FM2006 - Managing the Toon!

[Dewey]

So I sat down last night looking forward to my 4th season with Man U and... save game won't load. I had an error message on loading saying a file had been corrupted, hmm 0 points for guessing it was my save game! Argghhh! 4 months of gaming up the swanny.

Ah well it gives me an excuse to start again, I've decided to try and become the saviour of Newcastle United seen as how Souness couldnt hack it. Freddy Shepherd got in touch with me and offered me the job telling me I only had to come mid-table this season.

So I thought it might be fun to keep a diary of my failures and successes of managing the Toon in this thread. Let me know if its interesting it might keep me encourage to continue.

2005 August Day 1

Contracts
So in my first day as manager of Newcastle Utd I'm going to seperate the wheat from the chaff. I'm looking at every players contract including reserves, U18, main squad then I'll start looking at my staff, coaches, physios etc. Anyone who either isn't good enough to be there or is to expensive will be getting a swift exit out of the door pending on how long their contract is and how much it will cost for me to show them the door!

Finances

The club looks quite stable fiancially. Though I've only got 2 million tranfer budget (its like being back at Man U!), so I need to sell players to raise transfer funds.

I've already transfer listed the likes of Chopra, Kieron Dyer etc overpaid average players that aren't going to win me anything. Over half the main squad has been put up for transfer, its creating unrest in the squad and unease in the board but it needs to be done. I won't be able to sell all of them but if I can raise about 10-15 million I can start bringing in 2 or 3 quality players.

I'd like to bolster the defence and have my eye on a couple of potential tranfer targets. I also need a few quality midfielders and a decent back-up striker for Luque, Owen and the warhorse that is Shearer (who still has great stats). I will have to start looking at bringing some players in on free transfers also.

Formation

Its difficult to choose a formation at this stage, i'll make a decision on this after the transfer window closes and I'll see what I've got available. I'd like to go with my tweaked 442 that gave me such good results at ManU but obviously I'm dealing with a different calibre of player here so it might not work. We'll see. Personally, I'd be happy with a mid table result, though my target is to qualify for a European spot.

Newcastle hasn't won a trophy in over 50 years, I think the club is a sleeping giant, if it gains some success, the club can expand and I'm sure Freddy Shepherd would invest more heavily maybe even look at expanding the stadium. But thats a long way off at the moment.

To be continued...

[Benny]

carry on mate.

What would be good would be for us all to start, same club.....see how we all do.

[Dewey]

Originally posted by Benny@Feb 9 2006, 02:27 PM
carry on mate.

What would be good would be for us all to start, same club.....see how we all do.

[post=111894]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

oooh now that is a good idea!

Can I suggest a premiership side, so we can wheel and deal (I love spending pretend money!).

I'd like to nominate Newcastle.

Perhaps others could nominate a club they'd all like to see us manage and then we could all start new games.

You'll have to be quick though, I can't stay away from it for too long  :unsure:

[Benny]

aye, what about Wigan.

Not too easy, no cheating (using the editor or stats viewer) and plenty of info sharing.......


( I really don't wanna lose my Farnborough game, but I'll start a new one tonight if I get a chance)

Do you wanna post up the database start size settings and all that so we have identical setups?

I'm in - any more takers?

[Dewey]

Originally posted by Benny@Feb 9 2006, 03:10 PM
aye, what about Wigan.

Not too easy, no cheating (using the editor or stats viewer) and plenty of info sharing.......
( I really don't wanna lose my Farnborough game, but I'll start a new one tonight if I get a chance)

Do you wanna post up the database start size settings and all that so we have identical setups?

I'm in - any more takers?

[post=111897]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

Wigan sounds like a good idea, it will be tough to try and replicate Paul Jewels efforts but Im up for it.

I only run it on my laptop so can I suggest these settings for speed?

Run 1 league England, down to Championship level, add another countries players using DDT say Spain or Italy to give us more choice of players to choose.

Database size large (we are going to need lots of players, as all the decent ones arent going to join lowly Wigan).

Favourite side: Wigan

We can all post details from pre-season, ie how much transfer budget (if any!) we are given. What our boards expectations are etc.

Then once we are of and running , post screenies of our squad, transfers in and out and tactics. Then periodically post screenies of our results or mention particularly good games, signings etc... and we can compare and contrast our different management fortunes.

I will see if I can get Big-Paddy involved!

Great idea Benny, let me know what you think of my recommendations for game start.

[Benny]

Originally posted by Dewey@Feb 9 2006, 04:45 PM
Wigan sounds like a good idea, it will be tough to try and replicate Paul Jewels efforts but Im up for it.

I only run it on my laptop so can I suggest these settings for speed?

Run 1 league England, down to Championship level, add another countries players using DDT say Spain or Italy to give us more choice of players to choose.

Database size large (we are going to need lots of players, as all the decent ones arent going to join lowly Wigan).

Favourite side: Wigan

We can all post details from pre-season, ie how much transfer budget (if any!) we are given. What our boards expectations are etc.

Then once we are of and running , post screenies of our squad, transfers in and out and tactics. Then periodically post screenies of our results or mention particularly good games, signings etc... and we can compare and contrast our different management fortunes.

I will see if I can get Big-Paddy involved!

Great idea Benny, let me know what you think of my recommendations for game start.

[post=111901]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

sounds good. so......

Wigan
Database Size Large
Run 1 league England, down to Championship level, add another countries players using DDT?  (Whats DDT?) - whatever it is, I'm happy with that.- Spain and Italy and Denmark (I like their strikers )


Oh, and admin, can we have a sticky? If we start a new compo thread.
For those not in the know you can use imageshack to host the screenies.

[big-paddy]

Am I as sad as you two?

Er I guess so, ok I'm in - dont know how much I'll get done. No way am I stopping Hull's climb to stardom

[Dewey]

Originally posted by Benny@Feb 9 2006, 03:58 PM
sounds good. so......

Wigan
Database Size Large
Run 1 league England, down to Championship level, add another countries players using DDT? (Whats DDT?) - whatever it is, I'm happy with that.- Spain and Italy and Denmark (I like their strikers )
Oh, and admin, can we have a sticky? If we start a new compo thread.
For those not in the know you can use imageshack to host the screenies.

[post=111902]Quoted post[/post]

[/b]

Ok quick explanation of DDT, when you start a new game and get onto the screen where you choose database size, an option on that page is add DDT (basically allows you to load all players details from a single country, so you could have all the Italy players loaded).

However you can only add one country AFAIK, so we need to agree now which one.

[Dewey]

One other important thing. Everyone participating should be running the latest patch which is from memory 6.02 released last month I think.

[Dewey]

Ok found out you can add as many countries as you like to DDT so lets add

 Denmark, italy and spain

starting my game now!

[Dewey]

Oh and one final thing, your not allowed to use Harchesters players!