FM:Live – John Trewick Football Genius Introduction!

FootballManagerLive went “live” again last week so I decided to test it out once again. I had a 4 month subscription last year but didn’t really get into it. Don’t get me wrong, the basics were brilliant, but there was just so much of an advantage given to managers who play it 24/7 I just didn’t really enjoy being at the bottom of the barrel all of the time.

Since this time they’ve added and tweaked a lot of features which I won’t go into as they’ve been covered numerous times elsewhere, but I feel they’ve really evened up the game. Obviously managers who are online more than anyone else will have an advantage – and rightly so, but those who cannot commit as much time can still stay competitive which is all I want.

My Team and Aims

The birth of John Trewick Football Genius came in the Ramos Gameworld. I chose a returning stars gameworld over a fantasy world mainly because I knew I’d have to focus on epic scouting to do well in a Fantasy World which is not something I initially wanted to master. My chosen skill to start with is infrastructure.

One of my main qualms about Football Manager 2010 is the lack of input you have into the youth system. You can upgrade via asking the board, or just sign random 16 year olds you find, but there’s not much more you can do. However, FM:Live allows you to construct youth academies which is pretty much where I will be pinning my hopes. I will, of course, keep cherry picking the best youth I see on the transfer lists, but I will not be going for big stars like Ronaldo, Messi etc. I will not be building a Youth Academy for a few days to gauge the interest that each country holds. I want to go into a top 10 country (Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, England, France etc – but I want to go where there’s not so much interest… Maybe I’ll go down the route of a Russia, a Turkey, a Paraguay or another slightly lesser of the footballing nations.

Getting Started

Getting started on FM:Live you have a pool of 50 players of which you can sign up with a budget of £50,000 per day for wages, and £500,000 acquisition fees. Initially I was quite cautious about the size of my squad, selection just a minimum of 18 players but after playing a few friendly’s it was clear fitness was going to be an issue, you get a huge amount of injuries every game so a larger squad was required. Of the 50 players in my pool, I immediately highlighted 3 key players who’d be central to any success I may have over the next few years. [click name for stats screenie]

Name: Ricardo Faty

Nationality: French
Age: 23
Position: DMC

Name: Lorenzo Crisetig

Nationality: Italian
Age: 17
Position: DMC

Name: Wilifred Niflore

Nationality: French
Age: 28
Position: ST

Other than these 3 though, my pool was quite weak, it was clear I’d have a massive decision to make. Do I select the bare minimum of players and then hope for some luck in the transfer auctions? Do I select a squad that’s large enough for me to carry on in case I don’t win any auctions – after all, I don’t really know what the “average” wage for players are as of yet, I’m still learning…! Or, do I select a huge squad and spend my entire budget on average players hoping a few do better than their stats suggest, but then have no room to manoeuvre in the following transfer auctions?

I played it relatively safe; I decided to pick 20 players. My squad consisted of 6 youngsters (17-19), 6 early 20s (21-24), then 8 peaked players (26-32).

After the unveiling of this squad I still had a healthy bank balance and enough free wages to sign a few players if I so wish, although I wanted to see out the first 5 days or so without spending to get an idea for the average wages etc. My previous experience on FM:Live taught me the economy gets ridiculous after a few seasons, but hopefully the re-launch has attempted to fix this!

Coming up – my views on the Youth Academy and if they’re worth it plus my weekly review of the goings on in Ramos and John Trewick Football Genius!