Boxed PC

PC Torrent Download

PC Direct Download

PC Direct Download Alternative Link (WorthPlaying)

FMV Link: FM 2010 Patch 10.1.0 (862)

Boxed Mac

Mac Torrent Download

Mac Direct Download

Mac Direct Download Alternate Link (WorthPlaying)

Steam (PC Only)

If you have purchased, installed, and activated via Steam, you will already have patch 1 of FM2010, and should be running version 10.1.0

Other download partner

If you have purchased, installed and activated via another digital download partner, you will should already have a patched version of FM2010, and should be running version 10.1.0 – DO NOT MANUALLY PATCH digital downloads like eSellerate or Steam – it will cause errors with your game.

Changelist

Football Manager 2010 v10.1.0
—————————–

General
=======
- Stopped youth players being created at and increased recruitment Glenn Hoddle Academy.
- Fixed hair colour issue with some rare newgens getting grey hair.
- Increased the percentage of local names for newgens from Wales and Ireland.
- Adjusted some attendances.
- Tweaked fan day feedback based on match final score.
- Fixed acceptance of international jobs not working.
- Turkish player names now shown in full instead of just first name.
- Stephen Carr no longer is retired when a new game is started.
- Fixed bug where homegrown players at a B team weren’t being treated as homegrown for the A team.
- Adjusted ability calculations for older players generated at empty active clubs.
- Fixed player listed as ‘Unh’ no longer will have no evidence that they are unhappy on their personal section.
- Improved national team selection for minor nations.
- Improved selection of feeder clubs offered.
- Fixed a problem with the days in Britain for players who have played in England and Scotland (e.g. Mark Viduka).
- Goal awards no longer given out for basic detail matches – so you don’t get news items where you can’t actually view the winning goal(s).
- Fixed a data corruption in the contract offer screen that occasionally caused strange low wage requests.
- Adjusted retirement dates.
- Adjusted generation of newgens for Liechtenstein clubs playing in the Swiss leagues.
- Adjusted newgen starting attribute levels.
- Adjusted goalkeeper ability development.
- Adjusted quality of newgens produced in both active and inactive leagues.
- Fixed highest and lowest league position records not updating properly after team has moved between regional divisions.
- Turkish player of the year award will now only be given to players with Turkish first nationality.
- Fixed crash when going to squad screen after retiring

Match Engine
============
Keepers
- Made keeper hoof bobbly ball clear when dangerous to try to control it
- Made keeper first touch on backpasses a little safer
- Reduce number of unrealistic keeper fumbles and failing to hold slow moving ball
- Fumbles now recognised as mistakes
- Fixed keeper spending too long on ground after fumbling ball on the deck
- Fixed keeper who tries a save a fraction after opponent gets to ball performing illogical dive action
- Fixed keeper trying to head clear silly backpass rather than let it go out and being able to organise for corner
- Fixed keeper not using 6 seconds and hoofing ball clear while holding it under pressure
- Fixed wrong type of mistake being reported when keeper fumbles ball
- Added commentary for keeper fumbling ball
- Made keepers slightly more likely to dive when unable to save ball
- Fixed a couple of errors in keeper positioning that could leave goal exposed
- Improved chances of keepers making point blank save
- Fixed occasional instances of keepers leaving it too late to attempt a save

Other ME changes
- Encouraged passing ball around in own half a little more when tactics allow for it
- Fixed dodgy angle being passed into function causing assert and potential score divergence
- Midfielders getting ball deep a little less liable to play it long when under moderate pressure
- Try to reduce instances of players heading ball that they could run onto
- Fix to prevent 2 players going for one slow moving ball that is coming into their own area
- Made sensible passes to playmaker more attractive for his team mates
- Fixed wide play over-ride in tactics creator not being utilised properly
- Stopped all but the most blatant offsides being called before any player has “interfered” with play
- Stopped defender leaving ball to keeper if he isn’t sure when attacker will get to the ball
- Made players stick a little closer to their man especially when defending quite high and wide
- Made defenders more likely to step up to D-line when playing the offside trap
- Fixed players not getting goalside of opponent with ball in no brainer situation
- Improved behaviour of deep lying forward type players in terms of where they look for space to move into
- Reduce strikers running wide when team mate already close to that destination
- Players less likely to move onto a simple pass at unnecessary high speed, which should generally improve their first touch
- Another check against player first touch taking ball dangerously close to own goal
- Increased chance of players trying overhead kick shots
- Stop players trying ridiculously ambitious passes at free kicks unless set to all out attack
- Reduced unnecessary long backwards passes caused by v807 change
- Toned down number of pointless hopeful through balls
- Toned down directional error on clearances when ball on best foot
- Reduced number of panicky clearances especially behind for corner
- Fixed a loophole that could still see players clear towards own goal
- Slight reduction in blocked shots and crosses to improve goal count
- Fixed player display positions incorrectly set up
- Removed old code that stopped an AMC playing directly behind a lone FC by shifting one left and one right
- Implemented goalies rolling ball out underarm
- Reduced number of panicky clearances slightly
- Small tweak to basic pass choice
- Fixed overuse of pass to lurking player at corners
- Tweaked AI strategy choice slightly
- Made AI teams set full back roles to wing back in narrow formations
- Fixed incorrect variable being used to regulate speed when moving back onside
- Made midfielders in teams without wide midfielders or wingers shift across better when defending the flanks
- Slight increase in technical ability at higher levels
- Players more likely to choose safe pass ahead of risky first touch
- Further small tweak to pass choice AI
- Aimed crosses slightly further back from goal, to make harder for keeper, mainly for good crossers
- Fixed players attempting overhead kicks when facing the goal they are aiming at
- Reduced pointless long shots when run or pass on
- Boost header power for players with good heading ability
- Try to improve long shot aim variation rather than just straight at the keeper
- Fixed bug that could cause player going to meet cross, corner free kick to pull out at last minute
- Reduced fairly rare bug causing players to miscontrol ball for no obvious reason
- Reduced number of risky dribble attempts when other options available
- Made marking of nearest player slightly more lax when player tired
- Fixed bug that could cause player to fail to stop pass coming towards him, potentially causing back pass own goal
- Fixed overly zealous offside calls on players not close to interfering with play
- Made 811 change “more likely to choose safe pass ahead of risky first touch” more dependent on flair and run with ball instruction
- Encouraged players to put a few more tackles in, mainly when set to tackle hard against the relevant opponent
- Small tweak to marking of opponents in own area, to try to prioritize those closest to the goal and unmarked
- Made show onto foot AI a little more robust
- Fixed bug that could cause no keeper to be selected if current one is injured and no subs left on a depleted bench
- Fixed team selection bug that could conceivably see goalkeeper played outfield when side has 10 men
- Fixed small issue regarding defenders leaving ball for keeper before safe to do so
- Fixed issue causing players to sometimes hesitate when moving to head ball clear
- Fixed small marking issue that caused defenders to allow attacker to get goalside too easily

Interface
=========
- Added option to switch off reversing of titlebar colours.
- Added tooltips to graphics rating stars on Preferences screen.
- Latest scores, goals updates and live league table panels on the competition screen now update correctly.
- Stopped team and competition logos from showing on buttons when the user has switched logos off in the preferences.
- Under 18s match preview now doesn’t tell the user about the number of players ineligible from the first team for being too old
- Unticking ‘Start Unemployed’ will now revert the user’s selection to their favourite club if it is a valid one to manage.
- Fixed player’s training panel not displaying any info if club did not have a physio.
- Fixed issue with training options not being available when right clicking on multiple players when one is on loan.
- Fixed bug during a hot seat match where more than one manager shout panel could be opened at once.
- Enabled logos on scoreboard in TV view.
- “No specific instructions” option can now be selected in the Target Opposition Player shortcut panel.
- Added Wide Play option to player list view menu on the tactics screen.
- Ensured coach reports aren’t available for unattached players that have been scouted.
- Fixed captain icon being duplicated on the tactics screen when substituting your captain.
- Ensured coach reports aren’t available when making an offer for a player that isn’t attached to your club.
- Enabled logos on match titlebar
- Extra-time and penalty wins now indicated on team fixture panel
- Added frosty pitch to 2D Classic match view
- Match overview screen now displays kits rather than club badges
- Various small user interface fixes

Backroom Advice
===============
- Stopped staff advising to scout players that teams in Malaysia are not allowed to sign.
- Stopped staff contradicting themselves when suggesting removing offers for players even though they gave them a good scout report.
- Improved the second opinion advice.
- Stopped fitness coaches offering advice on tactics unless they also have a preference for a normal coaching role.
- Stopped second opinion always disagreeing with team attribute comparison pre-match advice.
- Clicking Tactics button no longer causes advice to be dismissed before being actioned.
- Using the Training button now links to the teams training section correctly.
- Advice no longer re-appears if you have dismissed the advice by going to the screen via the news item and then going by the menu link.
- Improved the recommended players’ advice AI.
- Stopped Assistant Manager disagreeing with possible opposition instructions and then suggesting them himself pre-match.
- Scouting recommendations for immediate signings only recommend players the team can currently afford.
- Backroom advice section now hidden for international matches because there was never anything to show.

Media
=====
- Fixed ‘interested in job’ news item not always knowing whether the job the person is interested in is currently filled or not.
- Ensure that non-relevant competition round-up news items are not sent to humans for competitions split geographically e.g. Conference League Cup.
- Toned down over-the-top news strings for winning friendly competitions.
- Stopped news item stating player “popped up again” when describing his first goal.
- Toned down exaggerated praise after qualifying from domestic cup with group stages e.g. Second Round group of Portuguese League Cup.
- Variable no longer appears in news item linking staff with vacant position.
- Players no longer complain about been unable to speak to another club when a transfer offer is negotiated rather than rejected.
- Players no longer complain about been unable to speak to another club if the buying team keeps delaying the transfer.
- Fixed %string#1 appearing in some comp news items for progression in major tournaments.
- Club variable no longer appears in stadium improvement news item.
- News item reagarding international injury tally has now learnt how to count.
- Fixed “Consortium pull plug” news item stating consortium pulled the plug when it was actually the club.
- Fixed player’s bio blaming manager for club’s season under-performance when manager has only just joined and is doing well.
- Fixed rare instance of player transfer speculation news being generated for news where the buying team doesn’t have a manager.
- View Injury Table button in physio report news no longer occasionally taking you to the wrong page for an international manager.
- Ensured ‘linked to job press statements’ can only be responded to from the inbox and not from the news centre.
- Fixed news items which were incorrectly using a nation’s nationality instead of its name e.g. “Venezuela in good display against Peruvian”
- Can now appeal straight red card when a player was playing for a different squad to the squad he is currently in.
- Fixed award voting news “vote” button disappearing a few days after the news item is first issued.
- Stopped media speculating about managers signing rubbish goalkeepers.
- Pitch dimensions news item only sent if there are more than one pitch size to choose from!
- Fixed occasional non player bio referring to club join date as 1. Jan. 1900.

Finances
========
- Adjusted Finnish finances.
- Adjusted non-player wages.
- Adjusted ticket pricing for smaller English cups.
- Tweaked English lower league youth wages.
- Fixed really small teams generated with big debts.
- Adjusted clubs going into administration.
- Adjusted player wage demands.
- Adjusted wage budgets for very small teams.
- Fixed players on very high wages requesting a lot less when renewing contract.
- Adjusted African ticket prices.

Transfers
=========
- Stopped occasional B Club player from being given first team wages due to being a key player in the B Club
- Prevented board from stepping in and accepting bids just over the basic value of the player on behalf of a manager when player was transfer listed.
- Disabled transfer decision deadline option of ‘Today’ when current game time is later on in the day and not possible for clubs to respond in time.
- Stopped the ability to sign Institute players on bosman style deals.
- Changed label for the ‘Offer to Clubs Asking Price’ to make it clearer that it is a percentage of the players displayed value.
- Loaned out players no longer kept in first team and demoted to reserves upon return to club.
- Removed duplicate news item when a youth player’s contract expires.
- Further fixes to ensure Australian teams keep their squad depth many years in the future.
- Altered contract decision code to prevent low league key players from getting early pay rises.
- Fixed occasional first team player being put in reserves and listed for loan in first season.
- Prevented big clubs from actively looking to replace their terrible third choice goalkeepers
- Spanish based players no longer demands really high relegation release clauses, due to already having really high mandatory minimum fee release clauses

Subscriptions
=============
- Improved selection of subscriptions by personal assistant.
- Fixed issue where certain record news items would be sent to subscriptions unnecessarily.
- Should not be allowed to subscribe to virtual/grey players.
- Fixed personal assistant recommending a national manager unsubscribe from World Cup.
- Removing a player from a shortlist should not unsubscribe him if he exists on another shortlist.
- Auto-subscribe humans to matches category for international comps e.g. World Cup to improve immersion.
- Stopped human getting two match reports for the same match if subscribed to a comp’s matches.

Press Conferences
=================
- Fixed journalist asking about signing a compatriot for a new signing when other club team already contains a player of his nationality.
- Fixed press conference crediting user with multiple cup wins despite this being user’s first.
- Fixed follow-up question about balancing books appearing in the wrong context in new signing conference.
- Miscellaneous text and press conference question fixes.
- Fixed press conference questioning team’s form due to poor morale when team morale is actually very high.
- Improved selection of the main talking point of press conferences.
- Give precedence to team-mates of the same nationality over shared language when looking for a team-mate who can help a new signing settle in.
- Fixed wrong stadium name being shown in some new signing conference questions.

Board Takeovers
===============
- Stopped non-players who dislike a club from leading consortium’s that are interested in taking them over.

Network Game
=================
- Now cannot join manager chat until you have completed adding a manager.
- Fixed blank stage in add manager wizard when “Assign Random Clubs” has been ticked.
- “Disconnect” action is now shown again on the game status screen for network clients.
- Fixed a problem where the next fixture details on the manager overview panel would not update for network clients.
- Fixed other managers watching a match being able to view the playing manager’s feedback widget.
- Fixed and improved user idle time counts.

Competitions
============
- Fixed bug where user-named friendly competition gets its name changed to Friendly Cup after saving and reloading.

Australia
———
- Updated Australian A-League kick off times.
- Fixed discipline rules to correspond with specifications.

Belgium
——-
- Tweaked Belgian Second Division TV coverage.

Brazil
——
- Fixed issue of Brazilian national First and Second Division games being played during the World Cup.

Chile
—–
- Chilean First Division B clubs can sign/sell unlimited number of players in summer transfer window

Croatia
——-
- Fixed Croatian sides not arranging any friendlies during the winter break.

Czech Republic
————–
- Tweaked Czech First Division TV coverage.

Denmark
——-
- Fixed period when Danish teams can start playing friendlies during the winter.
- Fixed Danish Cup draw rules.
- Danish Work Permit rules now check the wage offered to a player.
- Updated TV prize money.

England
——-
- Fixed Blue Square Premier and Blue Square North\South playoffs being shown on TV when there is no TV deal in place.

Finland
——-
- Updated Finnish Premier League to award teams with TV money beyond 2012.

France
——
- Fixed issue of French Coupe De La Ligue being set up after the first round draw.
- Updated TV revenue system for First and Second Division.
- Fixed Coupe De La Ligue kick off times and TV viewings.

Germany
——-
- Fixed issue with German Cup’s first round clashing with other German leagues due to the German Cup using the 2008 first round date.
- Fixed scheduling for First, Second and Third Divisions in Germany.
- Updated German kick off times.
- Updated German Cup TV prizes.
- Updated German first division to coincide the recent move of the penultimate game to a Sunday.
- If one or both teams that have qualified for the German Cup final also take part in the relegation for the German First/Second Division then the two relegation legs should be rescheduled.
- Included international days, where matches are not played.
- Fixed issue with match times after the New Year

Greece
——
- Fixed a problem with Greek youth team full time player squad selection rule.
- Changed Greek Superleague cup schedule to finish a few weeks earlier.
- Updated Greek Superleague to give out TV prize money to teams to coincide with the recent contract.

Hong Kong (China PR)
——————–
- Added Hong Kong League Transfer Windows.
- Stopped teams not in Hong Kong First Division participating in reserve league.

Holland
——-
- Matches are now played at 1630 every three Sundays in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Israel
——
- Fixed issue with Israel Premier and National league games playing during the play offs.
- Israeli Cup winner now takes 2nd Europa League seed after 2nd placed league team

Italy
—–
- Serie A league schedule improvements.
- Games no longer take place on Easter Sunday.
- Foggia 1 point deduction added
- Removed Gallipoli point deduction.

Norway
——
- Fixed Norwegian Cup’s geographical drawing during the preliminary stage.
- Fixed issue with second division teams occasionally being drawn into the preliminary stage.
- Tweaked how Third Division teams are selected for promotion to Second Division.
- Removed the nation trial day.
- Norwegian squad selection rules changed.

Portugal
——–
- Updated League Cup TV prize money.

Romania
——-
- Fixed issue with games being played during the Romanian Second League winter break.

Russia
——
- Tweaked Russian Premier League schedule.

Scotland
——–
- Fixed issue where the final day Scottish league fixtures not being held on same day due to Scottish Cup Final.
- Updated Scottish Cup prize money.
- Fixed issue with Scottish Cup finals not taking place.
- Scottish U21 players now need to be younger than 21 on the 1st of January of the season start year.

Spain
—–
- Fixed issue with first round of the Spanish Cup being too late.

Sweden
——
- Fixed incorrect fixture rule for Swedish Super Cup.

Switzerland
———–
- Lower League teams can now playing at home in Swiss Cup.
- Fixed Swiss sides not arranging any friendlies during the Winter Break.
- Fixed scheduling for First and Second Divisions in Switzerland.

Turkey
——
- Turkish Premier Division Schedule tweak.
- Updated Turkish Cup Prize Money.
- Added a check for foreign non-homegrown players in the youth leagues.

United States
————-
- Toronto FC now pursue more Canadian players in the Superdraft.

Uruguay
——-
- Updated Uruguay’s transfer windows to be different for First and Second division.

International
————-
- World Cup teams are now drawn in order of highest seeds first.
- Yellow cards are no longer carried on from the qualifying rounds to the World Cup.
- U20 World Cup now takes place in 2009.

Match Experience
================
- Stockport home kit colours now match the titlebar/commentary colours for friendly matches.
- National teams in international finals now use 1-23 for virtual player squad numbers instead of 23+.
- Injury icon now no longer appears above a player in a match if the match is rewound to before the injury.
- Pitch textures are now consistent between 2D and 3D view.
- Fixed bug where playmaker and target man roles were not being setup correctly in the match.
- The first team now always uses the first kit when playing in the intra squad friendly.
- Crowds tweaks for penalty shootouts
- “Dead time” now skipped when players retrieve ball for set pieces

Editor
======
- When using specific teams in competitions, the “Could not find competition -1 in the database” message doesn’t appear when testing the rules.
- The scroll buttons on the tab strip now works correctly.
- Can now add national team achievements for people in the editor.
- Hitting the window close button X now brings up confirmation dialog if changes have been made.
- Adding new clubs, competitions, etc to the database now applies the same changes to network clients as well.

Misc
====
- Made some updates to the Game Credits

There has been a bit of push around the FM Community forums lately with Los Wonderkids & FM View promoting the Lower League challenge for when the new Football Manager 2010 hopefully arrives at our doorsteps on Friday. One of those rules within an LLM challenge is the ban on using the player search/filter feature within the game to find the players that you want. It is argued that it is so easy to build a world class team in a few season just by knowing what attributes to search for, even for the high league teams, but is this cheating? Or can the Football Manager player filter be used in such a way that assists and not plays the game for you?

Using the players filter, is it cheating?

At the end of the day we are playing a game, games are made up of rules and we giving tools be it from the game or our own skill to compete within that framework. Obviously the Football Manager player filter is one of those tools therefore no, using the players filter is not cheating. People will use the player filter to the best of its ability to find the best players that they need to fill their fantasy team full of players. But instead it begs another question for us Football Manager gamers, who from the community at least bang on about realism within the game.

Is the player filter realistic?

From the basics of what the player filter does, no of course it isn’t. Only David Moyes at the moment has the ability to filter through a database full of some of the best players in the world, among those players are those players of the future. If know what you are looking for and you can grab yourself one of the best players in the game, using the right option you will know as well if that player would be a realistic target for a club like your own.

But this way of playing is obviously down to the FM gamer to decide how they want to play. But from a personal view I think using the player filter takes a little away from the game. Using the filter is just like using any of the many fantasy football websites or newspapers. You take the budget you have and then throw it towards those players that come in the search and look for the positions that you want them in. What is the point in using the scouting system, taking any advice from your backroom staff or the joy in genuinely discovering a gem of a player through hard word? I think it takes alot of the enjoyment out of the game when you aren’t made to work as hard to find success in each aspect from tactics to results.

But how can the player filter be an assistance?

The filter can’t be totally ignored though, it allows us to do a few things within the game that we wouldn’t be able to do elsewhere. View a transfer listed players, surely it is only realistic for those players that have been placed on the market for you to be made aware of, especially for big clubs with a huge array of contact and ears to the ground they will know who is available from the other clubs on the transfer list. What is the point in putting them on the market if you can’t market them to other sides? As well as being able to filter out those players that have got only six months left on their contract. Until the game finds out another way to let us know how those players who want to leave on the Bosman ruling we are only left with trying to filter them out every December to see if we can nab a deal, from one of these. In my view this is the only way that you can keep to the realism of football management if thats how you want to play the game, everything else is just like searching a huge database and the game can only be viewed as a big excel sheet if this is the way you play it.

A little addition to the filter, that could make a huge difference

Although one of the features that I would like to see in one of the next game is to be able to filter those players that you have already scouted, that makes more sense to me to be able to only include the players you or your scout has already reported back to you on. This would be more realistic and help aid in the sorting through the mass of scout reports that you gather throughout the game. Maybe keep a little to the LLM philosophy while doing it and just use it to sort those players so you can look at them in an easier way. When I have used the player filter in the past I usually have my searches sorted with the highest recommended players at the top, only actually taking notice of those players that I have already looked into before either personally or via my scouting network.

Something Interesting

Although some people can take the realism to the extreme Rob discovered over at the official SI Games forums. One gamer has decided to ignore the attributes all together. Arguing that being able to see such stats is unrealistic and instead uses his own ability to spot the players on the pitch, his scouting reports and real life performances to gather whether a player is worth buying at all. This is not something that I subscribe too though, but an interesting extreme. I think that there is always going to be room for the attributes to be visible within the game as they allow us to compensate for the shortcomings of the game being a virtual environment, there are certain aspects of a persons game you can’t see till they are on a training ground or you have spent a little time with them on a daily basis as real life managers get the opportunity to do.

In conclusion, the player filter is an aspect of the game that for the more enjoyable experience I believe should be cut out or just stripped down because in fact it does take away from the gaming experience of a Football Management simulation. It is easy to ignore for many players and I can see why it is in there to help along the casual gamer who does just want to build their fantasy football side. Those who are going to play the LLM rules for the next game as I think a few people seem to be on board with will want to disregard the players search all together, making sure you use your own scouting skills and those of your backroom staff to make the final decision on who the best players to sign for.

What are your views on the player search function, is it cheating or part of the game? Do you use the search function in an innovative ways or any suggestions or comments please leave below or discuss them at the forums.

Every new year it is tradition to set yourself a number of resolutions not to keep to past February, they usually include signing up for the gym, dieting and giving Levo more money donating into his account every payday. Our calendar begins at the stroke of midnight October 30th when the latest Football Manager title is released and just like any New Year it is time to set some resolutions.

Adopt a Minnow

Lower League Management has always been a way of playing that had appealed to me, but each time I have tried it I have lacked the commitment or the will power to keep going through the poor string of results that I often find myself under, struggling to sign any quality players and having no money at all to actually get myself out of a rout at such a level. So this year I have decided to adopt a much needy minnow club, I haven’t decided what team it will be or even what country but once I do I am going to become an avid supporter of that team, whoever it is to I will feel the pain when they lose and the delight when they win, hoping that will motivate to take such a club through the turmoils of lower leagues. I think an interesting way to grab an insight of football in other leagues across the world than the Premier League, maybe I might wear the shirt down the pub and show some real loyalties.

Why don’t you give it a try, randomly pick a country by what means that is up to you. Look in the lower leagues of that country and the pick a small team in that league that isn’t even expected to last. That can be your team, all you need now is the ability to lose and enjoy it.

Starting the proper way?

I am all for the Lower League Management this season, but this is another way that I am going to try and play the game this season to offer something new. Starting unemployed at the start of the game with a Sunday League reputation, applying for jobs as they come about and not knowing where I am going to land. It is something that a few of the guys from FM-View will be trying, so why not try it yourself and I would be interested to know how you get on, comparing each others success and failures. So visit the forums for moral support, and help in trying to achieve your dreams, I think with a few of us doing it, the sense of a little competition might be what is needed to spur us on to the next game season.

This is for those who are looking for challenge, playing by LLM rules which can be found down at FM-Britain who have a close knit and thriving LLM community themselves. Pick and choose those rules, I will essentially be picking them up by the letter, using my scouts to full affect within the game. But feel free to play the way you want these are just guidelines for the FM View games. This years game should be made a little more straight forward to play this way as you will have the benefit of good feedback from your coaches, although do remember the standard of coaches at your club will affect the feedback you get. But also the new tactical creator should allow you to develop those tactics that could carry you far in the Lower League realm.

Proving my tactical credentials

I have been playing Football Manager long enough to surely be able to produce my own tactics? I have read constant guides and tactics analysis surrounding Football Manager games. I know what a sweeper keeper is and what sort of formations it may help to deploy a full back or wing backs to greater affect. But still in 2009 I was using the tactics laid down by the TT&TF templates and tweaking them here and there till they started producing results, often moving the sliders and not really fully understanding what I was doing. But with the new tactical creator there is little excuse, I know longer have to learn what happens when this slider is 5 and the other slider is 14. No I can set the players how I would do if they were a real life team, telling each player what their role is within the squad and bam a tactic is born. Maybe I can even pass on some of my tactical learning onto yourselves, all I need to prove is that I know something about footballing tactics in the real world.

Achievements

The only reason that this year I will be installing STEAM into my computer is to pick up the achievements that have been laid down for the new game in the system. I am sure in an attempt to gain each and every achievement (which I am sure won’t be possible) I will encounter adventures and different challenges through the game, keeping me glued away from my girlfriend for hours on end. I can’t wait to find out what I need to do to become The Professor, or will I have be proclaimed an England legend? Plenty of game playing hours lie ahead of me till I find out.

A New Year, a new challenge, this is the most hotly anticipated Football Manager game in it’s history. I am as much excited as anyone after playing the demo it is looking as if it maybe living up to the hype. But with this years release I will have a whole year to commit to it, not like I did last year when a University dissertation amongst other things stopped me from really getting into the game, New Years day could be a day of celebration or looking at the way I will be playing this years game it could all end in tears.

Do you guys have any plans for the new game, a new way of playing or a challenge you are going to set yourself? Please comments below or visit our forums and discuss it here.

Those of you who are Xbox 360 owners will be savvy to the Microsoft innovation of achievements within games, the fact that when you complete a certain task or mission set out you win game points. Now Football Manager 2010 is entering the frame to offer up the achievements of their own through STEAM. But what I seem to be asking alot at the moment is what will these FM features bring to the gaming experience?

Achievements and the points gained from them on the Xbox, where do they get you? What rewards would you attain from doing 5 wheelies on GTA or 50 head shots on Halo: OSDT or scoring a hat-trick with your favoured Darlington side on FM10?  Well absolutely nothing. What achievements actually bring to gaming is the social element, something that is become increasingly important within gaming. The new achievement system in Football Manager, just the same as it always has been in the Xbox allowing bragging rights you have against those circle of friends that are involved with you.

It is no longer good enough to just complete a game (not that FM allowed you to ever complete a game, unless on the Xbox, on a side note I was gutted when one of my Xbox saved games on the old CM came to an end after spending days on it sick in bed.), now games are now built so that you go back and collect all those missed gems, or tasks that you have yet to do. To truly finish you need to have performed all those missions or tasks to complete the achievements. This will inevitable increase the game time spent by the average FM player as an extra purpose has been put in the game. A dangling carrot is placed infront of all the FM players to work towards fulfilling each of the achievements so that when they get into the pub (or forum), it is an easy way to compare how much you are kicking ass.

It was found from a 2007 study by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research (EEDAR) that those games that implemented an achievement system well, with diverse accomplishments made the games more enjoyable and scored highly in reviews, sales and profitability and also those who added an online element could on average expect a further 50% rise in profits of their games. So it makes business sense for SI games to invest a little time in creating a series of achievements for their users. SI games have listed 70 achievement names that will be in the new game, that range in variety and difficulty, maybe giving that diverse list that will capture the minds of the FM gamer.

Obviously this is all in an attempt to extend the life of a Football Manager game and the amount of time that a person spends at their computer. How best to reward that time then a small pop-up telling you that you have become an England hero and you can collect more like badges, because since the dawn of time the Human Being has been a collector and this will only serve are basic needs. But what I would like to see from the game in a sense of badges or something along those lines would be for somewhere where your achievements were logged on an online server and using that information a sort of Football Manager CV was automatically created, or feed to signatures that you could place when around your forums. Kevin Rose in an interesting keynote speech speaking about ways to help a web application grow mentioned the fact of leader boards, badges and rewards for the involvement in the product which I thought could translate well into FM, something that naturally FM Live already has, helping bring it success, but something that us FM players could have aswell.

But in the end I do think that the achievements are a fantastic idea has SI Games continue to try and add value to the partnership with STEAM to encourage us all onto the system to collect our data and help in the fight against piracy. It will help bring another sense of community interaction as now we will have something else to feed our egos with when we bounce around the Football Manager community. But most of all I think all of this will improve the enjoyment to the game giving us a purpose throughout the year instead of finishing in September and as we await the new game, we rush to collect the last remaining achievements. I know for this reason I will be signing up to STEAM this year, will you?

Anyone that has stumbled upon this site will already know about the Chelsea transfer ban and if you don’t know its probably not worth you going further with this post. But the Chelsea transfer embargo due to the illegal approach Gael Kakuta has hit SI games with a dilemma of whether or not this should be represented in the upcoming Football Manager 2010 and also how.

The way the game will be dealing with the scenario at the moment is that in the first transfer window of the game Chelsea will be allowed to buy any player they want within the budget that has been laid out by the board at the start of the game. I expect that this years release will reflect fairly on the more cautious approach to funding that Roman seems to have undertaken in the credit crunch which has wiped billions off his worth. But nevertheless Chelsea will be blessed with funds that any Premiership side could hope for as well as a fantastic inherited squad for anyone who takes the hotseat. But the interesting problem I see in this is that although periodically accurate with when the embargo is placed on Chelsea, anyone who chooses to manage the club will already be forewarned of their fate and have the ability to plan for the future two transfer windows, something that Carlo wasn’t blessed with.

Carlo’s reluctance to dip into the transfer market this season this will give any player a nice little bit of funds to bring in those young and talented players that will see Chelsea through the two transfer windows, then the manager would be able to sit back and watch the funds role in to the ISA account building up interest ready for a squad overhaul when it will probably be most needed. Making the punishment for Chelsea in gaming terms virtually non-existent. Anyone who fails to meet the requirements laid down by the board should really be looking at other games to spend their time on, because obviously Football Management isn’t for them.

But will the embargo affect the enjoyment of the game? Well you got to look to why people take control at Chelsea in the first place, it is obviously not in the enjoyment of the struggle, trying to build up a squad with hard work and tactical know how. No, instead it is about being able to use the money at your disposal to buy in those trophy signings, building a dream team of players like of Aguero, Messi and Gerrard. This is surely what makes the average Chelsea fan or FM manager tick so the transfer ban will obviously kill off the main reason anyone would choose to manage them in the first place unless they are planning on a long term game.

What other alternatives are there? Well it is not even certain that it will make it in the final version of the game just yet, Chelsea will certainly stick there large resources behind appealing the case, with an aging squad, two transfer windows can be a pretty long time in football. SI will definitely keep up with developments of this case as it being such a big club, I am sure if they can (or even do) collect information about what teams we play in the game a huge percentage of players will at some point take on the Chelsea (although this season they may all defunct to Manchester City). It has already been hinted that any decision made by FIFA to any appeal may force a special patch from SI to change the affects within the game.

But I feel the best and more realistic thing to do in the game would be to stick in the embargo straight from the start of the game, not allowing any signings throughout the summer 2009 transfer window. This would mean that the benefit of hindsight isn’t placed into the game, as the expectation of the ban just makes the challenge void. But instead with the way that it will work out for Ancelotti now, since knowing about the ban he hasn’t been able to bring in the players to shape the squad how he would like, bringing in players that are able to play in his own unique system. I think it would add to the challenge and enjoyment, giving another dimension to the game if this was also the case for any new starter on a Football Manager game and seeing if they can meet the challenge and problems of any ban from the start of their career.

But when it all comes down to it, the consumer will have the final choice in the matter I am sure just like a lot of things that SI games will make it easy to remove this from the game if anyone so wishes, meaning that the Chelsea fans won’t need to suffer at all. The transfer embargo though will be an interesting test for those players who want to see how they can develop their squads without the stop gap of just drafting in ready made players and it is good to know that Football Manager continues to reflect the different scenarios of the real world.

When looking for inspiration to look for something to write about, there is always something to moan about when it comes to the scene as we all know, it is far from perfect. To harp back to the brilliant podcast with @GetSacked founder Jordan Cooper which was probably more interesting podcast for the scene then the so dubbed Milescast two weeks earlier. One thing that came out of the conversation was the use of forums around the scene. For around 5 years now a culture of forums have come into place in the scene allowing people to setup a simple site with the same old forum titles that you would find anywhere else including the official SI Games forum. FM discussions, FM players, tactics, training and off topic chat would be the pattern in which was followed at all these sites, but the problem came that the majority of these sites either had poor content on the homepage or even worse no mainsite to begin with.

The problem with this is that the same sites generate the same threads that have appeared on another forum beforehand, alot even taking them as inspiration to start elsewhere, but this then breeds a lack diversity, fragmenting the scene members who lazily and rightly find themselves conveniently bookmarked at one particular site, ultimately killing the reason that we are around on the scene anyways, to discuss Football Manager and a few things on the side with like minded people. Even more as people get bored with the same old FM chat with a small number of people that still dedicate themselves within that forum, off topic chat becomes the main focus point for a the FM site.

So what could we propose? Well the first option could be that we direct everyone to the official SI forums, this is the option that is opted for by Jordan, his websites has no ties with a forum despite being the biggest FM Live fansite in that community. Instead if anyone wants to discuss the game they are directed to the official forums where the lads congregate anyway. Meaning he can talk to more people in one particular place and a site that has a huge marketing power and brand draw that it will give him even more people to talk to and promote his own material which is written with quality. But also he doesn’t have to worry about the maintenance of the forums which will be run by a team of paid staff at SI and keep things running smoothly.

The only problem with this is I find that the SI forums a little overcrowded and overwhelming a hive of activity as they are the first place to land for anyone who is looking for some help in FM for what the experienced users would deem simple things. I think that this should be the place for these people to land and get help, but the community at large should be able to have a gathering place for themselves to talk about more in depth aspects of the game in which we try to do in our blogs and forum posts. But that is the word that I use community, but the scene isn’t really. It is a group of several very small communities which would probably have an synergy when joining forces.

The scene and community could then grow as sites could then concentrate on what is king, ‘content’ which would help draw more people to our club and expand our enjoyment as we attract more like minded people. I know that people have their cliques and they like that but surely in the aim for a decent discussion we can all come together, want to talk Off Topic or something else? Then you should find a medium for that elsewhere, FM sites should be FM forums and that should be the main focus with an off-topic attached on the side for good luck.

We are all here on an ego trip, we want the most people to visit our site that we can possibly get, but having one forum as a point of call would make it much easier for people to be able to find what they want and of a better quality. Using this forum then as a portal to promote what each of us is trying to do with our sites and increasing numbers reading to satisfy our ego. We are a scene after all on the internet which is a tiny niche of the online community, 1 million people may have bought the last installment of the game and less then 1% of those people actually make up the community, leaving either a small amount of people to fight for, or a huge opportunity to bring together alot more people giving easier access to discussion and the content available on your site filling the demand of what the usual web surfer looks for.

So something to mull over are more forums the answer or the main focus of your plans when wanting to dominate the Football Manager world? If you are then you have already failed,  instead you want to start with a great mainsite attracting your consumer and then you should create a forum that will cater for you niche and maybe cater for a certain type of player, something that FM Britain can be held up as a great example of doing.

First of all I must explain the title before I leave the whole world in wonder but also before I get a knock at my door from the police who wish to charge me for attempted murder. Sammy Lee as you will all know is Liverpool assistant manager and legend. I wouldn’t wish harm on the guy, I think he is a fantastic assistant for Liverpool and long should he reign. But recently at a Liverpool reserve game I spotted him in a line of traffic going into the ground as I ate  my chips before nipping into Prenton Park. Being a bit struck by his awe I had to catch his attention for a wave, shouting SAMMY towards the car, Mr Lee and his driver both looked into my direction startled. The guy is getting on now and to be honest does look like he may suffer from high blood pressure, such a shock on his face made me fear as I thought maybe I could have possibly killed him with fright.

But now if your still here after that long winded explanation of a title I will go on to tell you why I make it. Football Manager has begun to reflect how important not just an assistant manager is but the whole backroom team. The best managers in the world all have something in common and that is that they have the best assistants working with them. Sir Alex Ferguson has had a string of them, over the years watching how they have developed a team with them, most notably Carlos Queiroz who helped influence one of the greatest United teams of all time influencing the 4321 system and bringing with him a certain Cristiano. But Cloughie & Taylor, Jose & Clarke and many more pairings are key to the success of the biggest teams.

The game is moving towards this each year we are seeing the role of our staff grow increasingly, only last year though did we see the real importance a good assistant manager could be, giving us many more options to help us do a better job. Tactics feedback, training reports, coaching reports and news of what loan deals are available in a certain position. For a time backroom staff in the game were merely but names in the game, put there to look good and marvel when your able to tempt a former legend to your club, I have enjoyed the pleasure of working with, Toldo as a goalkeeping coach, Beckham taking care of set-pieces and oddly enough Michael Owen training up the defenders. But they had very little influence on the team. Football Manager has made in roads to the development of training and how the coaches can influence the effectiveness of training, but more work needs to be done so that the selection of coaches can have a bigger overall affect on the squad.

One way in which this may happen is that coaches could bring with them their own training schedules, I would be surprised if the staff themselves didn’t have a big hand in building what the players do on a regular basis. depending on their expertise the coach could come with a favoured package of different activities to get the best out of them in a particular area. You could choose to tinker with it as a sort of discussion or let him go wild, this would then be good to be able to assign certain players to work with certain coaches. Maybe it is a little gimicky, but wouldn’t it be good to have an option to send your team to an army training camp at the start of the season to get them fit again, just like Roy Keane? Another thing that may be helpful extra one-on-one coaching, David N’Gog could work more with Ian Rush in order to develop certain parts of his game, maybe it is in his personality to spend extra time on the training field everyday, this could quicken up his develop and help reach a bigger potential. The introduction of coaching badges to the achievements screen showing the ability of each of the coaches and players in some cases, on this judging how much the coach can actually do, what limit they can coach or manage at. Although one thing that we have to be careful of doing when introducing such aid for the manager is not to distract from the game itself and instead enhance an already great experience. The managers ability should always be at the forefront of any decision, so building these at tools for the manager and not replacements is of highest importance.

Yesterday Liam published an interesting article discussing the ease of the transfer market in FM, more to the point the ability to find players is far to easy if you know the right numbers to pop in, again the ability of the backroom staff and your own ability to look at a player and know if he can fit in should be the main aim of the game. I have to agree that being able to search the players that would best match your need in FM is so not as enjoyable and in fact no more then picking a fantasy football team online. An improvement in scouting could be a better way to guide and manipulate the scout to produce better reports as JP suggested. But not only that, the experience of a scout should count and even the coach for that matter. You pick up a member of staff from Manchester United, they should be able to come straight to you suggesting players that they have had the pleasure of working with. A final suggestion to make the scouting system a little better, but your own experience and contacts should matter, being able to call in favors with staff you have had interaction with in the game to suggesting players and grab a loan deal here or there, I think something like  that could work well around the LLM fans. Without Roy Keane’s Manchester United connections I doubt that he would have made half the signings that he did, but while at Sunderland, maybe that would have been a good thing.

So there is still alot to do before Football Manager can reflect the importance of a top team behind the scenes as well as on the pitch and I am sure as they always do they will make good progress in doing this as games go on maybe at some point down the line we could actually see coaches raise in experience, knowledge and intellegence the same way that we watch a wonderkid reach their potential and with the longer the coach has been in the game the better he may become. Could there be a time that I feel as attached to my Number. 2 as I do for my Number 9? But first things first, can Football Manager find a serious use for the physio?

A couple of days ago Miles released a blog, discussing new features that have been placed into this years FM data editor. The data editor is part of the game that most people who buy the game won’t be too interested in, the data editor is used by many for two reasons 1) the most obvious, cheating. 2) to make your own data update, taking control of the summer transfers during times when SI are distracting developing their latest installments. But the interesting thing is these new developments that have been made in the data editor will now allow us add our own leagues & nations as well as teams. The latest FM-View podcast with Jordan touched on the potential goldmine that the FM community is currently sat on, can is this latest data editor become a free resource in the ability to print money?

Now firstly the FM community has been sitting on a potential business model for a while, the market maybe small but it is reasonable to make a quick buck for anyone who is able to tap into the market that is the size of roughly around a 1 million people globally at the moment and consists of more then just the community. FM sites have tried a businesses models before, SUSIE and FMG have both tried out a premium membership models. But in truth the premium model lacks value to the actual consumer, who cares when they get the download straight from the site or a mirror? As long as they are getting it for free surely they won’t see much added value in getting it directly from a server. It is a model that is produced from these sites mainly to cover any costs of running the site and all claim that money doesn’t fall into the personal bank accounts of those involved. But these models also rely on having a member base that is prepared to pay for this the premium account and come back on a regular basis. SUSIE have a  current membership of 51,186 and is one of the most active sites on the web, but even SUSIE have a small percentage of people paying a monthly subscription.

For those sites that have been producing products for the Football Manager community for so long have been doing so  for the love of what they are doing, a hobby. But why shouldn’t a hobby be used as a profit making scheme? Some of the best businesses men and women have started out turning something they love into a money making. Alot of these guys on the community have talent, plying their early traits and developing skills and sometimes careers within the community. Creating an environment where these graphics can be downloaded and paid for at a click of a button could be key in creating a business model that could work making the experience easy and simple. One of the key turns offs in internet retail is the complex way some websites setup their checkouts. The market is there and the demand for such developments in the game, again without doing in depth research into figures and talking to a few people I don’t know for sure, but surely this type of things has been modeled somewhere before. The one that comes to mind from the top of my head is EA’s The Sims, which has spawned a community of people who will produce items that you can dress your Sim with, decorate your house with or just admire within the front garden and many of these sites do charge for the privileged of downloading these products. If FM was only on a console we would be having to purchase Xbox of PS points to use as our currency to update to add on things in the game, such as maps if we were playing Call of Duty.

The community may rage up in arms about such a change in culture and the fact that they have to pay for something, but what iTunes and Spotify have shown in a competitive market is that it is possible to turn freely available (pirated) products in to money makers. But what we have to remember is there is a huge silent majority that come to these sites looking for such content who don’t make themselves known to the rest of the community. Taking what they want and leaving. I think that the pricing for downloads will be a minimal amount of money, something that an average young person can spend a percentage of their pocket money per download, some sites may want to include super packs for discounted prices.

But has Sports Interactive just opened up a new line of revenue for the community? The data editor surely is one of the biggest potential for profit, especially now that they have added the ability to add your own leagues to the game. Imagine the money that could be made on creating add-ons to the game that SI don’t currently allow you to do. One league that comes to mind straight away is the German league, a massive league that is currently left out of the game, (some work here for Q?). But then your own fantasy leagues, done with quality and with enough appeal can raise a decent revenue from like minded individuals that also might want to take control of a Premier League 1990/91 and see if this time they can take Liverpool to an extra point and win the league.

Much time and effort has been put into these sort of projects in the past and with the added incentives, such products will breed quality due to the laws of capitalism and competition. Market these right and you would see them sell pretty well. There is always  a demonstrated demand for data updates, we all know how picky any FM player is (even those not in the scene) and how much they want their FM database to be as update as possible, I have just seen Jason Manford requesting an update from Miles (but maybe that has alot to do with him being a Manchester City fan), surely it would not be unreasonable for the likes of FMupdates to get paid for their efforts? After all they are done with quality and alot of time and effort.

I have lost count the amount of times I have restarted this game, but I thought that I would start one more St Helens FC game before I lock the 09 disk in the draw of forgotten games, then I most probably will start it all over again for FM2010. I do enjoy starting with a blank canvas seeing if I can compete with the power houses of the Premier League on a modest budget, demanding Russian chairman and a non-existent Premiership reputation. Building a squad that then you feel is yours and a relationship builds between your virtual team.

St Helens is back and at FM-View, for the next two months at least. Hopefully now with a little more experience of 09 I will be able to put that to good use in order to pick out the best players in the game and a chance to win a cup or two, but I won’t be holding my breath as this game does take time before success comes about and I have had limited amount of time this year to get to grips with this great game.

So setting up the game it is basically down to have some realistic aims for this game, the first being avoiding the drop, my first attempt at the game the bugs in the database and the FM game meant that it can be hard to set up finances within the game that actually with translate when playing, it is simply not a case of sticking in millions and millions into the balance. Instead a fine balance needs to be found which I haven’t found just yet in setting the balance and the transfer budget within the editor. These bugs put the club in a financial spiral and administration giving me docked points and sending me down before  an investor saved the day to help us compete in the Championship.

I am looking for big names that can fit into the Premiership straight away to keep up a float, as obviously there is no time for players to sit around developing, they will be thrown into the deep of a relegation battle, meaning gelling quickly is a must. Mixture of old and young will be needed to give balance to the squad and a little depth to cope with injuries, not an easy challenge with only weeks before the first game against my supported team Liverpool FC, an easy game to introduce ourselves to the Premiership. So the first major move will obviously be for a scout that will help me make any important decisions.

At the start of the game I have a players in mind the first one being my biggest target.

David Beckham

We all know that Becks has still got what it takes to play at the highest levels in the European game, he might not have pace he might not be getting any younger. But has he ever been any of these two things? with amazing technical skills, able to take free kicks and cross the ball to within a blade of grass he will be an ideal starting point for this ambitious project. if I am manage to persuade such a big player to the club it will make a moment of intent and bring a very good captain into the club early to drive the team on.

Davide Santon

There hasn’t been a game that I haven’t bought him, even when I started at AC Milan he was one of the first players I ever bought, making the unpopular move from Inter. Even at 17 he is still a good starter for any lower Premier League side giving much in terms attacking spirit when playing as a forward as well as a defending the same position when as upon with his pace, skill and ability to cross a ball.

Vincent Enyeama

It is so important to get someone between the sticks that will give the defense confidence, a good keeper can save 12 valuable points a season, the difference between going up and down. The Nigerian is still a youngster so he will be a good place to start with trying to build a defense.

Other targets include Palacios, Riquelme and Buonanotte.

So with the team ready and setup a player yet to sign, it will be a exciting two game months.