Those of you who follow this blog will know that I’ve recently begun playing old versions of Championship Manager again, thanks to having even more time on my hands thanks to the Coronavirus lockdown.
I took on the task of managing my beloved Norwich City on Championship Manager 96/97. Sadly it didn’t go too well for me, with the team finishing in the bottom half of Division One table for various reasons, including an injury crisis, although a change of formation saw the team go on an unbeaten run towards the end of the season.
Things got even worse for the team at the start of the following season. The so-called big name players that I’d signed on free transfers didn’t do it for the team, and poor results meant that I was given the boot.
A brief foray into the 97/98 version of the game followed. Once again I went for so-called big name players on free transfers, with the likes of Chris Waddle and Barry Venison joining my squad, and while a couple of them were okay, with Venison becoming the teams best performing player, two wins and four draws in my first eleven games meant Norwich were in the bottom half of the table again.
Now these early Championship Manager games are okay, and they’re quite enjoyable, but the major flaw for me was that you couldn’t really do much with your team tactically. All you could really do was sort out the formations and put the players in the right places. Beyond that you couldn’t really do much else except cross your fingers and hope for the best.
But with my teams not having much success on the field I decided to abandon my original idea of working my way through the various Championship Manager games and go through to the game I’d had the most success with before as Norwich manager, Football Manager 2005.
During a previous game that lasted over ten seasons I took Norwich to the heights of European football. There were a couple of relegations during that time, and I also got the sack, with a second me taking over straight away. Greats such as Gary Neville, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Helder Postiga, and many, many more graced my team over the years as my team achieved FA Cup and UEFA Cup wins. But after Jose Mourinho came on board as my assistant manager my team went to the next level, winning the Premier League and reaching the final of the Champions League, losing to the mighty Barcelona. Sadly the death of my computer meant that the game was lost forever, so I couldn’t take the team any further.
I’d always wanted to have another crack at FM2005, but never got around to it. Now I’m back there, but I’m not managing Norwich City this time around. You see, I’ve done a bit of cheating as it were.
Fans of FM2005 will probably know that if you look deep enough in the game you’ll find a special kind of team, The Soccer AM Badgers, a team featuring the likes of then-presenter Tim Lovejoy, as well as Fenners, Rocket and Tubes, mixed in with veteran players such as John Wark, Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, and for some reason former Norwich players Keith O’Neill and Paul Dalglish.
I had sometimes wondered what would happen to the team if I used the editor program and put the Badgers into the league system. With the calibre of players they had at their disposal it was obvious that they’d get annihilated if they went straight in to the Premier League, so I decided to start at the bottom and put them in the English Conference South division. That wasn’t the only thing I did though. I upped the club’s reputation points to the maximum, gave them a sugar daddy and gave them hundreds of millions of pounds. After all, if this team was going to make it to the top they’d need a helping hand.
So once into the game I set to work. The enhanced reputation of the team meant that I managed to get a shed load of tremendous talent on free transfers right off the bat, with the likes of Edilson, Peter Van Wossen, Antonio Conte, Jose Chilavert, Frank De Boer and many more of their ilk agreeing to join The Set down in Isleworth. The mega-bucks came in hand in bringing in Darren Huckerby from Norwich, Micah Richards from Manchester City, and Pep Guardiola from a team in the UAE. Staff-wise former England manager Glenn Hoddle became my assistant.
Needless to say that this team blew away most of the opposition. The division was won with an advantage of over twenty-five points, and the double was achieved with a win in the FA Trophy final. My strike force of Huckerby and veteran striker Patrick Mboma netted nearly eighty goals between them, with Brazilian legend Romario proving to be an able deputy.
Sadly the only blip came when the mighty Colchester United defeated my all-stars in the first round proper of the FA Cup.
Then it occurred to me that the way I’d gone about things was actually going against my original idea because Lovejoy’s crew hardly played at all, and all of them were sent to the reserves. I thought about re-starting the game and changing the mega-buck scenario.
But then I thought what the hell and continued with the game, going into the Conference National division, one step below the Football League. A few of the big-named veterans such as Conte, Guardiola and Romario announced their retirements at the end of the season, and even though my transfer kitty went up to nearly £600 million thanks to some sponsorship deal or something I still looked for veteran superstars to swell my ranks, with the likes of Jamie Redknapp, Gabriel Batistuta, Mario Zanchi and Edwin van Der Sar signing on. The cash was splashed a little, with Phil Jagielka, Eddie Howe and Zak Whitbread bolstering my defence. I was also able to call on the services of wonderkids Freddy Adu and Theo Walcott for the first time. I’d signed them both during the previous season but because of their ages I could only sign them on youth contracts.
So can you guess how my team got on? Well, a solitary defeat to the mighty Canvey Island was the only blip as The Badgers topped the table by a massive margin after the first fifteen games. The size of my squad meant that I could rotate the players as often as I liked, and it didn’t have an effect on the results.
Promotion to the Conference National meant that my reserve and youth teams could also get full run-outs, under the guidance of my assistant Mr. Hoddle. They weren’t topping their leagues, but they were getting quite a few wins under their belt.
The success does feel a little hollow though. I keep wondering how Lovejoy and his boys would have done if I hadn’t given The Badgers team a glowing reputation and a massive back balance. Would they have even survived in the Conference South?
Maybe that’s something I can try later. Besides, it looks like this lockdown thing is going to go on for a bit longer, so I’ll probably have quite a bit of time on my hands.
I took on the task of managing my beloved Norwich City on Championship Manager 96/97. Sadly it didn’t go too well for me, with the team finishing in the bottom half of Division One table for various reasons, including an injury crisis, although a change of formation saw the team go on an unbeaten run towards the end of the season.
Things got even worse for the team at the start of the following season. The so-called big name players that I’d signed on free transfers didn’t do it for the team, and poor results meant that I was given the boot.
A brief foray into the 97/98 version of the game followed. Once again I went for so-called big name players on free transfers, with the likes of Chris Waddle and Barry Venison joining my squad, and while a couple of them were okay, with Venison becoming the teams best performing player, two wins and four draws in my first eleven games meant Norwich were in the bottom half of the table again.
Now these early Championship Manager games are okay, and they’re quite enjoyable, but the major flaw for me was that you couldn’t really do much with your team tactically. All you could really do was sort out the formations and put the players in the right places. Beyond that you couldn’t really do much else except cross your fingers and hope for the best.
But with my teams not having much success on the field I decided to abandon my original idea of working my way through the various Championship Manager games and go through to the game I’d had the most success with before as Norwich manager, Football Manager 2005.
During a previous game that lasted over ten seasons I took Norwich to the heights of European football. There were a couple of relegations during that time, and I also got the sack, with a second me taking over straight away. Greats such as Gary Neville, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Helder Postiga, and many, many more graced my team over the years as my team achieved FA Cup and UEFA Cup wins. But after Jose Mourinho came on board as my assistant manager my team went to the next level, winning the Premier League and reaching the final of the Champions League, losing to the mighty Barcelona. Sadly the death of my computer meant that the game was lost forever, so I couldn’t take the team any further.
I’d always wanted to have another crack at FM2005, but never got around to it. Now I’m back there, but I’m not managing Norwich City this time around. You see, I’ve done a bit of cheating as it were.
Fans of FM2005 will probably know that if you look deep enough in the game you’ll find a special kind of team, The Soccer AM Badgers, a team featuring the likes of then-presenter Tim Lovejoy, as well as Fenners, Rocket and Tubes, mixed in with veteran players such as John Wark, Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, and for some reason former Norwich players Keith O’Neill and Paul Dalglish.
I had sometimes wondered what would happen to the team if I used the editor program and put the Badgers into the league system. With the calibre of players they had at their disposal it was obvious that they’d get annihilated if they went straight in to the Premier League, so I decided to start at the bottom and put them in the English Conference South division. That wasn’t the only thing I did though. I upped the club’s reputation points to the maximum, gave them a sugar daddy and gave them hundreds of millions of pounds. After all, if this team was going to make it to the top they’d need a helping hand.
So once into the game I set to work. The enhanced reputation of the team meant that I managed to get a shed load of tremendous talent on free transfers right off the bat, with the likes of Edilson, Peter Van Wossen, Antonio Conte, Jose Chilavert, Frank De Boer and many more of their ilk agreeing to join The Set down in Isleworth. The mega-bucks came in hand in bringing in Darren Huckerby from Norwich, Micah Richards from Manchester City, and Pep Guardiola from a team in the UAE. Staff-wise former England manager Glenn Hoddle became my assistant.
Needless to say that this team blew away most of the opposition. The division was won with an advantage of over twenty-five points, and the double was achieved with a win in the FA Trophy final. My strike force of Huckerby and veteran striker Patrick Mboma netted nearly eighty goals between them, with Brazilian legend Romario proving to be an able deputy.
Sadly the only blip came when the mighty Colchester United defeated my all-stars in the first round proper of the FA Cup.
Then it occurred to me that the way I’d gone about things was actually going against my original idea because Lovejoy’s crew hardly played at all, and all of them were sent to the reserves. I thought about re-starting the game and changing the mega-buck scenario.
But then I thought what the hell and continued with the game, going into the Conference National division, one step below the Football League. A few of the big-named veterans such as Conte, Guardiola and Romario announced their retirements at the end of the season, and even though my transfer kitty went up to nearly £600 million thanks to some sponsorship deal or something I still looked for veteran superstars to swell my ranks, with the likes of Jamie Redknapp, Gabriel Batistuta, Mario Zanchi and Edwin van Der Sar signing on. The cash was splashed a little, with Phil Jagielka, Eddie Howe and Zak Whitbread bolstering my defence. I was also able to call on the services of wonderkids Freddy Adu and Theo Walcott for the first time. I’d signed them both during the previous season but because of their ages I could only sign them on youth contracts.
So can you guess how my team got on? Well, a solitary defeat to the mighty Canvey Island was the only blip as The Badgers topped the table by a massive margin after the first fifteen games. The size of my squad meant that I could rotate the players as often as I liked, and it didn’t have an effect on the results.
Promotion to the Conference National meant that my reserve and youth teams could also get full run-outs, under the guidance of my assistant Mr. Hoddle. They weren’t topping their leagues, but they were getting quite a few wins under their belt.
The success does feel a little hollow though. I keep wondering how Lovejoy and his boys would have done if I hadn’t given The Badgers team a glowing reputation and a massive back balance. Would they have even survived in the Conference South?
Maybe that’s something I can try later. Besides, it looks like this lockdown thing is going to go on for a bit longer, so I’ll probably have quite a bit of time on my hands.
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