Take Control" button on team screen when adding a new manager
- Fixed some untranslated text on the Upload Highlights and Fixtures screens
- Fixed "Past Experience" not updating after resigning
- Fixed popup menus on the Team Settings - Scouting panel
- Fixed user being able to buy and sell other teams transfer clauses
- Fixed display of match time during extra-time
- Fixed tactic buttons not being set to disabled when changes are pending
- Fixed layouts of Hall of Fame panels
- Fixed wrong match view mode being set when selecting an incident in the Match Overview screen
- Tidied up the layout of match panels

News
====
- Stopped over the top reaction to a B team winning a league.
- Reference talking point rather than highlight in matchday round-up when it's the losing team.
- Fixed news item predicting record attendance listing away following as being almost as big as the total attendance.
- Fixed rounding issue with Transfer Offer news item which occasionally stated that a transfer bid is slightly higher than offered.
- Fixed Champions Cup seedings news item referring to 2010/11, every season.
- FIxed code in news item about a player been unhappy about a transfer bid been refused.
- Fixed string announcing stadium will be packed when not anywhere near capacity.
- Ensure distance in stat analysis news uses distance preference settings.
- Fixed incorrect description of international players in 'players involved in national team' round-up e.g. 'fledgling international career'.
- Fixed code in news item about a player been unhappy at the sale of another player.
- Ensure appearances stat should only be displayed in news towards latter stages of season.
- Fixed 'Where Are They Now' News not displaying on request for unemployed humans.
- Stopped managers making incorrect comments based on the type of the last match.
- Fixed problem where player description would describe a club captain as his national team captain if he was currently in the squad.
- Give precedence to winning league over winning other competitions in team descriptions.
- Fixed headline describing teams as 'easing past' when it was closer than that.
- Manager to manager comments are now more varied.
- Managers no longer comment on an other managers recent appointment when they have been at the club for a long time.
- Fixed news item prompting to name an international squad for a double header against the same team repeating the team name twice.
- Fixed minor friendly recieving press coverage from high profile journal e.g. World soccer Magazine.
- Fixed shortlisted player being described as own team's youngster in contract expires soon news item.
- News item regarding dangerman reads better and "Respond to comment" is no longer shown.
- News item praising the manager for signing a recommended player now correctly comes from the player rather than the manager.
- Fixed string shown in title chasing news item message.
- News items about players been unhappy about actions at their parent club no longer incorrectly refering the team they are on loan at.
- Fixed problem where teams were being mixed up in a news item referring to byes through rounds in certain competitions.
- Fixed some strings where we want to refer to a talking point for the losing team in a match report without it being a highlight.
- Fixed some strings which weren't feminised.
- Fixed overall best eleven news item button taking you to the latest seasons best XI not the overall.
- Fixed occasional instance of wrong news being sent when a player completes learning a preferred move.
- Fixed popup action buttons sizing issues

Newgens and Player/Non-Player Progression
=========================================
- Adjusted long term goalkeeper agility and balance attributes.
- Adjusted code for filling in height and jumping attribute.
- Adjusted Brazilian common names for newgens.
- No extra youth players created at the start of the game for clubs without youth facilities.
- Adjusted second nationalities for Bosnian newgens.
- Finetuned jumping attribute in relation to player height.
- Finetuned non-player progression.
- Adjusted home grown status given to extra players generated at empty clubs and virtual players.
- Fixed some retirements of non-players that were happening right before the club season ended.
- Adjusted long term attribute development
- Adjusted newgens from inactive African nations

Subscriptions
=============
- Fixed user receiving several separate competition round-up news items when they are not subscribed.
- Fixed user receiving record news for reserve competitions when not subscribed to them.
- Fixed occasional instances of unsubscribe action being undone when player is automatically removed from shortlist.
- Stopped user being inundated with squad number reaction news when subscribed to competition.

Press Conferences
=================
- Fixed user questioned about toughness of away draw when due to nature of the cup round, the team would always be drawn away.
- Fixed being questioned about my inability to speak language when taking over a team where the majority of players can speak that language.
- Fixed press conference asking how disappointed I am with elimination after victory through play-offs.
- Fixed press conference option for player signed without work permit as he will be farmed out immediately.
- Improved main talking point selection.
- Fixed issue where play-off contenders were not being considered as promotion candidates.
- Fixed minutes being incorrectly totalled in press conference question about minutes since goalkeeper last conceded.
- Fixed press conference question not taking promotion into account when referencing past answer for choosing title winners.
- Fixed some questions displaying the wrong answer set.

Biography
=========
- Fixed problem with honours occasionally being duplicated if person had more than one job at same team.
- Will no longer mention appearances for players where that information does not exist.

Board Takeovers
===============
- Ensured person leading local businessman takeover is local.

International
=============
- Ensure AI managers don't demoralise players by withdrawing them before potential international debut.
- Fixed assistant recommending 26 man squad before naming a 23 man tournament squad.
- Ensure humans get report on players on international duty if they have other staff apart from assistant manager.
- Stopped young players taking up nationality because they think they can play for a nation they will never be good enough for.
- Stopped players (e.g. Almunia) taking up a nationality to play for a country that they will never be allowed to play for.
- Stopped very good players playing for non-fifa nations e.g. France / Guadelope.
- Fixed player call-up news item mentioning international competition that hasn't started yet.
- Ensure that news about international player retirements also gets delivered to their club manager.
- Ensure user can set friendly instructions for own player when he is called up as a replacement in international squad.

Team Talks
==========
- Enabled "Encourage" team talk option when leading only by two goals (will be enabled in ME version 903).
- Fixed bug where assistant manager team talk setting wasn't being applied immediately after going to a team talk.
- Fixed full time team talk assistant feedback not being stored for players who were subbed during the match but got a team talk at the end.

Backroom Advice
===============
- No longer advised to scout other nations if the club can only sign basque players.
- Fixed advice been displayed suggesting the team needs 4 points from one game to achieve their target.
- Fixed advice been displayed suggesting the team needs -1 point to achieve their target.
- No longer advised to drop players due to bad form when they are in good form.

Interaction
===========
- User now controls introducing the tutee in tutoring conversations rather than them appearing on their own.
- Tutoring completion news item is no longer randomly selected.
- Ensure that news reaches the human when managers comment on people at the human's team.
- Players who agree to come out of international retirement now come out of international retirement.
- Unhappinesses are now always removed when the conversation has a positive outcome.
- The happiness category is now correctly disabled once you've already had a happiness related chat.
- Decreased the effect on morale having conversations have.
- Fixed bug where players who wanted to become non-players were not doing so following a recommendation by the manager.
- Cut down on the amount of tutoring the AI teams setup.
- News item When a player agrees to mutually terminate their contract in a conversation is now always sent.
- Improved the recent form and last game conversation flow.
- Added an option to conversations to let the user leave the conversation once it has reached the second stage.
- Added better descriptions for the linked people on the interaction screens.
- Stopped players who don't want to leave the club accepting mutual contract terminations.

Player Happiness
================
- Fixed players incorrectly thinking a promise to improve man management has failed.
- Made players more likely to agree leave of absence or promise to bring in a friend when they are struggling to settle at the club.
- Players now get unhappy if they are left out of the league squads for the season.
- Increased the likelihood of players backing down in conversations.
- Decreased the amount of players getting unhappy about settling in the area.
- Player no longer get unhappy about been placed in the reserves if they are banned.
- Players no longer request to be transfer listed if they are unhappy about not wanting to leave the club.
- Stopped players becoming unhappy at the same time.
- Players no longer get unhappy about their squad status changing when the manager hasn't changed it.
- Stopped players getting unhappy at been left out of the league squad if they are unavailable.
- Stopped players who are out on loan becoming unhappy about being placed in the reserves.

Board Requests
==============
- Board no longer incorrectly reject buidling a new stadium for financial reasons if the club has money available in the bank.
- No longer abled to make board requests to alter the current stadium once a new stadium is already planned.
- Stopped the board agreeing to purchase players that they cannot afford.

Social Networking
=================
- Goal uploads now have differing titles and descriptions
- Stopped potential jump to match overview panel while uploading a clip
- Prevented use of keyboard shortcuts during upload process
- Fixed issue where uploads would fail if team name contained '&' symbol
- Fixed issue where having multiple managers in hot seat game where a manager wasn't logged in to Twitter could lead to them posting to another managers Twitter feed
- Movie recording no longer getting cut short if user left full screen mode while encoding video
- Players no longer occasionaly glide at start of new clip during match highlight package
- Fixed crash uploading individual goal from match that went to a penalty shoot out
- Stopped camera angle selected getting stuck after using view goal option from the upload panel
- Increased the time out on YouTube uploads which should cut down on issues being seen with uploads failing

Foreign Languages
=================
- Nicknames not showing correctly in club background news in foreign languages. e.g. Torino - Toro.

Quick Match
===========
- Stopped physical teams overperforming.

Awards
======
- Fixed Swedish Referees Association Manager of the Year from being given to managers outside of the premier division.
- Improved manager of the year award selection, by increasing the value of qualifying for champions league unexpectedly etc.
- Stopped a manager undeservedly winning manager of the month if he moved clubs during that month.

Editor
======
- Non player's preferred formation is now displayed correctly.
- Fixed some issues with custom continental competitions which use a lot of teams.
- Fixed issue with continental cups being setup too early.
- Fixed problem with Champions League/Europa League not updating properly if custom continental cups are added with different season start days.
- Fixed some issues when adding custom lower divisions to a nation
- Can now use more than 200 nations for custom continental competitions.
- International friendlies for nations are now sorted by date.
- Fixed bug with custom division playoffs where a losing team from a lower division would be relegated from the lower division instead of remain in the lower division.
- Can now delete derbies from the editor.
- Fixed problem where Championship playoff wasn't picking teams properly from a group stage.
- Club Youth Setup, Youth Academy and Youth Recruitment fields can be be assigned a -1 value to stop clubs producing youth players.
- Fixed issue where loan rules for one division were being used by all divisions.
- Stopped created teams with no captain or vice-captain set, defaulting to having Sandy Martens displayed as captain.
- Loan rules for a parent competition now work for sub-divisions.
- Championship playoffs across sub-divisions now work correctly.

Transfers/Contracts
===================
- Encouraged more internal transfers.
- Fixed obscure issue whereby a player would accept an offer but then reject a slightly better offer.
- Stopped all hotseat managers from getting wants improved contract news item (when player isn't thiers).
- Made a change to help movement of higher earning players when offered to clubs.
- Slowed down number of transfer decision by managers in minor divisions
- Got turkish teams to adhere to the foreigner rule.
- Made a change to help prevent teams from signing backup players and then fail to register them.
- Enabled agent offers of free transfer players outside of transfer window.
- Fixed match highest earner increases not being activated following a transfer.
- Allowed user to re-enter contract negotiations following an adjustments in budgets.
- Fixed news item stating player was due monthly installments from a transfer deal.
- Stopped user being able to offer wage after x appearances to former players.
- Fixed player rejecting contract offer due to not getting enough appearance bonus when he was offered what he requested.
- Fixed issue where minimum fee release clauses were not being setup correctly at the start of the game.
- Ensured players who are good enough to be first team regulars get stated as such in the loan offer news item.
- Toned down the initial agent demands regarding very large contract offers.
- Made it harder to bribe players with high signing on fees instead of giving them decent wages.


Confidence
==========
- Fixed confidence issue whereby board would think the manager was underperforming even though they were doing exactly as asked in the league.
- Fixed issue where if a player was sold for an extremely large amount, the baord could state you didn't recieve enough money for him.


Network Game
============
- Move matches to Sat or Wed option now works for leagues which have real-life fixtures defined.
- Fixed issue where code may show up in press conference news items on the client.

Competitions
============
- Improved neutral stadium selection for custom continental competitions.
- Fixed issue where national team squad numbers were not being restricted correctly.
- Fixed the pre match news for domestic cups which wasn't taking into account fixed draws when mentioning possible rivals to face in the next round
- Before saying that the fate is in hands for a team, the code is now checking how many fixtures to go there are, and, when it's just one, is displaying a different string
- Fixed issue where player loaned out before squad registration still is included in the count of players selected.
- Pre match analysis are now showing an additional string with extra info when available (team score requirements).
- Pre match analysis strings are now taking into account the goal difference gap between two teams before saying things like "Team A can overtake Team B after next match".
- Pre match analysis new feature: some new strings are into the game (not sure if they gonna be translated) displaying the minumum number of points a team needs to secure a fate from the next fixtures.
- Fixed a situation where a team would play twice on one day.
- Teams now don't arrange friendlies for dates where they are set to play in European competitions.
- Fixed issue where a player might not be classed as home-grown when he is.
- 16/17 year old youth players don't get given 15-21 homegrown status at the start of the game if they have no history entries.
- Fixed some issues with the European Club Rankings news item.

Miscellaneous
=============
- Updated game credits.
- Added some missing tooltips.

International
-------------
- Host nation always plays in first World Cup match.
- European Championships 24 team schedule starting from 2016 extended a few days to cope with the extra games.
- French players now banned for international friendlies as well as competitive matches.

Africa
------
- African Nations Cup host for 2015 and 2017 is now coming from the three nations which placed bids in the real life for these two competitions.
- African Champions League and Super Cup have now their schedule updated.
- African Confederation Cup has its format and its schedule updated.
- African Super Cup Past winners have been ammended and the years stored updated to the current game format.

Argentina
---------
- Premier Division calendar table at start of game now filled out with Closing table standings from 2009/10 season.
- Argentine teams now play friendlies in mid season break.
- Average points column now added to Argentine Calendar table.

Asia
----
- Asian Champions League scheduling has been updated.

Belgium
-------
- Fixed Belgium super cup attendance.

Brazil
------
- Bahia State Championship now has 2 relegated teams.

China
-----
- FA Cup and Super League clashes with International matches are now fixed.

Denmark
-------
- Fixed issue with a player getting a two match ban due to automatic red card ban. A red card leads to a minimum of 15 points, meaning they would get a match ban anyway.
- Danish Superliga now doesn't use Non-EU players on pitch rule.

England
-------
- Fixed Community Shield sub rule, should be 6 from 7 subs.
- Updated Blue Square Premier TV money.
- League Cup First Round draw is working properly now, avoiding teams from the North to play teams from the South.
- New scheduling for the Championship, League One and League Two finals, which is now alternating between odd and even years too.

Europe
------
- Fixed 2011 Euro Cup final venue.

Holland
-------
- Dutch Cup winner doesn't take part in end of season European playoffs now.

Hungary
-------
- Maximum of 8 B teams can enter the Second division in one season.
- Maximum of 4 Over-22 players (1 goalkeeper + 3 other players) can be named in the match squad in any B team.

India
-----
- Updated Durand Cup participants and fixture schedule.
- Updated First Division schedule.

Italy
-----
- Serie C teams can now renew non-EU player contracts.

Israel
------
- New scheduling for Israelian Premier and National Toto Cups
- Removed the second leg Israelian Premier and National Toto Cups in the quarter finals.
- Updated Israeli Toto Cup's group stage draw rules.

Poland
--------
- Fixed disciplinary rules for First Division (2nd tier).

Portugal
--------
- Set the right host for the League Cup final in 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2012/13.

Rep. Ireland
------------
- Re-format of the Irish League Cup.

Scotland
--------
- Loan players in the SPL cannot play against their parent club.
- Fixed Scottish Premier League Saturday 3pm matches being shown to be on TV.
- Fixed teams in the Scottish Football League notbeing able to register free transfers they make after the closing of the registration period.

Spain
-----
- Spanish teams can now freely sign any Spanish based player during January transfer window.

Sweden
------
- Changed Swedish youth contract maximum age to 19 instead of 18.

United States
-------------
- AI teams now always register their new signings

Uruguay
-------
- Uruguayan Second Professional Division format change.


Assets
======

Nations
- New Myanmar flag

Denmark
-------
- Aab kit
- Brondby kits
- FC Copenhagen kits
- FC Midtjylland kits
- FC Nordsjaelland kits
- Horsens kits
- Lyngby kit
- Randers kit

Northern Ireland
----------------
- Portadown player pictures

Portugal
--------
- Liga Zon Sagres logo
- Liga Orangina logo
- Arouca logo
- Fatima logo
- Moreirense logo
- Penafiel logo

Scotland
--------
- Hamilton Academical player pictures
- Inverness Caledonian Thistle player pictures

South Korea
-----------
- National service teams now cannot terminate loan contracts.
- Transfer budget now not shown for national service teams.

Spain
-----
- Athletic Bilbao kits
- Zaragoza away kit


3D Assets
---------
-all outside scenes resized and tidied up
-street_floor_texture 3-7 added to clean up the changes to the outside scenes
-shopfront texture 1,3 & 4 removed as well as car texture
-river texture resized
-50,000 TO 10-20B side blocks updated (xsi scene files and sia files) with double polygons
-5-10A top stand , 10-20A,50,000a right stand, 0-5B roof and xsi file fixes
-updated all stadium meshes with double sided polygons where needed

[yoyoma]

This is my first year with steam is there any difference when I add mods where I put them