in association with

The Bootroom

Returns
After a lengthy spell on the sidelines we’re back
with a new look and a fresh approach for 2008/9

Football Manager 2009

Its almost here - a full preview of the revolutionary new offering

Pele’s Prediction
We put African football under the spotlight

All-English Premiership
Will a league without foreign flair remain predictable?

Getting your message across

Your complete guide to team talks and how best to use them

The Bootroom - Issue 4 October 2008

The Bootroom - Issue 4:
Introducing Our Tactical Substitutions

Making
Changes

Greetings fellow Football Manager team guides and even a rummage around why we have decided to team up with
addicts. We would like to invite you the history of the world’s greatest game. FMFormation to get a little help
to pull up a chair, sit back and relax And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. organizing and promoting The Bootroom
with the latest issue of The Bootroom – – which means Bozza’s inbox is now
a fanzine dedicated to everybody’s The great thing about being an bombarded with detailed discussions
favourite management sim. If you independent fanzine is that we can on how many articles we need, what
haven’t heard of us before then let go where SI’s own magazine could not. captions should look like and other
me explain… That doesn’t mean berating every little equally exciting stuff.
flaw of the game, but we can be very
Do you remember the CM magazines that fond of our own opinion and that’s much Anyway, that’s enough talk. We hope
Sports Interactive used to release once more fun. Hopefully you will agree that you enjoy issue 4 of The Bootroom.
or twice a year? Well, we missed them our take on all things FM is original and There will be another one along just
terribly, so we decided to create our thought provoking. We try not to follow before Christmas, so make sure you
very own magazine. The first issue hit the pack (unless the pack has warm get all your shopping done so that you
the virtual shelves just before Christmas sausage sandwiches). can get some serious FM time while
last year and we are now up to issue 4. everyone else is sleeping off their dinner.
Until recently the editorial team
We are not ashamed to admit that we consisted of Simon Johncock (editor), Happy reading.
are FM ‘fanboys’. The Bootroom sets out Chris Kelly (design) and Pete Jennings
to inform, inspire and entertain with a (sub-editor and chief writer). Sadly
wide range of articles including tactical Simon has had to relinquish his role Pete
help, skin reviews, stories, league and due to other commitments and that is Editor

Page 02 The Bootroom - Issue 4: Introducing Our Tactical Substitutions

 The Bootroom - Issue 4:
Contents

View From The Touchline - Its Your Tactics Mate!: Page 4-5

Newshound Special - FM Community Day: Page 6-7

The Big Preview - Football Manager 2009: Page 8-11

Bootroom Test - The All-English Premiership: Page 12-15

The Big Review - Skin Roundup: Page 16-19

How To Create Tactics - Mastering Team Talks: Page 20-21

Bootroom Challenge - Meon Valley - Premiership Quest: Page 22-25

Bootroom Feature - Unreal Tournament: Page 26-29

Bootroom Story - A New Career - Chapter One: Page 30-31

The Big Idea - Community Spirit: Page 32-33

The Big Debate - Do Cheats Ever Prosper?: Page 34-35

Bootroom Review - Championship Manager Online: Page 36-39

Bootroom Review - 5 Reasons to Love/Hate FM Live: Page 40-41

Bootroom Preview - Football Manager Handheld 2009: Page 42

History Lesson - Pele’s Prediction: Page 43-45

League Guide - South Africa: Page 46-49

Bootroom Feature - Myth Busters: Page 50-51

Newshound - October News: Page 52

The Bootroom - Issue 4: Contents Page 03

View from the Touchline:
Its Your Tactics Mate!

A man goes to see the doctor. “Doctor,
I think I’m shrinking”, said the man.
“That’s unusual”, said the doctor,
pondering for a moment, “but I think
I know what your problem is.”
The man looked relieved. That is until
the doctor gave the answer. Looking up
from his laptop the doctor simply said -
“It’s your tactics, mate.”
For anyone that frequents the SI’s
General Discussion forum that rather
terrible punchline is a common answer
to a multitude of complaints.
The problem is, it’s usually true, or at
least partly true. Like it or not, tactics
are a huge part of playing FM.
The question is, should we really have
to spend so much time setting up and
tweaking tactics, then having to redo
the whole setup when the AI figures it
out? Do tactics have too big an influence
on FM compared to real life? It’s a
complex question to answer, but I’m
feeling cocky, so what the heck!
One of the arguments I hear regularly
is that the success of the big teams is
based on the quality of players at their
disposal, not their tactics. A quick
glance at the team sheets of Man Utd,
Barcelona or Milan seems to support
this theory. But that’s not really the
whole story.
has available. One week it’s 4-3-3, the
next it’s a 4-4-2 diamond.
Back in the world of FM there is an
important point to consider. Your chosen
tactic is not the only major influence on
performance, so how can tactics be too
influential? Morale, fitness, media and
team talks have all been cited as having
too big an effect.
The obvious conclusion is that this
creates a kind of paradox – well obvious
to my weird way of thinking anyway! If
this many factors are seen as having too
much influence, then they must in fact
not have that much influence at all.
Before we write off this part of the
argument though, we have to consider
one more thing.
In earlier versions of the game it was
possible to simply buy the best players,
pick a basic tactic and go. What’s more,
it was fun. This is just a game after all,
not real life. Has the quest for realism
pushed the game too far? For some the
answer is a clear and resounding “YES!”
The complexity of FM is turning many
players off – particularly those with
limited time.
Complexity is a big issue in FM. Some
crave it, myself included, while other’s
prefer to sign players and play games
without worrying about micro-managing
every aspect of the team. SI clearly
want to cater to both groups of gamers
and they have done some work to make
life better for the casual gamer.
There are more default tactics than ever
and player instruction templates are
available for every position. They might
not provide spectacular results, but they
should be solid enough in comparison to
the standard of your chosen team –
allowing you to get on with signing
players to improve that standard. Plenty
of casual players have achieved success
without designing their own tactics or
using other user created tactics. While
tactics may play a large part, you don’t
necessarily have to give them any major
thought.
Perhaps SI need to work harder at
making the interface communicate
better how tactics are put together and
what their results are. The less problem
we have understanding, the less time is
required to analyse and tweak tactics
and that’s better for casual and hardcore
gamers.

Real Madrid’s ‘Galactico’ policy of

signing the world’s best players backfired
for years, before Fabio Capello’s
efficient, but unexciting tactics finally
brought success. Chelsea got success the
same way and only came undone when
signing supposedly better players forced
them to play differently.

Teams like Everton have seemingly

overachieved in recent years.
Few names on the team sheet really
inspire, but somehow the team is
greater than the sum of it’s parts.
It is not necessarily how good the players
are, but how well they fit the team’s
style of play. Harry Redknapp’s
scattergun method of signing players
forces him to change Portsmouth’s
tactics according to the players he
Player instruction templates are a
quick way to set up tactics

Page 04 View from the Touchline: Its Your Tactics Mate


If sliders are confusing and the results
are unclear then there has to be a
better way to represent the tactical
choices, although so far, no-one has
come up with any useful suggestions.
In SI’s defence, it could also be
suggested that working a little harder
at your tactics is not an unrealistic
expectation. Some players have built up
an impenetrable barrier when it comes
to using tactics. There is some
invaluable help on the tactics forums
that doesn’t require a lot of investment
in time or thought and you don’t need
to download someone else’s tactics to
benefit from it.
Two of the best threads that are worth
checking out are ‘Fundamental Football
Manager – Making that basic 442’ and
‘How a newcomer is learning about
FM w/ 8.0.2’. I promise you that two
minutes spent on each will alter your
perception of tactics forever.
The latter stipulates that you should
start with the tactic the players are
used to. I wouldn’t advocate using the
editor to find the ‘House Style’ of the
team as suggested , but a quick look
at the previous manager’s tactical
preferences will give you a good idea
of what did or didn’t work. Putting the
ball back in SI’s court, maybe they
should be using the existing coaching
staff to provide more information to
get you started.
Then there is the under used player
instruction templates. Personally, I’ve
never bothered about setting
instructions for my centre backs – as
far as I am concerned, the default
instructions are good enough. It amazes
me that the community have not caught
on to these and created new individual
instructions. A good tactic is only good
if the players fit.
The templates can be found in
tactical_templates.xml in the
data\tactics directory of the main game
folder. They are easily editable and you
can add as many as you like. What’s
more you don’t even have to reload the
View from the Touchline:
Its Your Tactics Mate!
It’s not my tactics. I am the special one
game for them to be added to the list –
just exit the tactics screen and go back
in and the new templates will be there.
Imagine having a list of instructions
available that includes two or three
alternatives for each position. The
framework is already there, it’s not SI’s
fault that no-one uses it. Tactical
tinkering would suddenly become less
laborious. You wouldn’t have to think
how to create an attacking fullback,
just whether that is the right decision.
Decision making, as one thread puts it,
is the key to success. It is not what
tactics you use, but how you react to
situations. When is the right time to
make a substitution? Is a different
tactics, timing of goals, nerves,
approach required for away games?
familiarity with tactics…
Does this player really fit my team?
The ability to make the right decision
I’m sure I could double that list with
at the right time can turn a game or
some more thought. The point is, if you
even a whole season around.
truly want to assess how effective or
ineffective tactics are then you need to
But what if micro-managing your
remove the influence of as many of
choices is not what you want to do?
those items as possible. Keep your
Well the answer to that is simple.
players happy and fit, buy players with
Your players are blessed with their own
the right skills and personalities to
decision making ability. If you don’t
blend together, no comment every
want to be bogged down in endless
media question and be positive in
tactical choices, simply buy or pick
your team talks.
players with good numbers for the
decision making attribute and they
What I believe you will find is that
will do much of the work for you.
tactics work just like they do in real
life – sometimes they make not a jot of
For some, all these ideas will be
difference, other times they win or lose
irrelevant. Whether you want to tinker
games. Even the top teams get it wrong
or not they will still believe that the
sometimes, usually on the same day
right, or more importantly, the wrong
that star players go missing and the
tactic can produce unrealistic or
struggling teams get it right for once.
infuriating results. A single choice can
That’s what makes football so exciting
have devastating effects way beyond
and the same can be said for FM.
what was expected.
There will always be flaws and exploits
That, in my humble opinion, is because
in the match engine, but I believe that
they fail to recognise the context of
SI have got the influence of tactics spot
their decisions, not because the match
on. Where they fail is the ability of the
engine over prioritises tactics. Listed
game to convey the reasons for success
below are just some of the things that
and failure to the player and that is
have an effect on the match outcome:
why people feel that the balance of the
game is not right. If SI can resolve that
Morale, attitude, pressure, fitness,
problem then the appeal of the game
player interaction, media interaction,
will broaden significantly and the
team talks, weather conditions,
complaints will subside.
individual errors, luck, opposition
View from the Touchline: Its Your Tactics Mate Page 05
Newshound Special:
FM Community Day
Sega and Sports Interactive held a
Community Day at their officesin
London and some of us at The
Bootroom were lucky enough to be
invited along. Although the day was
ledmostly by the guys from Sega, we
had the pleasure of SI’s Studio Director
Miles Jacobson for a large part of the
afternoon – much more than he was
scheduled in for.
Both Sega and SI recognised that they
have not done as much to encourage the
community in recent times as perhaps
they could have. The Community Day
was an attempt to address that, getting
ideas straight from the horses mouth
and introducing their revamped ‘SIAS’
scheme aimed at the webmasters that
create one of the gaming world’s most
vibrant communities.
Sega are keen to encourage the good
quality sites - the ones that last more
than three months before the reality
of the hard work required sets in.
Both Sega’s Football Manager site and
the SI site are due to get an overhaul
and affiliates will be able to get their
own page advertising their site. The
Page 06 Newshound Special: FM Community Day
details of exactly how that will work
and how much control webmasters will
have over their page are still to be
decided upon.
That’s the business end of things, but
I’m sure you are keen to know what
Miles had to say. Miles will be known to
many people as the only member of SI
who is brave enough to continue posting
on the SI forums. Given the level of
abuse he has received, including death
threats over a game that costs less than
£30, it is a wonder that he posts at all,
but he clearly feels that it is his
responsibility to take it on and
relieve others of that burden.
Forum for Success
The big revelation was the to a
completely new forum – something that
has already happened since our visit.
Miles also promised that they will be
getting tough on the biggest offenders.
Sega and SI want the forums to be more
welcoming to the newcomer and the
moderation will be much tougher.
In the month of the 8.0.2 patch there
were 720,000 unique visitors to the
forum and it is around 20 unnamed
trouble makers that Miles believes were
spoiling the forums.
SI switched to torrent downloads only for
the patch because under the previous
system they used they took up Sega’s
entire allocated bandwidth in six hours!
Needless to say, they received a very
large bill from Japan. That gives an idea
of just how popular the game is despite
what some people would have us
believe.
 Newshound Special:
FM Community Day

There are many things going into FM
Live that could be incorporated into FM.
One of the more interesting things to
come to light is that Miles is looking for
better default tactics to go into FM2009.
Not necessarily the best tactics in terms
of beating the AI, but the best in terms
of realism.
Miles claims that he is nowhere near as
competitive in FM Live as his colleagues.
Punching the air while describing a 3-0
win does little to support his case and
his ambition to stay in the top five
shatters it completely. If you are
wondering where he finds the time to
play FM and FM Live and run the
company, his usual working hours are
11 til 2. That’s 2AM!
why not? No other game takes so much
of our time, has so much depth and
even with SI’s apparent withdrawal from
their own forums, Miles still believes
that only Bioware beat them for getting
involved directly with their customers -
and they employ 15 people to do so.
If we weren’t self confessed fanboys
before the Community Day, we certainly
are after it. Sega and SI are keen to
foster a more cooperative spirit within
the community. If they do their part,
the big question is whether we as a
community can avoid the squabbles and
bickering and pull together to create
the kind of inclusive atmosphere that
existed five or six years ago.

New Blood

Marketing is very much geared up

towards new customers, rather than
retaining old customers. As pointed out,
everyone in the room knows when the
games are coming out and seek them
out, so advertising would be wasted on
preaching to the choir. The podcasts
Miles had been recording every Thursday
evening were to be stopped for six
weeks over the summer, potentially
longer, but Miles is clearly enthusiastic
about their impact on nonhardcore
gamers, hence the return in time for the
FM2009 announcement.

FM Live And who can argue with him. For the

Miles was quick to reassure that the
development of FM Live in no way
affects the main FM game - not in a
negative sense at least. None of the
programmers were involved in the main
game at the time they joined the team.
In fact Ov Collyer had left the company,
gone travelling and been back in the
country for six months before coming
back to SI with the idea.
SI have been running parallel projects
for the last 8 or 9 years, so FM Live is
no different. In fact Miles revealed that
there are other ideas that have never
made it past the first prototype, so it
is a perfectly normal scenario for them.
past three years SI have had the first
and third best selling PC title of the
year. This year it was only broken by
The Sims. This clearly irks Miles, who is
hoping to have one and two next time.
And Finally…
Spending time with Miles and witnessing
his passion first hand is an eye opening
experience. By his own admission he is
not a customer services person. If you
have a go at him, don’t be surprised if
he has a go back. Clearly he loves what
he does and cares passionately about it.
It hurts him deeply when people put
down SI’s hard work. It’s impossible not
to be taken in by his enthusiasm and

Newshound Special: FM Community Day Page 07

The Big Preview:
Football Manager 2009
Revolution is in the air! It’s ether that
or the dog has done her business on
the carpet again. Anyway, after
another terrible British summer things
have brightened up a little as another
edition of Football Manager promises to
land us in more hot water than ever.
“But honey, I’ve only got the FA Cup
Final left. And it’s in 3D!”
On September 3rd Sports Interactive
very kindly gave the world a sneak
preview, courtesy of YouTube. This was
at exactly the same time as they
announced to the press (so no using the
word EXCLUSIVE in capital letters) and
the same time the boys from SEGA found
out what their game looked like this
year.
Page 08 The Big Preview: Football Manager 2009
So much to say, so little caption.
24 hours later footage of the 3D match 3D Match View
view appeared on ShortList.com and five
minutes after SI told everyone, the site The Touchline Ban is Over! After years of
crashed. Oops! Clearly FM is as popular forcing us to watch the match from a
as ever. blimp and making the players wear big
hats with their number on, SI have
There is no beta test this year, so we can finally let us down to earth, hopefully
only go on what we have seen in the without a bump. The already refined
videos and read on the forum (using match engine will now be viewable from
direct quotes from SI only). If you the stands with players rendered in 3D.
haven’t got time to watch the videos or
trawl the forum, or you have a short SI have always insisted that they were
memory, here’s a quick run down of waiting for the technology to match
what we have learned (other than their ambition. What we didn’t know is
someone sent Miles out to buy a jumper that they were working on it for three
that wasn’t stripy, or two sizes too big!) years, scrapping previous efforts, until it
all came together for FM2009.

Underneath the hood the match engine
remains the same, albeit with another
year’s refinement. 3D, just like the 2D
blimp view and the text commentary, is
just another way of viewing the same
thing. SI have enlisted help from Sega’s
Virtua Striker team. For those that
haven’t set foot in an arcade in the last
15 years, Virtua Striker is, er, an arcade
machine. And an occasional console
port. Glad we cleared that up!
Just to re-iterate, this does not mean
the Virtua Striker team have developed
the match engine, or the 3D view. What
they have done is provide the motion
captured animations. It is SI that have
stitched it all together. The same quality
of player movement is evident from the
preview videos.
It is the quality of the animation that
will be vital though as an element of
imagination will be taken away. Since
the video is “work in progress” and
shows two non-league teams then we
Where's the "If you try another risky back pass I'm going to chop your legs off" option?
Football Manager 2009
will have to wait and see how easy it is
to tell the difference in skill between
the players like Robinho and Stewart
Downing. SI are promising a lot more
animations by the November 14th
release date.
The player likenesses are limited to
height, weight and skin colour. EA Sports
still have every license under the sun
sewn up and the view is from a distance
– after all, this is a management, not an
arcade game and the big picture is more
important than seeing Yakubu’s
enormous backside in it’s full, er, glory.
Thank goodness!
TV View, Widgets and Time Travel
An extra dimension is not the only thing
added to the match day experience. SI
have given us a new ‘TV View’ and
‘Widgets’. Nice! What that means in
English is that not only can we change
the camera angle and watch the game
full screen, but we can also choose
which information we want displayed on
The Big Preview: Football Manager 2009
The Big Preview:
screen, rather than jumping between
screens and missing vital action.
FM2009 also boasts the ability to rewind
the match at any time, a feature
debuted in the FM Live beta test. So
before you trash another keyboard, take
a deep breath, rewind and view from
every possible angle – you may actually
be wrong.
Press Conferences
Stop giving an interview to the dog and
pay attention. FM2009 will give us the
ability to strut our managerial stuff in
press conferences. Football Manager’s
media has often been repetitive, but
early signs are good with SI assuring us
that we won’t always get the same
number of questions. Some press
conferences will be very brief, while
others are drawn out – hopefully not too
much.
Page 09
The Big Preview:
Football Manager 2009

Press conferences happen before and
after every match and when you first
arrive at the club, though I doubt you
can tell the press you arrived by tube
like Christian Gross did when he took
over Spurs. You will have to find another
way to let the fans know you are one of
them. Perhaps more importantly you can
point out mistakes by the ref or even
your own players.
Improvements to Existing Game Features
Improved Media – SI tell us this every
year, but they are promising “more news
stories, more detail and greater media
interaction than ever before”. If that
means less repetition, a few more
surprises, but more logical reactions (we
don’t ask for much) then this could be
the year we stop ‘No Commenting’ every
question.
Updated Database and Competitions –
The database is bigger than ever,
350,000 players and staff, 5,000 playable
teams and 50 countries (no new
countries). SI’s band of researchers has
done another fine job. All competitions
have been updated to reflect the latest
rules as much as possible, including the
incredibly complex MLS which works how
it should.

A rather interesting feature is the ability
to add your own quote. SI have hinted
that there may be one or two things it
reacts to, but it is mostly cosmetic,
enhancing the news item and possibly
providing some good fun in network
games. Best of all, you can storm out.
Whether this will be anything more than
a novelty remains to be seen, but let’s
face it, if you give us a red button
marked ‘Self Destruct’ and tell us not to
press it, we are going to press it.
Repeatedly!
Be warned, your relationship with the
local and national press develops
according to your answers (or hasty
exit), so anything you do may come back
to bite you later. If you do get bored or
can’t hold your mouth, you can have
your assistant manager handle press
conferences.
Board Confidence – For a long time
board confidence has sucked. Last year
it sucked in more detail. This year we
are promised even more detail, but less
sucking.
Realistic Finances – The financial model
was rebuilt last year. This year SI have
built on the groundwork by making sure
that each country has its transfers, staff
wages, budgets, ticket prices, season
tickets, competition bonuses and club
sponsorships accurately reflected. At
least accurate up to the point in time
where the Western economy went a bit
mental!
Transfer System – The transfer system
has been completely rewritten. Early
indications are that nothing much has
changed in terms of features, but the
transfers will be more realistic and the
process much improved. In other words,
we would be very surprised if the top
teams continue to let their squads go to
pot like previous versions of the game
and it should mean an end to the bizarre
negotiations.

Assistant Manager Notes

At the beginning of the year I mooted
the idea of assistant manager notes
during the match and it looks as though
FM has delivered in spades. Your right
hand man will now tell you about
problems with your tactics and make
suggestions to help you outwit your
opponent’s tactics, as well as telling you
about your players’ motivation levels.

SI assure us that this will not give you

definitive solutions – it will not be
equivalent to a ‘Win Match’ button.
In fact there are no definitive solutions,
so you will still need to use the sponge
pudding between your ears. The purpose
is purely to give you more insight into to
what is happening on the pitch, filling in
between the highlights to give you a
more complete picture.
The only thing missing from the 'Storm out' option is a
touch screen. Or should that be impact detection?

Page 10 The Big Preview: Football Manager 2009


Alright now, baby it's-a alright now. Yep, everything is hunky-dory round here.
Regens – These have been improved
from previous versions. The top youth
players can now enter the FM universe
with much higher current ability, making
their progress to the top much more
rapid. Not only that, but there is greater
variation in the development curve,
allowing for late bloomers as well as
wonderkids. Long term games will look
particularly realistic if SI have
implemented the ‘Robbie Fowler
Reverse Development Curve’, so we
remain hopeful that all our good players
will become rubbish.
And There’s More...
As if they hadn’t already added enough
to the game, FM2009 will also have a
transfer rumours page featuring truths,
half truths and outright fiction; the
ability to train preferred moves; the
chance to be a woman (presumably if
you already are and are fed up of being
called ‘he’); and widescreen support.
Football Manager 2009
And… the match rating system, like FM
Live’s, will be to one decimal place,
goals in injury time will show as “90+1”
(or more if you are Alex Ferguson?) and
AI managers can take players on trial. SI
are promising more news on features, so
goodness knows what else they have up
their sleeve. The only thing that is
conspicuous by it’s absence so far is
more team talk options.
While that may be top of my list, it is
very difficult to argue that this year’s
edition of the game is anything other
than a huge step forward. Last year’s
feature list may have left people a little
uninspired with lot’s of work done under
the hood, but FM2009 could easily smash
all previous sales records.
The Big Preview: Football Manager 2009
The Big Preview:
Sadly, we will have to wait for the
demo. Due to one or two unscrupulous
individuals, SI have canned the beta for
this year, so the first demo available will
be the gold beta (limited to half a
season) two weeks before release.
This decision may also have been
influenced by the massive amount of
testing that FM Live received. It has the
same match engine, albeit without the
3D view, so that aspect has had more
testing than ever. The general feeling is
that this is far and away the best match
engine and has come on in leaps and
bounds which is good news for those of
us sticking to FM2009.
Page 11
Bootroom Test:
The All-English Premiership
The topic of English talent in the
Premiership has always brought up
a big debate between football fans.
Well, The Bootroom have decided
to analyse each Premiership team's
English talent, and to see who has
the best, we've disposed of every -
yes every - foreigner playing in the
Premiership. No more Cristiano
Ronaldo for Man Utd, instead, they
will have to do with Chris Eagles.
No Petr Cech for Chelsea, no Fabregas
for Arsenal...
How would the new look English-only
teams do in the Premiership then? Well
I predict that Manchester Utd may well
come out on top, they've got plenty of
England Internationals in the team, plus
lots of good youngsters. Liverpool don't
seem to have many good prospects in
the academy, and the same goes with
Chelsea. It will be more than interesting
to see how well Arsenal do, without any
of their foreign youngsters.
I expect that West Ham may make an
impression, as they do have one of the
best academies in Britain, Tottenham
may perform well too. Anyway, without
further delay, here is the beginning of
the All-England Premiership Round Up...
Page 12 Bootroom Test: All English Premiership
August & September
After the first 7 or 8 matches of the
season, the table looks much different
to how it normally would do. Manchester
Utd, however, have started well and are
the only undefeated team, sitting top
of the league. Chelsea are in 3rd,
Arsenal 7th, and Liverpool have won 4
lost 4 in 11th position. Perhaps the most
surprising performance so far is that of
Fulham, who were lying in 4th position.
Liverpool and Arsenal have failed to get
into the Champions League group stage.
The Gunners were beaten 8-3 on
aggregate by NK Dinamo, and Liverpool
succumbed to Genk on penalties after
a 3-3 aggregate draw. Wayne Rooney
still showed himself to be one of the
most prolific strikers in the Premiership,
scoring 10 goals in 8 matches.
There were more surprising individual
performances. Arsenal youngster Rhys
Murphy and Birmingham's Cameron
Jerome were both level on 8 goals.
John Terry had shown himself to be a
very prolific scorer as well, scoring 6
goals in the first 2 months of the season.
Arsenal's midfielder Abumere Ogogo
had the most assists, setting up 6 goals.
In the League Cup, both Reading and
Blackburn were knocked out by lower
league opposition, whereas West Ham
and Fulham were knocked other
Premiership teams. It is feasible that a
non-Premiership team would win either
the FA Cup or the League Cup, but it
would still be very unlikely.
October & November
Manchester United are still unbeaten
14 games into the season.
Wayne Rooney has now amassed a
brilliant 21 goals from 14 matches. Aston
Villa find themselves high up in the
table, with Arsenal and Liverpool
struggling in 9th and 10th respectively.
Blackburn have only gained 6 points all
season, and
look destined for Championship football
next season.
Man Utd have already progressed into
the knockout stages of the Champions
League despite having a game to play.
Chelsea however, haven't performed
well at all in Europe. They sit bottom of
their group behind Sporting CP, Spartak
Moscow and PSV - who beat Chelsea
6-2 at Stamford Bridge.

In the UEFA Cup, Arsenal were knocked
out in the First Round by Bulgarian side
Litex, whereas Liverpool made it to the
Group Stages, as did Tottenham and
Everton. Bolton Wanderers were the
other English side
to be knocked out of Europe in the
early stages.
The International side doesn't seem to
have been affected by the Premiership's
demise however, winning all the games
since the season started, and qualifying
for the European Championships in the
summer of 2008.
Without the foreigners around him, Steven Gerrard’s
beloved Liverpool was way off the pace, finishing 12th.
The All-English Premiership
December & January
The festive period didn't seem to bring
up too many surprises, Man Utd still
remain unbeaten, 24 games into the
season. Aston Villa are now only 2 points
behind, and are in with a real chance of
nicking the title from the holders going
into the final 14 games. Arsenal and
Liverpool remain mid-table, with
Chelsea sitting in 6th position.
Fulham - after their great start to the
season, find themselves sandwiched in
between Liverpool and Arsenal in 10th
position.
Bootroom Test: All English Premiership
Bootroom Test:
Wayne Rooney now has 27 league goals
from 23 matches. Dean Ashton averages
dead-on a goal a game. Ashley Young
heads the assists charts, with 18 assists,
Arsenal's Abumere Ogogo now way
behind with 10.
The FA Cup is in its 5th Round, and the
only Premiership teams left in the
competition are Liverpool, Aston Villa,
Bolton, MIddlesbrough, Everton and Man
City. Aston Villa gaining a huge mental
advantage over Man Utd in the 4th
Round with a massive 4-1 victory at Villa
Park. The League Cup will put Chelsea
up against Man Utd on the 24th
February.
In Europe, Man Utd will face Valencia
in the 1st Knockout Round of the
Champions League after finishing 2nd
in their group. Chelsea couldn't progress
from their group, finishing 3rd which
allows them to take on Standard in the
UEFA Cup. Both Everton and Liverpool
finished bottom in their UEFA Cup
Groups, and Tottenham progressed
through to face Toulouse.
February & March
Man Utd look likely to replicate Arsenal's
unbeaten season, with only 6 matches
left to avoid defeat. They're top by 5
points from Aston Villa, who are a huge
18 points clear of 3rd placed Everton.
Chelsea are still fighting hard for the
last Champions League spot, as their
London rivals Arsenal, and Liverpool
both
seem to keep falling down the table.
Blackburn are 14 points from safety,
with only 18 points to play for.
Wayne Rooney continues to impress,
with 33 goals from 30 matches, whilst
Dean Ashton has 30 from 31. Ashley
Young still leads the assists charts from
Chris Eagles and Craig Gardner.
Chelsea beat Man Utd 2-1 at Wembley
to secure the League Cup. Both teams
then proceeded to be knocked out of
their European competitions by Bayern
Munich and Valencia respectively.
Tottenham were also knocked out of the
Page 13
Bootroom Test:
The All-English Premiership

UEFA Cup, ending any English interest in

European competitions. The FA Cup is
now in its Semi-Final stage, with Aston
Villa against Charlton, and West Brom
again Man City.

April & May

As expected at the beginning of the
season, Man Utd won the league.
However, a last game defeat against
2nd placed Aston Villa prevented them
from getting the unbeaten season.
Chelsea were unable to grab the final
Champions League place, losing out to
West Ham and finishing in 5th position.
Liverpool continued their slow slide
down the table, finishing in 12th
position, as Arsenal went that step
further and finished in 14th position. The
relegation spots were filled by
Blackburn, Wigan and Birmingham,
with Sunderland in 17th a good 11
points clear.

Championship side Charlton Athletic

overcame Manchester City in the FA Cup
final, eventually winning on penalties.

Wayne Rooney finished as the

Premiership's top scorer, with 41 goals
from 35 matches - John Terry however
only managed 2 goals in the last 8
months of the season, which isn't
much considering he scored 6 goals
for Chelsea early on. Ashley Young got
the most assists with 24.

The Footballer of the Year was Wayne

Rooney, he was voted ahead of Frank
Lampard and Steven Gerrard.
The Player of the Year was Ashley Young,
followed by Michael Owen in 2nd and
Gareth Barry in 3rd.The Young Player of
the Year was Everton's James Vaughan,
followed by Theo Walcott in 2nd, and
Michael Johnson of Man City in 3rd.

Young, Vaughan & Rooney - no they aren’t the

newest law firm, they are all award winners.

Page 14 Bootroom Test: All English Premiership


The All-English Premiership
Tottenham in mid-table finish shocker!
The best 11 English players and,
er, the English ‘team’. Oh dear.
Bootroom Test: All English Premiership
Bootroom Test:
Analysis
The All-England Premiership brought up
many surprises. The demise of Liverpool
and Arsenal was perhaps expected –
neither are famed for bringing through
young English talent. The English
interest in Europe was ended pretty
fast, showing that perhaps English
players are just not up to scratch,
or that they are not over-rated in
the game.
Man Utd won the league, showing that
their academy policy should work very
well for them in the future, having
produced plenty of decent first team
and squad players in the past. Martin
O’Neill has built a team around English
talent and that stood them in very good
stead. Tottenham failed to perform as
expected – perhaps they are doomed
to be a mid-table team no matter what.
The Team of the Year have all been
capped by England both in-game and
in real life. But, surprisingly, the first
England game since the end of the
season, contained only 5 of the 11
players who made the team of the year.
There is no surprise that those 5 players
have been perhaps the most influential
players in England's recent history. Those
players were John Terry, Rio Ferdinand,
Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and
Wayne Rooney.
Page 15
The Big Review:
Skin Roundup
Siple Ultimate
Most of my reviews are done last thing
at night with tired eyes. This is great for
picking up whether colour choices are
migraine inducing. Unfortunately that
often means inducing a migraine.
Siple Ultimate looks great in the
screenshots, but serious use uncovers a
big problem with colour choices and
transparency levels. The combination of
grass background and slightly darkened
panels is neither dark enough or light
enough to provide decent contrast to
any text colour.
Shades of yellow and orange on the
player profile screen are hard work,
various mid-tone blues, reds and purples
Page 16 The Big Review: Skin Roundup
Siple Ultimate - really great if you like your grass!
fare little better and even the white
somehow appears cluttered on the busy
background. A darker background would
help the white text, but not the other
colours.
The header, on the other hand, is
completely the opposite – simple, maybe
even plain, but effective. A subtle grid
effect around the edges gives it just
enough interest and a good choice of
font gives it a more modern feel.
Coloured menu titles draw your eyes in,
although it is a shame that the menu is a
tiny bit too transparent, making the text
difficult to read on occasions. While the
Continue button is small, it is at least
well placed. However, I am not a fan of
shorthand text for the icons.
Two letters is better than one, but
unless you have a mind that works in ‘txt
spk’ then it will never quite be intuitive
enough.
Siple Ultimate also manages to fall foul
of one of my biggest pet hates – no news
ticker and the news icon goes to the
inbox. I really expected to like this skin.
Maybe it is a matter of taste – if you like
the screenshot, then don’t be put off by
the scores.
Looks – 6 Nothing to get excited about,
but nothing too ugly either.
Usability – 4 Hampered by poor contrast
between background and text
Overall – 5 Just doesn’t work for me

Loopus
From a reviewer’s point of view, Loopus
is quite overwhelming. There are so
many design ideas packed into this skin
that it is difficult to know where to
start. Some ideas are good, others not
so good, but none of them really gel
into a coherent overall design. And
nothing stands out more than those
icons.
Before I get stuck in, let me just say
that the placement of the icons and the
use of larger icons for the key screens is
superb. However, the choice of fancy
font and the shading make these the
worst icons of any of the skins I’ve
reviewed by a country mile. They are
unreadable and utterly, utterly useless.
It’s a real shame, because it ruins what
would otherwise be a decent skin.
Splitting them into two groupings could
have been really useful, but there is no
logic applied to them.
Elano has never looked so worried!
The general design of the header is
aesthetically appealing, although it does
feel like it should be reversed for the
right sided version. There are some
practical problems too. The subtitle is
far too small, presumably limited by the
layout, the quick flick buttons seem
randomly placed and again are too
small, and the Continue button suffers
from the same affliction. The menu bar
is another annoyance. Why take space
from the content area, when there is a
perfectly decent, unused space
immediately above in the header?
Despite the problems in the header, the
main content area goes a long way
towards rescuing Loopus. The panels
look rather nice and the sepia toned
background makes a pleasant change
from white, black or grass. Player
profile colours stick to the traditional
yellow/orange range, yet remain clear
on the sepia background. There are two
other versions of the skin, so if you like
The Big Review: Skin Roundup
The Big Review:
Skin Roundup
the black or grass options they are still
available. In fact Loopus has one of the
better grass backgrounds.
The match day screen has an unusual
look to it. I think a lot of people won’t
like the header, but it is nice to see
something original. The black nets look
rather swish, but the blue and white
ball is not as clear as a plain ball. Keep
an eye out for the rather funky popup,
complete with cartoon ref – it is my
favourite part of the design.
It is a real shame that the skin’s creator
did not have a tighter design brief. This
could have been something special with
a bit more thought.
Looks – 6.5 Too many ideas.
Usability – 3.5 Bad, bad, bad, horrible,
awful icons. And no news ticker.
Overall – 5 If you put those icons on
Kylie Minogue you would have to think
twice about ever looking at her again.
Page 17
The Big Review:
Skin Roundup
Zzizz, more va-va-voom than Zzzzzz.

Zzizz
There are two things you can trust Tom
Dixon to come up with – cool skins and
cool names. Zzizz comes from the
creator of Steklo and Scherm and in
terms of looks it is a bit of a departure.
It has a chunky, robust feel to it. It
almost looks like it is made of spare
body parts from a car.
In terms of layout everything is where
you need it to be, all nicely packaged in
one area of the screen. I say everything,
there are actually one or two icons
missing and the news ticker doesn’t link
to the news screen, so you will have to
find it on the menus (which aren’t far
away at least).
The match day header rearranges the
recoloured areas, sitting them one above
the other. The only fly in the ointment is
the rather odd positioning of the game
clock. It would have been much better in
the middle, with the scores. Elsewhere,
the popup looks great, but the rest of
the content area is unchanged.
Back in the main screens the panel
shading and transparency is spot on as
ever and you still can’t beat the text
colour choice in the player profile. As
odd as green and orange sounds, it really
does work.
Zzizz is a great skin and looks great,
although it is a shame that it doesn’t
come with the usual background
variations we have come to expect.
Looks – 8.5 Steklo’s Jeep driving cousin
Usability – 8.5 A couple of negatives, but
a header great layout makes up for it
Overall – 8.5 The King isn’t dead, but he
has a brother. Long live the Kings.

Page 18 The Big Review: Skin Roundup


FM2008 Default Skin
The default skin was the very first that
I reviewed and you are probably
wondering why I am reviewing it again.
I recently bought myself a new laptop
and naturally the first thing I did was
to install FM. My wireless router is on
order and my USB key is broken, so
downloading or transferring anything
between my main PC and my laptop
is difficult.
So I played on with the default skin and
with the benefit of hindsight, gained
from reviewing a dozen other skins, I
think we have not given it the credit it
deserves. Steklo was out so quick, that
in truth I never really spent that much
time with it.
The original skin, after much deliberation and viewing
the rival offerings, we thinks its worth a second try.
The first thing that strikes me on my
revisit is just how good the graphics are.
The Vista inspired shadows are
brilliantly done and it is by far the most
focussed and coherent design out there.
Playing the game on Windows Vista
seems to give it something extra – it fits
the context much better, whereas it
seems a little more at odds with
Windows XP design.
The screen layout is still the best
overall. Flex stuck with it and that is
one of the most usable skins around.
The arrows and stars are also well
designed – they look good and they are
the most readable. The one thing that
does still annoy me is the choice of
background image – it’s far too cluttered
and I can’t help feeling that it is simply
designed as a form of subliminal
advertising for FM Live.
The Big Review: Skin Roundup
The Big Review:
Skin Roundup
So it really comes down to your thoughts
on the white skin and the grey to blue
colour range on the player profile. It is
undeniably harder on the eyes than dark
skins and it looks more like a
spreadsheet than ever (which may not
be the best marketing ploy), but
personally I have got over the element
of culture shock and I actually find it a
more comfortable environment than
before. Give it time and you will
become accustomed to the player
profile screen.
The default skin is still the most
professional looking skin (and so it
should be) and even the best community
skins have something out of place
aesthetically when compared to this. I
am happy to admit that I judged it too
soon – my expectations were much
higher than they would be for amateur
skins and having used a number of them
it actually feels pretty good coming
back to the default. SI will no doubt say,
“We told you so.”
Looks – 9 Professional and actually
underrated in hindsight
Usability – 9 Marathon sessions may still
be a problem on the eyes, but for
shorter sessions their isn’t really that
much to complain about
Overall – 9 Well designed, though the
profile colours could still be a little
clearer
Top Five Skins (er, make that Six)
It really is difficult to pick between the
top three. Steklo has the sexy looks,
Flex is a comfortable environment,
while the default skin is the most
professional. Zzizz, Swite and Dynamic
are not far behind and only really drop
the extra half point because of one or
two small anomalies.
Steklo 9
Flex 9
FM2008 Default 9
Zzizz 8.5
Swite 8.5
Dynamic 8.5
Page 19
How to Create Tactics:
Mastering Team Talks
Life, has a brilliant tendency to lull you
into a false sense of security. For the
last year I have been learning the art
of parenting. Just when I think I’ve got
it well and truly sorted the little ankle
biter goes and learns a new ability and
with it an entirely new way to wreak
havoc around the house. My last slice
of pizza flying across the lounge and
landing topping side down on the
carpet, not to mention the licking of
hot radiators and vicious savaging of
DVD boxes are common occurrences.
Likewise, team talks can be incredibly
difficult to master for the FM novice.
Even for the more experienced players it
is easy to be caught out sometimes. Just
when you think you have it figured out,
everything changes. What used to work
doesn’t anymore. The problem is, team
talks are only a small part of winning
games. There are so many other factors
involved, that it is easy to forget why
certain talks worked and start acting on
instinct, and that is usually a bad thing –
at least in my case it is.
So to help you on your way, we’ve put
together our top ten tips for successful
team talks.
Page 20 How to Create Tactics: Mastering Team Talks
One thing to remember before taking all
these ideas as gospel is that every team
is different. Age and player personality
has a big impact on what will work, so
keep checking the feedback the assistant
manager gives you.
Anyway on to the tips…
1 Observe the match odds and morale
before the match and only ever use ‘I
expect a win’ when you are at home, in
good spirits and heavily favoured. What
may have been an easy win a month
ago, may be a whole lot tougher after a
blip in form (even a couple of draws), so
judge it on a match to match basis, not
whether you think being top of table
entitles you to win every game.
2 If you are away from home, lower the match talk. If you said ‘The pressure is
expectation. Even if you are one of the
top sides the opposition will always
fancy themselves to get a result at their too well. Don’t forget the odds either -
own ground. ‘You can win this’ is the
maximum you should go for.
3 ‘Wish Luck’ is a good default team
talk when the result is far from certain.
This applies to home games where the
Little Michael Owen did not seem to be listening
other team are massive favourites, and
away games where the odds are close in
favour of either team.
4 Don’t use individual talks on more
than four players as this will dilute the
effect of the main team talk.
5 Protect your goalkeeper - he is the
last player you want to go on a run of
poor form. His confidence may go down
if he has a bad game, so tell him you are
disappointed first time out, then keep
telling him you have faith and save the
‘angry’ response for when he is on the
verge of being dropped to give him one
final chance to buck his ideas up.
6 Make sure half time and full time
team talks are appropriate to the pre-
off’ before the game, saying ‘I expect a
win’ at half time will obviously not work
if you are expected to lose, then it is
hardly fair to get upset when you are a
goal down at half time.

Choose your words right and you could come back from 3-0 down to lift the Champions League trophy
7 Opposition managers give half time
team talks too, so don’t act surprised
when the game turns on it’s head – it
isn’t necessarily because you gave the
wrong team talk. ‘Encourage’ and
‘Pleased’ work better than you think for
those 1-0 and 2-0 leads. If the
opposition come out all guns blazing
then make tactical changes rather than
blame the team talk.
8 Don’t make players nervous. It may
seem logical to tell them not to get
complacent when protecting a narrow
lead, but that puts pressure on when
they were doing fine. You can only
figure this out by careful observation,
some players can take harsh team talks
and may even need them, and some
need careful nurturing like the delicate
little petals they are!
9 Don’t be afraid to get creative with
your half time team talks. Sometimes
what seems illogical on the surface
Mastering Team Talks
produces surprisingly good results. For
example, I’ve had success saying I am
pleased when 1-0 down at half time,
instead of sympathising or taking the
pressure off - in a way it says both and
the morale boost can make a difference
to performance.
10 ‘You can make the difference’ is a
brilliant tool in the right hands. Don’t
bother with defenders – they aren’t
likely to bag many goals or assists. This
usually works best with players on 7 or 8
ratings as they are only one step from
greatness already. Only say this to a
player on a 6 rating if you think he can
make a two point leap in the second
half – being just above average will not
make much difference. Otherwise,
consider making a substitution as half
time is the only point of the match you
can tell the man coming on that he can
make the difference.
How to Create Tactics: Mastering Team Talks
How to Create Tactics:
11 Post match team talks are about
motivating players for the next game.
By default you should be looking to raise
or maintain morale, but remember that
players like to feel that you are in
charge, so don’t be too soft. Player’s
may not appreciate you being angry at
their 5 rated performance, but you can
bet they will be out to prove you wrong.
12 Don’t constantly berate players.
This is the biggest mistake people make
in FM and is often the cause of a poor
run of results. If you gave a player the
hairdryer treatment last time, then
saying you have faith at kick off and
praising a good performance will go long
way.
Page 21
Bootroom Challenge:
Meon Valley - Premiership Quest

Last issue we introduced you to our Dennis Wise becomes a hate figure at another club
fictional team Meon Valley. The UFOs
replaced Southampton in the
Championship. Staring with just five
senior pros and a youth team we put
the game into holiday mode and left
them to it.

We’ve already seen how they got on

for the first three years (though we’ll
recap just a little), so here is the rest
of the first decade through the eyes of
first team coach and former player
Pete Jennings...

For three years Meon Valley had

struggled financially. The temporary
stadium offered little in the way of real
income and manager Ronnie Jepson
had to construct an entire team on a
£50k budget. Not very successfully –
Valley finished in last place in the
Championship that season. Jepson may
have had his hands tied financially, but
the man was an idiot. When the players
needed someone to champion their
cause and build confidence he would
simply berate them.

At least Paul Fairclough managed to

put the UFOs back where they started.
Winger Mark Yeates provided the
ammunition for Calvin Zola and John
Cunliffe to fire Valley to promotion.
It was a close run thing – we had to
make it through the playoffs, but
Yeates and Cunliffe really stepped up
to the mark. Zola may have been the
top scorer, but it was Cunliffe that the
fans loved.
Back in the Championship with the club
struggling once again, Tommy Soderberg
was brought in to save them and duly
delivered. Fairclough had done the best
he could, but it was time to move up to
the next level.
July 2010 saw the completion of the new to be honest I was a little gutted at not
54,000 set Solent Superdome and this
was where the story really began –
Meon Valley’s quest for the Premiership. Dennis could have just left things as they
Soderberg had a big reputation and big
ambitions for the club. Bringing in
players like Kevin Kyle and Paul Hayes
up front and Glenn Whelan in the
midfield transformed the team.
The Swede had a real ruthless streak.
Cunliffe and Zola couldn’t even get a
look in, but with Valley sat in the playoff
places you couldn’t really argue with
his methods. It was a real shock at
Christmas when Tommy decided to stand
down to concentrate on his role as
Sweden’s under 21s manager.
Dennis Wise arrived from Leeds to take
charge. I was unsure of him at first and
being offered the job myself, but he
kept the promotion charge on track.
were, but he showed he was his own
man by dropping Mark Yeates, pushing
Paul Hayes out wide and reinstating John
Cunliffe to the side.
I thought John deserved his chance, so it
was good to see him back in the goals as
he gave us a 2-1 lead in the first leg of
the playoff semi-final. No-one could
have predicted what happened in the
second leg. The goals flew in – seven in
total – as Cardiff pegged us back. It took
penalties in the end to separate the two
sided.
The playoff final was even tighter.
I remember Andrea Poli burst through
after good work from Mark Yeates and
Paul Hayes. Poli was our very own Paul
Scholes and liked to arrive late in the
penalty area. He put away the only goal
of the game to put Valley into the
Premiership for the first time in our
short history. Not bad for a free transfer.

Page 22 Bootroom Challenge: Meon Valley - Premiership Quest


Meon Valley - Premiership Quest
Paul Hayes had not cost a penny either
and his 27 goals that year were vital.
That record still stands today. Even so,
Paul faced stiff competition for his place
in the Premiership with the arrival of
Freddy Eastwood. Freddy had a big
reputation in the Championship, but
would still have to prove himself in the
top echelons of English football.
The arrival of Jermaine Pennant
provided plenty of ammunition from the
wings, and Scottish international Mark
Reynolds strengthened the back line,
but a 4-0 defeat to Arsenal on the
opening day of the season dented
confidence. We just weren’t good
enough and it took 17 attempts to
record our first win. At Christmas we
had just 8 points.
We were much better in the second half
of the season, getting 21 points, but the
damage was already done. What really
hurt is that we stayed in bottom place
from the first day to the last. If we had
learned to cope with the Premiership
a little earlier I really think we would
have survived.
Freddy Eastwood finished top scorer
with 16 goals, but we knew that we
couldn’t hold on to him. At least we
managed to get £11m for him – that’s
still a club record. Still, we were
confident for the next season.
John Cunliffe was just hitting his prime
and although he had spent most of his
time at the club playing second fiddle
in terms of goals I really felt that this
was his year. Despite the arrival of the
aging Didier Drogba I knew he would
be the one to lead the line.
In the end his 25 goals made him player
of the year for the third time and Valley
went up with 93 points – 17 ahead of
Middlesbrough in second place. A run
of 16 games without defeat after a
disappointing start took us into first
place and we never looked back.
We thought we would be able to
continue that momentum back in the
Premiership, but by Christmas we had
only managed 14 points. Still, it was
The Bootroom Challenge:
better than the last time out, so we had That left just £2.6m for Roma’s
much reason for hope. Sebastiano Saracino. Although it would
prove financially successful the
It was at that point that Dennis Wise following season as Leverkusen spent
pulled off a master stroke, signing Shane £9.5m on him, remaining in the
Long from Reading. We had already Premiership would be a far better prize.
signed another striker, Craig Lindfield
from Liverpool in August, but Long was Dennis had obviously run his course at
the man who got the goals – 14 in 16 Valley, but it was still a surprise when he
appearances. Andrea Gaspari made a jumped ship and moved to Man City in
big difference at the back too. At 5 foot December. He left us hovering
10 inches I thought he was too small to dangerously above the drop zone.
be a centre back, but he proved me We had won on the opening day, but it
wrong and our defensive record took another 12 games to record our
improved significantly with him around. second win, even though Craig Lindfield
and Shane Long had formed a great
We faced Portsmouth in a vital ‘six strike partnership.
pointer’ in the April. I remember I had
real mixed emotions, I desperately
wanted Valley to stay up, but not at
Pompey’s expense. We ran out 3-1
winners and swapped positions, finally
climbing out of the bottom three.
The run in was an intriguing one.
With just three points separating 12th to
18th place, there was a real chance to
pull away from trouble. Our remaining
games were all against teams in the
bottom half, but three of the four were
away from home. There was no margin
for error and it would be tough, but
what an opportunity.
We won three games in a row – the
first time we had ever done that in top
flight football and safety was ensured
with a game spare. Finally we had
made it and the relief was enormous.
We eventually finished 12th, something
that we would never have dreamed of
ad the anticipation for the next season
grew.
Dennis felt that we only needed two
players to improve the squad for the
next season. He insisted that two wide
players would make a big difference.
Jermain Pennant was not getting any
younger and we had never really filled
the left sided position satisfactorily.
I knew he was making a mistake, we
needed more depth in our squad and
the £12m spent on bringing in Aiden
McGeady from Celtic was a lot for
one player.
£12m Aiden McGeady
Bootroom Challenge: Meon Valley - Premiership Quest Page 23
The Bootroom Challenge:
Meon Valley - Premiership Quest
The chairman bought in Keith Armstrong,
but I never felt he was the right man for
the job. Having bounced around
Leicester, Bolton, Everton and Newcastle
in recent seasons, he was a name, but I
he was never fully invested in Valley’s
success.
Despite slipping into the bottom three
we still had a great chance to secure
safety with six games left. Our next two
games were against fellow strugglers
Newcastle and Fulham. We would have
to win both those games to stand any
chance of survival, but the Newcastle
game was a disaster. We were 1-0 down
inside three minutes and Newcastle
eventually won 4-1. That was the first
time I began to doubt whether we had
the ability to stay up. Confidence was
in short supply.
We got the win we needed against
Fulham with goals from Saracino and
McGeady, but football has a nasty habit
of making it’s own little stories.
We faced Man City – the first time I had
met up with Dennis since his departure.
He had not done well since moving, City
would be in trouble themselves if we got
the points. The conversation was tense,
and while we both told the other that
our team would get the points, privately
we were both worried.
I think Dennis was beginning to regret his goalkeeper over the last six seasons, at
move, but I’m sure that only lasted 90
minutes as City won 2-1. That result was With brilliant handling and reflexes
flattering to us, it could easily have been the 6’5” giant still has a few years left
4-0 and only a late consolation from
Daniel Williams (a product of our youth
system) kept the final score close.
We had to win our last two games to
stand any chance of staying up and we
got the first, surprising Tottenham by
beating them 2-1. Wigan weren’t going
to play ball though and our nerves went,
not even putting up a struggle as a 2-0
loss sent us down by a single point and
significantly worse goal difference than
Fulham.
The following season barely even rates
a mention. We stayed mid-table all
season, never really threatening the
Page 24 Bootroom Challenge: Meon Valley - Premiership Quest
playoff places, but never in any danger
either. Keith was sacked and Simon
Grayson arrived.
This year has been baby steps.
We’ve certainly made an improvement
under Simon’s guidance and I think we
work well together. We came mighty
close to making it back into the
Premiership, finishing in 6th, but
Charlton took control of the first leg of
the playoff semi-final and blew us away,
winning 3-0. Despite a valiant effort we
couldn’t quite claw back the deficit.
Gilles Sunu socred twice, but we fizzled
out in the last quarter of an hour, just
one goal away from extra time.
I think we fit into the category of
‘sleeping giant’. Like Wolves,
Sunderland, Leeds and others we
have the fanbase of a Premiership club,
but unlike those team we don’t have
the history.
Meon Valley’s Best Eleven
This is my best eleven. It is not quite
the same as FM’s, but I’m smarter and
it’s my article so I get the final say!
His creativity makes him a great
Goalkeeper attacking full back and it is easy to see
how he picked up his one England cap.
John Ruddy joined from Everton when
he was 24. He has developed into a top Centre Backs
least at Championship level.
The back bone of Valley’s defence for
the past four seasons has been Mark
Reynolds and Andrea Gaspari. They are
in him. not the tallest partnership and aerial
balls can prove a problem, but on the
Right Back ground they are excellent and work well
as a team.
Former French under 21 international
Yassin Moutaouakil arrived at the same
Right Midfield
time as Ruddy. There is very little
competition at right back, but the
There is a good deal of competition for
Frenchman’s mental strength would the right midfield slot. Although Will
make him a dead cert anyway.
Tomlinson went on to play for Inter, he
His crossing ability gave him 9 assists only played for one season, as did
last season.
Sebastiano Saracino. The leaves
Jermaine Pennant and Mark Yeates. Both
Left Back played a major part in promotion success
and relegation survival. Yeates lost his
Ryan Bertand spent four years at Valley place quite quickly though so Jermaine
before signing for Newcastle for £6.9m. Pennant is the winner.

Meon Valley - Premiership Quest
Left Midfield
Without a doubt Aiden McGeady is the
star man on the left. Valley’s record
signing contrinutes goals and assists
and has two player of the year awards –
the only player to win the fans acclaim
who has not played as a striker. At 31
he is past his best, but is only 20 caps
away from a century for Ireland.
Central Midfield
Rocco Quinn and Nikolay Dimitrov are
another long standing partnership in
the Valley side. Both are attacking
midfielders, and the formation has often
changed to accommodate wide players
in a narrower formation, so they have
not always played together, but when
they do the goals are sure to flow.
Young, Vaughan & Rooney - no they aren’t the
newest law firm, they are all award winners.
The Bootroom Challenge:
Strikers Left back Sergio Harris, midfielder
Shaun Bullit and left winger Blan Page
Meon Valley have a rich history of great are all established Championship players
strikers. From Calvin Zola, to Shane while left back Scott Sherman makes his
Long the top scorer usually ends up as living in Scotland with Hearts.
the fan’s player of the year. Paul Hayes
and John Cunliffe get the nod because The remaining players are mostly
both are record breakers. Hayes has bouncing around League One and Two.
the most goals in a season (27) while Only two are out of the game
Cunliffe is the all-time scorer with 89 completely – Joe Albertella and David
goals and has three player of the year Evans. Goalkeeper Nick Burcher has
awards. played for Grays for most of his career
but they are now non-league.
The ‘Not So Young Anymore’
Youth Team The fewest appearances goes to Luke
Kelland. The 26 year old left Valley
Last month our youth team players, two seasons ago after make just 7
made up of Bootroom readers, were appearances. Including loan spells, he
just reaching adulthood. So how have still only has 45 career appearances.
they fared… At the other end of the scale, Sneaky
Ninja, the first of the youth squad to
Only one, right back Chris Burns, has leave, has 368 career appearances.
ever claimed a regular place in the side.
As Valley established themselves he fell While there seems to be very little
out of favour and eventually moved on. difference between the players with a
He now plies his trade in League Two mental bias and those with a technical
with Wrexham, but is proven at League bias, the latter group have become
One level. more rounded players. Maturity can
bring mental strength, but technical
None of the original youth team still deficiencies are harder to overcome.
remain at Valley 10 years later.
Strikers Daniel Williams and Jonny
Hennel lasted the longest and should
have been given more of a chance after
some impressive cameo appearances.
Williams scored 25 goals for Stoke in the
Championship, beating Valley’s top
scorere by 8, so the £1m they let him
go for look slike daylight robbery.
Hennel has grabbed 21 goals in the
division below with Sunderland.
Mark Baker is doing similarly well with
Leyton Orient, scoring 78 goals in four
seasons to take them from League One
to a well established Championship side.
Louis Jackson is not quite up there with
the other three strikers but is a decent
League One striker.
Centre back Robert Dawson is the
big success. After working his way up
through League One, League Two and
the Championship he made 31
appearances for Birmingham in the
Premiership, before relegation.
Bootroom Challenge: Meon Valley - Premiership Quest Page 25
Bootroom Feature:
Unreal Tournament
Welcome to part two of The
Bootroom’s Unreal Tournament.
A competition where some of the
greatest ever club sides, created in
the FM database, will face each other
to see who is the best of the best.
With Santos of the 1960’s and Liverpool
of 1983-84 already qualified for the
knockout stages, attention now turned
to the remaining two groups of the
tournament. In group B, modern day
Chelsea will face early 1970’s Ajax
Amsterdam (1972-73), Napoli (1988-89)
and Manchester United’s 1968 European
Cup winning side.
In Group C, the fourth English side in the
tournament, Brian Clough’s Nottingham
Forest (1978-79) were drawn in the same
group as Italian giants Juventus (1983-84
season), AC Milan (1988-89) and the
legendary Spanish side, Real Madrid
(1959-60).
The Bootroom Unreal
Tournament Group B:
Napoli 0 v 2 Ajax Amsterdam
Group B’s opening game was one of the
most eagerly anticipated matches of the
tournament and with a dazzling array of
talent on the pitch it didn’t disappoint.
Both teams opted for an attacking
formation, looking to start the
tournament with a win. Napoli played
Maradona just behind the two strikers,
Carnevale and Careca. The Dutch on the
other hand, started with a formidable
three-pronged attack of Rep, Keizer and
the brilliant Johan Cruyff.
Napoli began the brightest but were
unable to break down the stubborn
Dutch defence protecting Heinz Stuy’s
goal. In the 12th minute the Dutch
keeper pulled off a fantastic save,
tipping Alemao’s thirty-yard strike over
the crossbar. Then on the stroke of half
time, the Dutch, very much against
the run of play, took the lead with a
wonderful team goal. Neeskens bringing
the ball forward, played it out to Cruyff
on the left-hand side. He glided past De
Napoli and crossed to Rep, who on the
edge of the penalty area, wrong footed
Page 26 Bootroom Feature: Unreal Tournament
Francini and drilled a hard and low
shot past the helpless Giuliani in the
goal. The Neapolitans left the field at
half-time having dominated the game,
trailing 1-0.
In the second half the Dutch began to
show why they were the masters of total
football. They dominated possession with
their neat short passing game and with
Cruyff becoming more prominent as the
game progressed, they played some
truly wonderful stuff. Desperate for an
equaliser, Napoli pushed forward and
for much of the second half we were
treated to a great game of end-to-end
football. However, in the 84th minute,
a dazzling solo goal by Cruyff put the
game beyond Napoli’s reach. The game
finished 2-0, giving Ajax the three
points.
Chelsea 1 v 1 Manchester United
The first all English encounter of the
Unreal Tournament saw Avram Grant’s
Chelsea hold Sir Matt Busby’s Manchester
United to a 1-1 draw. United took the
lead in the 23rd minute as John Terry’s
poor clearance fell straight to Nobby
Stiles who put Dennis Law through on
goal and he didn’t waste the
opportunity, stroking the ball coolly past
Petr Cech. Chelsea equalised shortly
before half-time through the impressive
Salomon Kalou.
The second half was largely uneventful,
with both sides creating little. Dennis
Law, missed from close range when it
was easier to score and Frank Lampard
and Didier Drogba both came close to
grabbing a winner for Chelsea but it
wasn’t to be.
Ajax Amsterdam 1 v 1 Chelsea
A second consecutive draw for Chelsea
as they successfully nullified the Dutch Napoli 2 v 2 Manchester United
attack in this evenly fought contest. Ajax
Took the lead on 57 minutes as Johnny Both sides went into this game looking
Rep scored, taking the ball past Belletti for their first win of the tournament and
and then cutting in and curling the ball in doing so played perhaps the greatest
past Cech. Chelsea’s equaliser came late game of the tournament so far.
in the game with substitute - Andrej Maradona put Napoli 1-0 after 26
Shevchenko heading the ball past Stuy to minutes, only for Bobby Charlton to level
level the game. the game ten minutes later. The game

Unreal Tournament
was played at a breathtaking pace with
both sides eager to push forward in
search of more goals. Then, either side
of half time we were treated to two
fantastic strikes. The first as, just on
the stroke of half time, Careca cleverly
lobbed the ball over Alex Stepney, the
second a powerful drive by George Best
in the 48th minute – which levelled the
tie again.
The rest of the second half produced
more wonderful football, but sadly, no
more goals. Exciting as the game was,
a 2-2 draw wasn’t the best result for
either club, who would now need to
win their final game to stand any
chance of qualifying for the next round.
Manchester United 1 v 1 Ajax
Amsterdam
Like their northwest rivals, Liverpool, in
Group A, United remained undefeated,
but yet unable to win a game in the
tournament. Their final match of the
group was no different as they drew 1-1
with Ajax. Dennis Law put them 1-0 up
after 23 minutes, but it was Ajax who
dominated possession and looked the
more likely to score the next goal. The
equaliser eventually came in the 82nd
minute as Johnny Rep bagged his third
goal of the competition. The draw
meant that both teams would qualify
for the knock out stages if Napoli and
Chelsea drew the final group game.
Lampard may have to eat a few more pies to
catch up with Maradona, but he still managed
to scrounge a couple of lucky goals
Bootroom Feature: Unreal Tournament
Bootroom Feature:
Napoli 1 v 3 Chelsea
Napoli needed the three points to claim
second spot in the group and they
attacked the game from the off putting
Chelsea immediately on the defensive,
with Careca going close after only 2
minutes. However, with six minutes on
the clock, a mistimed pass by Corradini
put Lampard clean through and he
slotted the ball past the advancing
Giuliani to put Chelsea 1-0 up.
On 11 minutes, Napoli pulled level.
Maradona, picked up a pass from
Brazilian midfielder Alemao and drove
deep into the Chelsea half before
Carvalho brought him down on the
edge of the penalty area. Maradona took
the resulting free kick and dispatched a
curling shot around the wall and beyond
Cech, into the back of the net.
Level at half-time, the second half was
a scrappy affair with a number of
players shown the yellow card. As the
game wore on Napoli began to tire and
Chelsea began to take control of the
game. Ballack and Lampard worked
hard in the midfield and a fine Drogba
strike in the 75th minute and a Lampard
tap-in two minutes later clinched the
game and top spot in the group. Napoli,
despite playing some wonderful football
in their three matches finished bottom
of Group C and sadly for the Unreal
Tournament, Maradona and co were out.
Manchester United’s three consecutive
draws were good enough to secure
them a place in the next round as they
had a better record than Group A’s
Bayern Munich. Bayern would need to
have a better points tally than the
third spot in Group C if they were to
avoid elimination.
Page 27
Bootroom Feature:
Unreal Tournament

The Bootroom Unreal

Tournament Group C:
Real Madrid 3 v 1 Nottingham Forest

Brian Clough’s Forest started brightest in

the opening game of Group C. Their high
tempo direct approach put Real
immediately under pressure and they
struggled to impose themselves on the
game in the initial stages. Forest’s hard
work was rewarded when, after 17
minutes, Trevor Francis set up Tony
Woodcock for the opening goal of the
game. However, their lead didn’t last
too long as in the 32nd minute, an
unmarked Ferenc Puskas headed past
Shilton from seven yards out. Three
minutes later Puskas had grabbed his
second and from there, the Spanish
giants were in total control of the game.

In the second half the Spaniards went in

search of more goals, Di Stefano went
close on numerous occasions and captain
Zarraga had a powerful shot save by
Shilton. Archie Gemmill was dismissed on
77 minutes for a rash tackle on Del Sol
and then Frank Clark scored an own goal
to complete Forest’s misery. The game
finished 3-1 to Real.

Juventus 1 v 2 AC Milan

The all Italian encounter was dominated

by Marco Van Basten, whose first half
double strike put the game beyond a
strangely subdued Juventus side, whose
only real effort in the first half was
squandered by an out of sorts Paolo
Rossi. It wasn’t really until Trappatoni
brought on Marco Tardelli after 75
minutes that Juve began to take the
game to Milan. Zbignew Boniek pulled
one back in the 87th minute, but it
wasn’t enough. Deep into injury time,
Van Basten almost scored again, however
Dino Zoff pulled of a fantastic save to
deny the Dutchman his hat-trick.

Real Madrid 0 v 1 Juventus

Juve were anything but passive in their

second group game against Real Madrid.
Both sides created numerous chances in
an action packed – yet goalless first half. Maradona, Cruyff and Shilton.
That’s our fantasy football team sorted!

Page 28 Bootroom Feature: Unreal Tournament


Platini and Rossi both went close and Di
Stefano had a goal ruled offside just
before half-time.
Boniek grabbed his second goal of the
tournament in the 56th minute to give
Juventus the lead and despite pushing
forward in numbers the Spaniards could
not break down the Italians’ well
organised defence, excellently
marshalled by Gaetano Scirea. The game
finished 1-0, giving Juve their first
points of the tournament.
Nottingham Forest 0 v 0 AC Milan
Chances were few in this game as Milan
were held to a goalless draw by a hard
working Forest side. Milan dominated
possession but were unable to create
any clear cut chances against a well
organised Forest defence. Roberto
Donadoni had an effort cleared off the
line in the 48th minute and Ruud Gullit
hit the post in the 62nd. However it was
Forest who could have won it as Gary
Birtles was denied a spectacular
stoppage-time winner for Nottingham
Forest when his late strike came back
off the post.
Unreal Tournament
Real Madrid 2 v 1 AC Milan
With Juventus still in the race, Real
Madrid and AC Milan went into their
final game looking for the win that
would secure them a place in the next
round. Del Sol opened the scoring for
the Spaniards mid way through the first
half and despite some great football by
the Italians they went in at the break
trailing 1-0. Milan’s equaliser came
through the hard working Frank Rijkaard
on the 71st minute, but Real restored
their lead five minutes later when
Santamaria headed in at the far post
from a Vidal corner. The 2-1 win meant
that Madrid qualified for the next phase.
Juventus 1 v 0 Nottingham Forest
With both teams still in with a chance of
qualifying for the knock-out stages the
match was a cagey affair. A mix up
between Viv Anderson and John
Roberston almost gifted the Italians a
goal on 27 minutes, but Shilton managed
to block Massimo Bonini’s strike. Late
into the game, the Italians grabbed the
winner: Tardelli chipped the ball through
to an unmarked Boniek who slotted him
his third consecutive goal of the
tournament. Juve won 1-0 and Forest
were eliminated.
van Basten missed his chance to grab a hat-trick
Bootroom Feature: Unreal Tournament
Bootroom Feature:
Juventus’ win secured them second
place behind Real Madrid in Group C.
AC Milan also qualified for the knockout
stage as their record was better than
Group A’s third place team, Bayern
Munich (1974-75)
Quarter Final draw:
Santos v Ajax
Chelsea v AC Milan
Real Madrid v Liverpool
Juventus V Manchester United
Next month…
As Napoli, Forest, Bayern and Barcelona
have found out, there are no easy
games in the Unreal Tournament.
In next month’s issue of The Bootroom,
the knockout stages of the competition
will be played out in full as the eight
remaining sides fight it out for a place
in the final. Which captain will get to
lift the Unreal Trophy - Pelé, Cruyff,
Terry, Baresi, Zarraga, Souness, Scirea
or Charlton? Find out next month…
Page 29
Bootroom story:
A New Career - Chapter One

(NB - We apologise that some of the

correct names are missing from this
article. We've been unable to contact
the writer so we have filled in the
blanks with... oh, you'll figure it out!)

Despite playing Football/Championship

Manager for over ten years, I’ve never
really embarked on a true ‘career
game’ - that is, starting unemployed
with reputation set to automatic and
taken the first job I can get, then
working my way up the ladder. I’d
been to Scotland, Romania, the US and
Spain, but I’d stopped playing them
after two or three seasons when things
became the ‘same old’. After winning
the league with Aberdeen, Poli, Kansas He had already reached double figures in With Paul Taylor firing on all cylinders
City Wizards and Barcelona, there was terms of goals that season and was by and loan signing Donny Osmond netting
really nowhere else to go. far the outstanding player in the side. It an impressive 7 goals in 16 starts, we
soon became my intention to build the started to climb the table. Even putting
It was with this in mind that I decided to side around him. together enough transfer money to sign
go for the career game option. It Scotsman Chris Baird, a decent goalie
seemed like a fun thing to do at the With a non-existent transfer budget from Tobago United. His signing proved
time. It actually took a heck of a long and precious little room for negotiation inspirational and with a decent keeper
time to get a job. It was December regarding the wage bill, I went to work. between the sticks we finished the
before a job came up that was actually Assuming players at clubs from outside season in 9th place, just ten points from
offered to me, at lowly Vauxhall Motors, the football league in Scotland would the playoff places.
sitting 20th in the Blue Square North. jump at the chance to sign for us,
I managed to get several £0 offers I went into the next season on a high,
I was only familiar with the strangely accepted for some decent players… declaring to my board that we’d win
named club because I am an FM only to find that they weren’t interested promotion to get a very modest boost to
‘veteran’. I had no clue whereabouts in at all in signing for us. my wage budget (still no transfer fund,
England they are (well, obviously they’re as the club was in fact haemorrhaging
in the north) and even looking at the Baffled, confused and frankly a little money). But with everyone barring
stadium’s location didn’t shed much scared of what lay ahead, I had no Taylor and Baird on rolling contracts,
light. Google told me what I wanted to choice but to raid the free transfer list, I had to rebuild the entire squad.
know and with that I took the job. as well as taking several reserve players
on loan from my parent club, Rochdale. At one point, just eight players made up
What lay ahead was two and a half long What followed was a great deal of my first team, as I franticly approached
seasons trying to get the club out of the releasing current players, bringing players I had no chance of signing whilst
Blue Square North. I’ve never managed players in on trial, and experiencing releasing others like it was going out of
this far down the football pyramid. the pain of losing the most outstanding fashion. I really had no clue what I was
Dumbarton of the Scottish Third Division prospects to other clubs, most doing by this point. The side I’d put
was as low as I’d dared to go before, but frustratingly the junior and amateur together by August was almost certainly
Vauxhall was a massive step down from Scottish sides. nowhere near as good as the one I’d
Dumbarton, most notably in terms of the had in May, and it started to show in
players I could attract to the club. By mid January I had cobbled together the results.
a fairly decent side. I must confess to
Surveying the talent) available to me being amazed as to what constituted a By November we’d slipped as low
within the squad (and I use the word good player at this level. Players who as 17th, and I started to feel like I
talent very loosely, I knew I would have would have struggled to get a game for was taking the club backwards.
to strengthen heavily. The one positive my Dumbarton side were considered I contemplated giving up but the desire
was striker Paul Taylor, a Manchester City outstanding by my assistant, although it to have a proper career drove me
youth product who was released in 2005 was perhaps his incompetence as a forward. A couple of decent loans and
without playing a game. coach that led to these assessments. some freebies in December and January

Page 30 Bootroom Story: A New Career - Chapter One


set us up nicely for the second half of
the season and we regained our
composure to finish in a decent, if
unspectacular 12th place - once again
just ten points from the playoffs. I could
hardly call it a successful season, but I’d
learnt some harsh lessons that would
put me in good stead for the following
season.
When the season ended in early May, I
went to work renewing the contracts of
those I wanted to keep and dismissing
those I didn’t. I even managed to finagle
some transfer fees for a few of them.
Nothing outstanding, but the £1,000 to
£2,000 I managed to get for some of
them lifted us out of debt. With a solid
nucleus of a team, I strengthened it
with some decent free transfers once
again, along with the signing of 18 year
old striker Mark Wahlberg, a Welshman
on loan from our affiliate.
I decided not to declare to the board
that we’d achieve promotion that
season. After the disaster of the
previous season I thought it was wise
not to. With less expectation from the
board, but the promise of a high bonus
to the players should they get
promoted, we were in a much better
position to go for broke as it were, and
get into the Blue Square Premier.
What followed was something I never
would have believed possible. The side
got themselves into the playoff places
very early on and refused to budge. Our
lowest position for the rest of the
season would be an impressive fourth,
and we ended the season in second
place, albeit quite far adrift of runaway
winners Boyzone.
The fans were pessimistic ahead of our
playoff semi-final. S Club 7 were, after
all, a bigger side than us and it would
no doubt take an almighty effort for us
to conquer them. A thrilling home leg
ended 3-3, with plenty of end-to-end
action. But it even made me pessimistic
ahead of the away leg. If they’d scored
three against us on the road then surely
they’d be confident at home.
A New Career - Chapter One
As it was, the score was a far more
conservative 0-0, and it took penalties
to separate us. We had emerged
victorious however, and with confidence
full to the brim for the final against
Leigh, we won 2-1 to the bewilderment
of just about everyone.
So what have I learned so far in my
career game? Well firstly, football is a
completely different animal at this
level. I was fairly certain that it was,
and having attended some shoddy
matches in the past, I can definitely say
I was all too aware that not all football
was like a match between Liverpool and
Manchester United.
A win bonus for a single player at
Liverpool would pay my entire side’s
wages for a month, and most were
earning around £50 a week, far removed
from the glamour of the Premiership and
Serie A, where wages are quite often at
least 1,000 times that at the lowest
level. The word ‘skill’ should only be
used to describe someone who can hold
onto the ball for longer than a minute.
There’s no silky passing or showboating,
but then I knew that already too.
There’s certainly no Cristiano Ronaldos
at this level, although players like
Michael Kightly have shown that there’s
always a diamond in the rough. If Paul
Taylor were ever to reach his full
potential, he wouldn’t be a world
beater, but he certainly wouldn’t look
out of place in the Championship or
Scottish Premier League.
Bootroom Story: A New Career - Chapter One
Bootroom story:
The thing I’ve probably learned the
most is the reward of managing at this
level. Monetarily it’s nothing of course,
but then in Football Manager none of
the money is real anyway. The reward of
actually getting your team promoted, or
of finding a player for free or peanuts
who goes on to win player of the year,
or even better, is sold for a ‘big’ fee to
a club in League Two or even higher
cannot be understated. It actually made
me smile… and those who know me in
my non-virtual life will tell you that in
itself is a miracle.
While winning the SPL with Aberdeen
brought me much satisfaction, there’s
really no place to go after that. The
club will never challenge in Europe, no
matter how much money you might
raise, unless you cheat of course! The
truth is that the Blue Square North is so
open that you never really know where
you’re going to finish from one season
to the next. Certainly I wouldn’t have
expected to finish second after finishing
twelfth the season before.
And then of course there’s the first
season in the Blue Square Premier.
Predicted to finish dead last, I actually
didn’t. I won’t go into details; that’s for
another day and another chapter in my
not-so-illustrious career. But for now I
can be proud to say that I did it. I got
Vauxhall Motors promoted. It wasn’t
easy and I went through the highs and
lows like any real-life manager would.
Whatever the next chapter brings I can
always say that.
Page 31
The Big Idea:
Community Spirit
Imagine having the power of Google inside FM.
To search for football stuff, not… oh, never mind.
A lot is written on the forums and on
various fan sites about the key features
of the game - tactics, match engine,
transfer system, training, media and
board confidence to name a few. As a
community we like to share our ideas
and hope that we influence the game.
We take a humble computer game and
turn it into something far, far bigger
than the code and database achieve
alone - it’s not just game ideas.

No doubt most of us have had a scout

round the tactics and graphics forums,
or talked about great players, maybe
taken up a challenge or two. There is an
expansive community that exists around
the game, but the one place it doesn’t
exist is in the game. There are a lot of
things that SI can’t do or can’t be seen
to encourage for legal reasons, but that
is not to say that FM cannot be built in
a way that encourages the community.

I know some of you will be thinking

that there are more important things more experienced players can struggle The registry doesn’t have to be limited
to worry about, but for a game that is from time to time, or are looking for a to help either. Why not have challenges
meant to be ‘made by the fans, for the new challenge. and stories integrated into the game as
fans’ time invested here should be time well, or how about the ability to find
well spent. FM doesn’t have to be At the business end of things, that would and download skins regardless of what
played in isolation. mean the websites registering for the website they are stored on. It’s human
affiliate scheme (SIAS) then registering nature that once people have visited the
Let’s Talk articles on a database, along with the site and found it useful, they will return
appropriate keywords. These would then of their own accord, browse the rest of
FM can be overwhelming for the new be moderated by trusted members of the material and post on the forums.
player. There is additional help in this the scheme, so that the results that
year’s game, but while it tells you what appear in FM are the most useful. The one limit that we would have to
features do and how to get there, it Moderators on the SI forums could also accept is that SI cannot be seen to direct
doesn’t give any ideas about formations, nominate the best threads to appear us to licensed material. There is no
tactics or players. Those of us in the in the registry. prospect of ever being able to find club
know will Google for a suitable site to badges or player pictures for instance.
get help, or simply click on one of our Back in the game the search would
stored favourites, but many fans have show the title of the article, a brief Letter to the Editor
no idea that the plethora of websites description, the name of the website/
and forums even exist. author and the rating. Clinking on an One of the major selling points of FM is
item takes you to the appropriate page that it has the most accurate football
Why not put it right in front of them? on the the appropriate site. database anywhere in the world, based
For that matter, why not put it right in on what is probably the most extensive
front of us? There is already a search box The new users will quickly get to know scouting network in the world. No other
in FM. Imagine if you could type “442”, which sites they like the most and can football game comes close. Even Opta,
“Good players for the Blue Square find the information they need easily. who produce many of the statistics used
North” or “MLS Rules” and find the This will help to introduce more users to by newspapers and television companies,
answers you wanted - not in the game, the forums and fan sites while reducing have a fraction of the number of players
but from a registry of articles or threads the number of repeat questions, in their database - they only record first
on the SI or fan sites, like a Google for enabling them to integrate into the team appearances, hence they would
FM. While this would be largely aimed community without getting flamed and not have known about the likes of Wayne
at the casual or novice players, even the being made to feel unwelcome. Rooney until he made his Everton debut.

Page 32 The Big Idea: Community Spirit


The editor allows us to do all sorts of
things to SI’s lovingly created data, from
creating fictional teams to ‘correcting’
Thierry Henry’s attributes. But the big
omission is the ability to edit rules or
even to create new ones. As things
stand, league structure, disciplinary
measures, work permit rules - all of it
is hard coded. For us to have control it
needs to be stored in the database.
Now this may well be a huge
undertaking. It’s one thing writing it
to the database, it is another thing
altogether to rewrite the code so that
it reads the value from an editable
field in the database. All of the code
governing rules would have to be
rewritten from scratch. And tested.
A lot. However, once that time is spent
there are some big advantages. First up
rule changes, such as the Premiership
catching up with the rest of Europe
and allowing seven substitutes, require
no programming, just a change to the
database. Only completely new rules
will require any real work.
Secondly, the creators of retro/future
databases and fantasy scenarios like
European or world leagues have a
way to set the rules appropriate to
their scenario. Allowing them to set a
start date or even create a whole new
country and league instead of replacing
other leagues would open up the
possibilities even more.
Biographies
If you haven’t yet checked out Kipfizh’s
Bandits AI experiment or had a look at
the stories forum then you will be
amazed at the amount of dedication
it requires to run the game and report
on it in sufficient depth, particularly if
you are running FM in holiday mode.
One thing that I found very difficult
running the Meon Valley game for this
fanzine is that the FM does not record
the significant events of the season.
Whatever team or player you are
following, you have to seek out the
information and determine the turning
points of the season.
Community Spirit
What I am proposing is that FM allows
us to create biographies. All we would
need to do is to set the team, player,
or manager we want to follow, or lots
of them if we want. At the end of the
season we would be able to see in one
place how all of our chosen victims have
faired. The runs of good or bad form,
the goals or mistakes that changed the
course of the season, the unexpected
triumphs and failures, even problems
with morale could be recorded. There
would be a cost in terms of data stored,
but it would be entirely the player’s
choice.
An interesting by product of this idea
is the ability to follow a player that you
don’t want to shortlist, but still have
some interest, or even just to follow
your real life team if you have picked
another team in FM.
Feedback
Many people are put off forums because
of the constant bickering and abuse.
Changing the culture is something that
will have to happen outside of the
game, but there are changes that can
be made within the game that will help.
The Big Idea: Community Spirit
The Big Idea:
FM could allow you to follow your
favourite players. And Ashley Cole.
It is very difficult to be specific here,
but the general gist is that better in
game feedback means less confusion
or ambiguity and that means less
cause to go on the forums make wildly
inaccurate statements and launch
random witch hunts.
There are many decisions we make
within the game and it is often difficult
to determine their impact or identify
the reasons for success and failure.
I’m not suggesting that the ambiguity
should be completely removed from the
game - frankly that would kill the game
very quickly. However, there are many
occasions in the game when you know
that you should have the information
to work out what is wrong, but it just
isn’t there.
Statistics don’t tell you everything and
we are meant to be football managers,
not scientists or mathematicians.
We need a more human element - the
assistant manager. If I tried I could
probably list 20 scenarios in which
he should be giving us information,
20 where he shouldn’t and another 20
where he wouldn’t manage any more
than an opinion to be taken with a
pinch of salt. Don’t worry, I won’t list
them all.
Having an assistant manager that
actually behaves like an assistant
manager, instead of an interface or
factfile would go a long way towards
making players feel that their problems
are down to them and not to poor
programming or unrealistic design.
That means less ‘angry young men’
on the forums, no more half truths
becoming whole truths and far less
cause for conflict, making a much nicer
environment in which to seek advice
or just chat with like minded people.
Page 33
The Big Debate:
Do Cheats Ever Prosper?
If you want to make a career in diving we would prefer you use the pool.
Cheating is part of life, whilst to the
morally correct it is deemed unfair
and ungentlemanly it happens and
there are beneficiaries. Whether it is
Andy Johnson tripping over his shoe
laces to win a penalty, Rivaldo feigning
injury after a savage attack by a
football, or Maradona outjumping
someone a foot taller to handle the
ball home, cheating is rife in football.
However, there are many other ways
that clubs and individuals can gain an
illegal advantage; and this can be
done in FM too.

We’ve all thought about doing it – even

the most righteous of us – a long hard
season ends in a major cup/playoff final,
hours and sometimes days of gaming
time have been put into the season –
just one more game to go and you would
be a winner. The game comes along, the
team is at full strength – top scorer is on
form and you fancy your chances; within
5 minutes your goalkeeper is send off for
bringing down the opposition striker, you
realise you forgot to select a substitute
‘keeper and then once you fall 1-0 down
your star striker gets injured and can’t
continue the game.

You wonder if all the time you have many trophies you have won and how But if played continuously gamers should
spent getting the perfect formation, many seasons you have gone feel the same joy and despair when
playing the most eye-catching stuff has undefeated. games are won and lost and teams are
actually all been worth it if you are to crowned champions or relegated.
finish the biggest game of your ‘career’ Some can’t keep their success to
with a 5-0 final defeat with 10 men. themselves, putting up screenshots of “Well it’s my game and I will play it how
how amazing they are and how they I want to” – That’s fine, you pay your
The thought pops into your head – it managed to ‘sign’ every single world money and if you want to play it your
doesn’t have to end this way. You could class player and sell their cast off’s for way then why should you feel guilty for
always start again, perhaps reload? You millions. Their strikers have 40 goals topping up the transfer kitty using third
forgot to select a substitute goalkeeper, each and their defenders have even party software? At the end of the day
so you are just correcting a mistake that more; hell, even their ‘keeper has you should enjoy playing the game –
the computer didn’t highlight aren’t you? scored a hat-trick in one game! there is nothing more frustrating than
No one will ever know that you buying a game which gives you no
restarted, what’s the worst that can Football Manager has prided itself on satisfaction.
happen? being as realistic and true to the job as
it can possibly be, and this means that if The biggest ‘no-no’ is cheating whilst
To some people these thoughts can be played correctly, managers should have playing a network game, its one thing
ignored, they can play another season; similar ‘careers’ and experiences to real beating the AI’s team with your big
whilst defeat might hurt, you will be life managers. Of course there are money signings or meddling with their
going over in your mind what you had limits, up until now 2D match screens players, but it’s a whole different ball
done wrong and ensuring that you never have made challenging decisions almost game if you cheat on your friends.
forget to select another ‘keeper in the worthless – how are you to know what
squad. But to others, success is the only happened when the ‘dots’ came
reason for playing; to boast about how together for a foul?

Page 34 The Big Preview: Football Manager 2009

 The Big Debate:
Do Cheats Ever Prosper?

The way the game is progressing, it is
becoming harder for the more casual
manager to finish a season and be
successful – not everyone has weeks
they can spend watching games and
scouring through the Bulgarian leagues
for players who might fit into the
perfect 4-2-1-2-1 formation you have
created. Some people just want to take
charge of their favourite Premiership
club, buy a few players they love and
fight it out for the Champions League.
To do this some gamers might want to
use FM Modifier, which can help you add
to your funds, increasing your transfer
budget or changing players’ details –
ensuring that the next superstar is now
English and doesn’t require a work
permit. For this FMM is great, it lets the
more casual manager get on with
playing the games and removes all the
wage-structure and financial problems
that signing a striker who wants £140k
per week will produce.
If you are in control of your budget and
are determined not to break your wage
allowance then you can find many other
ways of gaining the advantage.
use the AM/FC you have in your side.
Training schedules can mean that
players evolve faster and become
stronger and better, which under normal
management might not have even
happened. These players can then either
be sold for good money or might make it
into the team, improving your squad ‘on
the cheap’.
Unfortunately as with most almost every
game, FM08 has a few faults. One of
which is known as the ‘corner cheat’
which can see defenders become
leading scorers. This is a way of
exploiting a fault within the game to
score more goals, so whilst it is an
advantage, it might not help teams to
win matches.
So what should you do? And how
should you be feeling?
It’s all down to the individual; if you are
hoping to play the game as realistically
as possible then perhaps you should be
steering well away from reloading and
editing databases. The idea of the game
is to test the player in situations similar
to that of real football managers, so the
feeling of frustration and joy from
playing might not be a million miles
away from what actual managers feel.
If you want to win, to manage the best
players and reign over the league
without the risk of failure then there
are ways to achieve this, just don’t be
surprised if the feeling of victory is
short-lived and some people may just
have opinions if you begin to boast
about your victories and trophies.
When such tools as the FM Modifier are
available it’s pretty hard to resist
making a few changes, especially when
there’s a wonderkid available on a free
and your wage budget is just too small –
what’s a few grand or a few million if it
means you can get next superstar or
increase your stadium’s size? Who is
really going to care?

Restarting a game once lost is the most

obvious way to many players of turning
that ‘easy’ game into a guaranteed
success, or to be crowned champions of
the league on the final day. The game is
saved before the kick off and resumed if
the result is not in favour of the team.
Some managers go even further and will
restart if players get injured or
suspended – regardless of the match’s
outcome, so that their playmaker can
get the most assists in a season. Another
way some choose to gain success is by
taking control of the opposition by
adding a ‘new manager’ to the game
and fiddling with formation and
selection, once the game is done the
new manager retires and the game
continues.

However, there are also more subtle

ways of improving your chances in FM,
downloading tactics and training
schedules can mean that you will
suddenly come across the best way to
I think we all know that cheats can prosper - but is it right?

The Big Preview: Football Manager 2009 Page 35

Bootroom Review:
Championship Manager Online

With the prospect of the release of FM
Live some time later this year, I’m
starting to get very excited about the
prospect of playing another
incarnation, although markedly
different, of my favourite game. I’m
looking forward to being able to see
how I compare against other human
managers and frankly can’t wait to
start destroying all before me. Ok, so
that last bit might never happen but
FML will at least make it a possibility
and I for one can’t wait to get started.
Well, here’s my dilemma. For years, I’ve
been praising FM and shouting down
anyone who deigns to claim that CM has
any redeeming features. So even the
mere thought that I might enjoy, what is
technically the enemy, made me feel
cheap and dirty and the thought that I’d
have to give Eidos my money, in order to
do so made it seem all the more wrong.
However, now I know that it exists, I
can’t resist the craving for online
football management glory. If nothing
else, I’ve decided to put myself through
it, so that you, dear reader, do not have
to. With a little trepidation and hugely
biased expectations, I signed up.
When I first logged onto www.cm-
online.com, I was presented with the
opportunity to watch a movie and try a
demo of the game, both of which I did.
Quite honestly, neither really caught my
imagination, but the demo did give me a
look inside the game, which looked quite
attractive, if basic. But, since I’d already
decided that I wanted to play the game
for real, I headed off to sign up.
The sign up process itself was fairly
straightforward, the server asking for all
the usual payment details, etc. as you’d
expect. What concerned me a little was
that none of the links so far had given
me any real information about the game
itself. No mention of cost, nor details of
exactly what I would be getting for my
money. I looked everywhere for the
information, but could find only the odd
vague, catchy paragraph here and there
that were obviously there more to sell
the game than to actually inform.
Undeterred, I moved on through the

With that in mind, when I discovered

that there is already an online version of
Eidos’s Championship Manager, I had very
mixed feelings. I was kind of hopeful
that there would be enough of a game to
at least keep me entertained while I
await the release of the real thing.

Indeed having once tried out a version of

Champ. Man. (I think it may have been
CM 06) simply to satisfy my curiosity and
see for myself whether Eidos had
managed to build a rival for FM from the
ashes that remained of the original SI
Championship Manager that I grew up
with, I can confirm that many rude
words passed my lips while attempting
to play it. I barely managed to stick at it
for more than an hour or two before
I uninstalled it and gave the game away
to someone else. That was my one and
only experience of the ‘new’ face of
Championship Manager, but surely after
all this time, the guys at Eidos must have
learned enough to have moved the game
forward to have created a decent online
game?

There are no events to display for this

team” – bought to you by the same
people who said “This page was left
intentionally blank.

Page 36 Bootroom Review: Championship Manager Online


initial phase. Next up was a
compatibility test, to ensure that my
system was capable of playing the
game. Hold on a minute! Shouldn’t that
have been something that was offered
before money changed hands? At least a
minimum spec. should have been made
available to me, shouldn’t it?
Anyway, on with the compatibility
check. Here the interface wanted to
check whether I was using a compatible
browser and checks Flash installation
and a few other necessaries. It soon
informed me that I needed to upgrade
to the latest version of Flash player,
which I was sure I had already done, but
it provided a handy link to update it, so
I took advantage and installed the latest
version only to find that when the
screen refreshed, it still reported that I
Championship Manager Online
needed to upgrade Flash and advised me
to download the latest version. I
scratched my head a little and tinkered
around a little with some browser
settings and checked that Flash was
installed Okay, but nothing I could do
would acknowledge that I had that
latest version of Flash and, without
getting a full bank of green lights on the
compatibility test, the interface would
not let me proceed any further. Puzzled,
I wondered whether it might be some
kind of problem with CM-Online not
allowing Firefox, but there on the panel
it quite clearly stated that my browser
was checked as supported. Running out
of ideas, I decided to try using Internet
Explorer anyway, just in case and, after
winding my way back through all the
options again in another browser, I
finally got all green lights and was
Bootroom Review: Championship Manager Online
Bootroom Review:
allowed to proceed. I can only assume
that, although the interface claims
Firefox to be compatible, there are
some issues. So far, not impressed, and I
haven’t even got into the game yet.
Another issue I spotted at this point was
that there had yet to be any email
address confirmation necessary that I
am so used to for all and any other
services I might sign up for. Indeed, I’m
told that I now have 24 hours to confirm
my mail address. Seemed a little
unusual to me and gave me the distinct
impression that getting hold of my
money was more important than any
form of security. I think it’s fair to label
me ‘concerned’ by this point.
Still, now that I had come this far, I was
keen to see what I had got myself into.
The next thing I was presented with was
a chance to choose my Assistant
Manager. Fair enough. A selection of
them are offered, each with a different
mugshot, so I set about looking for some
kind of profile or summary of the
abilities, in order to make an informed
choice and get the best man for the job.
After scouring around and clicking
everything, I came to the conclusion
that they have no abilities, nor is there
any difference between one and the
next, save for their avatar and their
name. On selecting one, I am then given
the opportunity to change his name. So
basically, I’ve just chosen a picture and
given it a name. Why on earth wasn’t I
just asked to do that then?
Choosing my club comes next. Feels like
I’m getting somewhere at last and, at
last, a feature which shows that some
thought has been put in. It’s revealed
that all the clubs in the game (real life
clubs, incidentally, from several
countries are available) are assigned
either Gold, Silver or Bronze status. At
game start, you are only given access to
those clubs that are in the Bronze
category, basically the smaller, less
prestigious clubs and, in order to take
control of a Silver or Gold club, you
need to have accumulated ‘manager
points’, which are awarded for winning
and/or drawing matches and are also
Page 37
Bootroom Review:
Championship Manager Online

given as reward for regular activity.

Seems quite a sensible approach and
stops everyone choosing Chelsea or Real
Madrid. This is fine by me, because, as a
staunch Gillingham supporter, I feel
reasonably confident that my team of
choice will not be among those sought
after Silver and Gold teams and I quickly
find them in the list and agree to take
over. Interestingly, I notice that my club
is given a three star rating (out of five),
but I have no idea exactly what this
means.

So, club selected, we proceed to the

main screen and I notice a little pop-up
window in the top right, which contains
my Assistant Manager (from here on in
referred to as the ‘assman’), who now
has a wealth of advice to help me find
my way around. This is quite a nice
feature and is invaluable to you on your
first steps. He has hints and suggestions
to offer at every screen you enter,
though the advice remains the same
every time you return to the screen.
Fortunately, though, you can easily send
him away until you have need of him
again and I have to admit that this is
quite well implemented. With the sheer
number of buttons and links on this
page, I’m glad he’s there to guide me.
There are links to forums, virtual
newspapers, complete with custom
headlines, help links, tables and much
more, but since I’ve only just arrived at
my new club, I think it best to
familiarise myself with the tools I have
to control my team, so I click on my
team name and I’m transported to a
virtual office, with a further array of
buttons and links for such things as
tactics, training, transfers and all the
goodies you’d expect.
Most prominent of the features on this
screen is a ‘To-Do’ list, which presents
me with all the tasks I need to complete
before the next match. It’s very nicely
laid out and I get the immediate
impression that this will become a very
useful and effective tool. Things are
starting to look up and I’m getting a
growing feeling that I might even enjoy
this game.
Concentration 48. Sleep inducement 100.
At this point, my assman is advising that
I get to know my players and tells me
where to go to see my squad. Sound like
a good place to start to me, so I duly
click the button as indicated and up
pops my squadlist. It’s at this point that
all my new found optimism is sent
crashing again. Since I’m managing a
club that I am very familiar with, I guess
I had expected to see familiar, real-life
player names and that’s exactly what I
get.
Unfortunately the players at the club are
those of the Gills in real life from
between two and three years ago! In
fact, some of these players in my squad
are no longer playing professional
football. Surely there must be a more
current database than this? I don’t want
to manage a club from the past. In fact,
I think I’d be less disappointed to have a
squad full of generated players. At this
point, I really am feeling that I’ve made
a big mistake signing up for this game.
Maybe I’m putting too much importance
on having an up-to-date database, but I
just can’t believe what I’m seeing.
Perhaps I just took it for granted after
being spoiled by the wealth of data in
FM over the years, but this is appalling.
Surely the boxed versions of CM have
had at least some semblance of a
current database? Why can it not be
included in the online game?
Well, I guess I’m stuck with what I’ve got
and I’m going to have to move past it, so
let’s take a look at some of the detail on
offer here. There’s definitely a lot of
data available to me to assess my
players, of which I seem to have many,
with the usual indicators of their playing
positions, their nationality, value, fitness
and all the information I could want,
although it would seem there is no way
to sort or filter the information that is
displayed on the screen. Clicking on a
player’s name calls up a very familiar

Page 38 Bootroom Review: Championship Manager Online


looking player profile which, apart from
some of the attributes having slightly
different wording, could so easily be
straight from FM. A throw-back, I guess
to the days when they were one and the
same. There are options here to move
players to/from the reserve squad
(though it would seem that there’s no
provision for a youth team), put the
player on the transfer list and all that
kind of stuff. Like I said before, very
similar to FM.
I don’t really see that there’s much
value to be had in walking you through
each and every screen and every mouse
click, so suffice to say that I made my
way around some of the many options,
fulfilling my duties as per my ‘To-Do’
list, until I had all my tasks ticked off
and was left with just preparation of
tactics in advance of the next match.
Up until this point, I wasn’t sure exactly
how the match experience would work,
but was assuming that there would be
yet another parallel to be drawn with
FM. I expected that I would have some
kind of ‘real time’ control of in-match
events and be able to perform
substitutions and tactical changes as the
match played out. When I came to set
up my tactics, however, I was made
acutely aware that this was not the
case.
In fact, the way it works is this. Before
the match, you must choose your
starting formation (which is infinitely
customisable and players can be
dragged to any position on the pitch)
and your starting line-up. You then put
together your team instructions, from a
very basic and limited array of options.
There are no individual player
instructions, nor any opposition
instructions available, so you really are
very limited on the influence you can
have on the style of play. Furthermore,
it then becomes apparent that there
will be no opportunity to change tactics
during the match, save for the facility
to preset contingency instructions along
the lines of “If 1 goal behind at minute
x, change to setup a” or “If drawing at
minute x, change to setup b”. I start to
wonder also, whether it is possible to
Bootroom Review:
Championship Manager Online
make substitutions during the match In conclusion, there’s nothing apparent
either and it later proves that it is not in this game that would even challenge
possible, unless the game auto subs a versions of SI’s old Championship
player on in place of an injured team- Manager titles of the past. Even the
mate, or I assume, if it has been much maligned CM4 would comfortably
preplanned via one of the contingency come out on top in a straight face-off
tactics. between them. It had far more depth,
gave more feedback, allowed dynamic
Quite honestly I’m shocked at this point. changes, had a more accurate (and
Back in the nineties, I used to play a almost more up-to-date) player
game called ‘In Off the Post’, a play-by- database and above all didn’t cost you
mail footy management game. IOtP’s three quid a month to play. In fact, if
mechanics were identical to this system you were planning on subscribing to CM-
and, at the time, I thought it was a good Online, instead send me your £3 and I’ll
solution to the problem of interacting send you my copy of CM4, which I still
with a snail-mail driven game system. have. You’d be getting more for your
That was 12 to 15 years ago and for money and I’m absolutely certain that
some reason, Eidos seem to think that you’ll get a thousand times the
this is the best way to implement a enjoyment.
MMOG. (Massively Multiplayer Online
Game, for anyone who isn’t fluent in Suffice to say that I have subsequently
21st century tech-speak.) Can they cancelled my subscription and am happy
really not come up with anything better? to wait as long as it takes for FML to
And for this they expect people to pay a arrive, at which point, hopefully, this
monthly subscription? This really is horrible, horrible game will die a very
laughable and quite frankly, I don’t quick and painful death.
really see that there is much purpose in
carrying on the trial of the game beyond
this point.
To be honest, I have attempted to play
the game on past this point and actually
see the match in progress, but I’m
afraid it just brings more
disappointment. There’s no graphical
display of what’s happening in the
match, other than an advancing clock
and some infrequent text commentary.
As discussed earlier, there’s no real-time
control over match events and no
interaction with your opponent, should
you be lucky enough to be scheduled a
fixture against another human manager
(there are only three others in my
league, the remaining twenty teams
controlled by the shabby excuse for AI)
and there’s precious few clues available
after the match to be able to work out
what went right and what didn’t. Quite
how you’re supposed to analyse your
opponent in order to find ways to
combat their style of play and tactics, I
have no idea.
Don’t worry, Cesc. We won’t
make you play CM Online again
Bootroom Review: Championship Manager Online Page 39
Bootroom Review:
5 Reasons to Love/Hate FM Live
Trying to describe Football Manager
Live to someone who has not played
the game is like nailing jelly to the
wall. The game’s concept is simple –
create a team, pick a bunch of players,
join a federation and pit your
managerial wits against real people as
you compete to win trophies, get
promoted or just avoid finishing last.
We could write you a lovely preview
telling you about the features in more
depth, including leveling up your skills,
wage auctions and so on, but none of
that would really help you to understand
whether this is the game for you. If ever
a game is set to divide opinion Football
Manage is it. Much like the Marmite
adverts claim, you will either love it or
hate it, and here’s why…
Page 40 Bootroom Review: 5 Reasons to Love/Hate FM Live
Why We Love FM Live
1.You get to test your metal against real
managers. Human minds are not limited
by lines of code, they make real,
surprising decisions tinged with a little
genius and perhaps a touch of madness
too. No two opponents are the same and
the tactical variations are limitless.
2.No other online community is as
friendly or respectful. You won’t be
bombarded with obscenities like other
games, or made to feel small because
you are not very good. You are much
more likely to hear “Good comeback,
unlucky at the end” than “Mwahahaha.
Eat this.”
3.Run the club your way. There is no
board to interfere with your decisions.
you are the boss and no-one else has any FM.
say. Choose your five key players and set
their contracts to automatically renew.
No-one can steal them off of you, giving
you time to build the team you want.
4.The transfer system is great. Each club
may be able to tie five players to them,
but the rest are on maximum contracts
of two seasons and they are fair game.
That means with a bit of careful
financial planning and a good sense of
timing you can turn your no hopers into
world beaters in a couple of seasons.
5.You can get straight to the matches.
There is no continue button and no
processing. It’s what most FM players
have wanted since the game became
more complex and time consuming. Pick
a federation that suits your schedule,
create your own competitions or just
play friendlies – you are guaranteed to
get loads more matches than you do in

5 Reasons to Love/Hate FM Live
Why We Hate FM Live
1.People always find a way to ruin
things. Whether it is hoarding players or
finding ways to exploit the match
engine, someone will always find a way
of bending the rules. Once one person
does it others follow. Eventually it
becomes the only way to compete
successfully.
2.You are not guaranteed to play against
a human manager. With time limits set
on when fixtures have to be completed
the right to play against the AI is
awarded too often. Winning the AI rights
becomes a mini-game to see who stays
online longest. Some managers will
refuse to play you, but stay logged on so
that they can win the AI rights and then
play your team when you are offline.
3.Levelling up is boring and there is no
challenge to it. You just pick the skill
you want and watch it count down until
Love it or hate it, Football Manager Live is going to drag
more than one game genre kicking and screaming into the next decade.
it is done hours or days later. The
system punishes the people that can’t
login as often, but might be better
managers. It would be much better if
it was based on achievements (which
are already in the game for cosmetic
purposes), then there would be
something to play for other than
just winning games.
4.It might be your team, but the
chances are you won’t be able to get
more than one or two players you have
heard of. The number of new players
added to the database when each
manager comes online keeps the choice
horribly limited. The sense of identity
you get from playing as Rochdale is
strangely lacking from managing your
created team.
5.There are no team talks or players
interaction. Your players’ morale can
send you into an unstoppable slump and
second half comebacks are much more
Bootroom Review: 5 Reasons to Love/Hate FM Live
Bootroom Review:
common. If morale is factored into the
game it would be nice to have some
control.
You don’t have to be into MMOs to love
FM Live. It’s a completely unique game
without comparison. You don’t even
need to be bored of FM to give it a go.
It really is a matter of individual taste.
Personally, I loved it for the first two
months then grew bored and frustrated.
While I won’t be moving on from the
beta to a subscription, if I had paid for
3 months I would still have got better
value than I do from most games.
Many others have kept playing for
months and are still totally in love
with the game.
The choice essentially comes down to
this: The good thing about FM Live is the
people. The bad thing about FM Live is
the people.
Page 41
Bootroom Preview:
Football Manager Handheld 2009
I have to admit I’ve only ever owned
one copy of Football Manager
Handheld - the 2007 edition - and I
just couldn’t get into it. The tactical
inflexibility was a killer and I just
couldn’t get my head around going
back to basics, particularly with just
commentary to tell me what was
happening during the match.
Thankfully FMH2008 introduced
customisable tactics and now FMH2009
takes the game another massive step
forward.
A variety of skin choices - black or...err...white!
Page 42 Bootroom Preview: Football Manager Handheld 2009
But could Potter keep Torquay at bay for 90mins?
Information on the new release is
sketchy at the time of writing, but like
its big brother FMH is gaining an extra
dimension. The new 2D match view is
geared up to the PSP with two zoom
levels – either the full pitch or a
rotated, zoomed in view that shows half
the pitch. It doesn’t quite show every
player, but it shows a lot more than the
text, which is still there of course.
FMH is meant to be a quick game.
Thankfully, SI have considered this in
implementing the 2D.
At the beginning of a move you may
only see the text and then the 2D kicks
in for the key action. The underlying
match engine is different to FM, but is
designed to be just as realistic, without
affecting the pace of the game.
All competitions have been updated and
naturally you benefit from the best
scouting network in existence so you can
be sure that player data is accurate. Not
only that, but you can now run up to
four leagues simultaneously, so if you
fancy doing a Venables and popping off
to Barcelona for a while before ruining a
string of English clubs then there is
nothing stopping you.
Finally, you have the choice of two
(count ‘em) different skins. It’s really
one skin in light and dark variations, but
at least you can control your level of
eyestrain.
With reserve teams having magically
appeared in last year’s game, FMH2009
looks like it could sate the appetite of
those who hanker for CM01/02 and
spend a lot of time on trains.
History Lesson:
Pele’s Prediction

Edison Arantes do Nascimento is I also predict the Wagon Wheel’s will get smaller
famous for three things: being an
absurdly brilliant footballer; advertising
a certain product that is helpful to
older men; and predicting that an
African nation would win the World
Cup by the year 2000. I am of course
talking about a gentleman better
known as Pele.

This month’s History Lesson isn’t about

the Brazilian genius (seriously, if you
don’t know much about arguably the
best player ever then where have you
been!) and it’s definitely not about
certain ‘upstanding’ products, so I
guess that leaves African football!

Pele’s prediction dates back to 1977,

but was repeated in 1990 when
Cameroon’s performances at the World
Cup in Italy put African football on the
map. Cameroon had qualified for the
finals just once before in 1982, not
getting past the first group stage.

In their opening game, they shocked the

world by beating the holders Argentina
1-0, despite having two players sent off
for x-rated challenges. They followed
that up by beating Romania 2-1, but
having already qualified then lost to
the Soviet Union 4-0 to become the
only country ever to top a group with
a negative goal difference.

A Colombia side featuring Carlos

Valderamma’s skills (and dodgy haircut)
were dismissed in the second round,
while England took until extra time to
get to grips with the game, running
out fortunate 3-2 winners before
breaking the nations hearts again in
the semi-final.
Before 1990, African teams had made
little impact on the World Cup. Egypt
were the first to take part in 1934,
but lost 4-2 to Hungary in the first round
(there were no group games back then).
African teams did not feature again
until 1970 when Morocco qualified, but
came bottom of a group that included
Peru and Bulgaria.
Zaire did nothing to enhance the
reputation of African football in 1974,
losing a whopping 9-0 to Yugoslavia, 3-0
to Brazil and 2-0 to Scotland.
The Brazil game produced one of the
most bizarre, comical incidents in World
Cup history and has subsequently been
wheeled out every time someone wants
to demonstrate just how poor African
football used to be.
Brazil lined up a free kick and as the
referee blew his whistle one of the Zaire
players hit on a cunning plan to clear
the danger. Charging out of the wall he
kicked the ball away before a Brazilian
player ever touched it, earning himself a
booking in the process. Type ‘Zaire free
kick’ into YouTube if you want to check
it out – it really is a timeless classic!
The first World Cup win for an African
nation came for Tunisia in 1978 when
they beat Mexico, but perhaps more
impressive was the 0-0 draw against
West Germany, who at that time held
the trophy. Those first signs of
improvement were followed up four
years later, when Algeria narrowly
missed qualifying from Group 2 on goal
difference having won two of their
games (including a defeat this time for
West Germany) and Cameroon missed by

Page 43 History Lesson: Pele’s Prediction


an even slimmer margin – goals scored –
having drawn all three of their games.
With two qualifying berths, Africa now
stood a better chance of progressing.
In1986 Morocco topped a group which
included England, Portugal and Poland,
although Algeria crashed out with just
one point from their game against
Northern Ireland. Unfortunately,
Morocco met West Germany in the
next round – this time the Germans
were prepared and duly dumped
Morocco out of the competition.
Cameroon’s 1990 quarter final
appearance continued the upwards
trend and it is easy to see why Pele
believed an African winner was not
far away. Although Egypt came bottom
in their group they held Romania and
Republic of Ireland, while England took
64 minutes to clinch their 1-0 win.
It was round about this time that the
phrase ‘There are no easy games in
football anymore’ first surfaced.
The strong performance of African
teams in 1990 had a benefit as three
places in the finals were made
available. Neither Cameroon or Morocco
could match their previous success, both
coming bottom of their groups, but first
timers Nigeria progressed from a group
where Bulgaria and Argentina had the
same number of points. Nigeria’s 3-0
win against Bulgaria put them through,
though amazingly Bulgaria still took
second place. Nigeria failed to make it a
second quarter final appearance, though
it took eventual finalists Italy extra time
to win.
An African nation would have to win the
1998 World Cup for Pele’s prediction to
come true, but with Cameroon, Morocco
and post-Apartheid South Africa all
failing to get past the group stages all
hopes rested on Nigeria, who had again
topped their group. Unfortunately
Denmark had other ideas, thumping
them 4-1. Even so, Africa’s allocation of
final places grew further to five.
By this point, Africa’s biggest problem
was that while progressing as a
History Lesson:
Pele’s Prediction
continent, no one individual team could
sustain a challenge. 2002 saw Tunisia
and Nigeria come bottom of their
groups, while Cameroon and South
Africa narrowly missed qualification.
Only new boys Senegal progressed after
a famous opening day victory over
holders France – straight out of the ‘we
saw it coming’ text book of World Cup
shocks.
Senegal made it past Sweden in the
second round, but a loss to an emergent
Turkey side meant that a first semi-final
appearance for an African nation
remained a dream. The total failure of
strong sides like Cameroon and Nigeria
to make the last World Cup in 2006
meant that four first time qualifiers
featured instead – Ghana, Togo, Angola
and Ivory Coast. Only Tunisia had made
it before and they came bottom of their
group. Ghana qualified, but they fell at
the next hurdle, losing 3-0 to Brazil.
Looking into the future, perhaps the
African continent has it’s best chance of
success in 2010, when South Africa host
the tournament. History shows that
climate makes a difference, with
European teams consistently failing to
win in the southern hemisphere and vice
versa. Maybe Pele was only out by 10
years. Except…
…African football is plagued with
problems. Famine, poverty, disease,
politics, corruption, war and genocide
are not the greatest backdrop for
competing with the richer European
countries or even South America. There
are plenty of world class Individuals such
as Didier Drogba, Michael Essien and
Samuel Eto’o, but the biggest African
stars almost all play in Europe.
There is no money in grass roots football
and limited opportunity for most young
men and there are plenty of
unscrupulous people ready to take
advantage. There are thousands of
unaccredited football academies,
particularly in Ghana and Ivory Coast, all
selling the promise of fame.
Oh hokey-cokey-cokey.
Knees bend arms stretch ra-ra-ra.
History Lesson: Pele’s Prediction Page 44
History Lesson:
Pele’s Prediction
In reality they are set up to extort
families’ life savings or even the deeds
of their house on the slim hope of their
child becoming the next African
superstar. The academies effectively own
the boys and promise to take them to
Europe for trials. In short they are
trafficked – travel to Europe can only be
illegal for these boys. In 2007 a badly
damaged fishing trawler containing 130
dehydrated men washed up on the
shores of Tenerife. Among the men were
15 boys who believed they were on their
way to play for Marseille or Real Madrid.
Players from all over Africa move to
Ghana and Ivory Coast in the hopes of
gaining a passport, assuming a new
nationality in the hopes of fame and
fortune. Poorly run national governing
bodies make it easy for European clubs
to cherry pick the best young players,
but for most, cleaning streets is a more
likely occupation.
Be honest, you had no idea where these countries were did you.
Page 45 History Lesson: Pele’s Prediction
While FIFA are trying to put proper
foundations in place, English Premier
League bosses are trying to sell one
game of their obscenely wealthy league
around the world. It is impossible not to
agree with FIFA president Sepp Blatter in
condemning the sheer arrogance of the
scheme – and agreeing with Blatter is
not something I like to do.
The strongest league in Africa is in South
Africa, the richest country on the
continent and the only African country
with a playable league in Football
Manager. Prior to the formation of the
Premier Soccer League in the 90s,
football in South Africa was heavily
affected by racial segregation. The all
white Football Association of South
Africa (FASA) dates back as far as 1892 –
the earliest reference I can find to
football on the African continent (though
I am happy to be corrected).
Other South African football associations
were formed in the early 1900s, again
based on racial segregation. The national
team were banned from the World Cup
between 1966 and 1990, and from the
African Cup of Nations from 1959-1992
because of the apartheid system.
Egypt have a much longer history of
competitive football – their national
team featuring in the 1934 World Cup,
while their current domestic league is
possibly the longest running in Africa,
having been founded in 1948. Tunisian
league football seems to date back as
far as 1921, though Wikipedia shows two
sets of winners, before and after
independence.
The formation of the Confederation of
African Football (CAF) in 1957 appears to
be the major catalyst for competitive
football in Africa. Leagues in Cameroon,
DR Congo (formerly Zaire) and Algeria
were formed in the early 60s, while
Nigeria took until 1972 to catch up. In
all, Wikipedia lists 55 African countries
with organised leagues. Perhaps
‘organised’ is not always the most
appropriate word, but there is far
greater depth to African football than
most would expect.
The African Cup of Nations pulled in
respectable TV audiences in much of
Europe, perhaps because of the number
of European based players that are
familiar. Egypt were the last hosts and
winners, but few would predict them to
do well in the next World Cup.
For African football to truly progress, it
will have to rid itself of corruption and
match fixing (or get better at it – 31-0 in
a playoff game is hardly going to go
unnoticed!), distance itself from
witchcraft, sort out the infighting that
has plagued many of the top national
teams and retain it’s best players.
For now, many of the best players that
don’t play in Europe gravitate towards
South Africa, so if you fancy a challenge
take a look at our league guide, pick a
team and give it a go.
League Guide:
South Africa

The Premier Soccer League (PSL)

is the current incarnation of the
National Soccer League in South Africa.
Founded in 1996, the PSL has helped
raise the standard of football at club
level, providing the game with
better media coverage and much-
improved revenue through strong
sponsorship deals.

There are sixteen clubs in the Premier

Soccer League. The season begins in
August and finishes in May. Teams play
each other twice (home and away),
receiving three points for a win and one
point for a draw. Each team is allowed
to register a maximum of 99 players for
the season and during a match, may use
3 substitutes from 7 named.

The champions of the Premier League

and the second placed team advance to
the African Champions League, while the
third placed team and the South African
Cup winners advance to the African Cup
Winners Cup, which is the African
equivalent of the UEFA Cup.
The bottom team in the Premier League
is automatically relegated and replaced
by the winners of the First Division. The
second from bottom side in the PSL must
enter into the play-offs with the 2nd,
3rd and 4th places in the First Division -
the play off winner claims the 2nd
promotion berth.
Ajax Cape Town
Ajax CT is the South African feeder team
for Ajax Amsterdam. They were formed
in 1999 when two Cape Town-based
teams, Seven Stars and Cape Town Spurs
merged. Ajax CT play their home games
at the 35,000 all seater, Athlone
Stadium. Current holders of the South
African FA Cup, they will be playing
continental football in the 2007-08,
African Cup Winners Cup. One player to
look out for is 25 year old forward,
Nathan Paulse, who has one cap for the
South African national team.
• Team strengths: A good strong 1st team • Wages available: £5,250 per week
squad, capable of qualifying for a
continental competition
• Team weaknesses: Lacks a proven goal
scorer to play alongside Paulse
• Wages available: £8,000 per week
• Transfer funds: £45,000
• Predicted finish: 5th
AmaZulu
AmaZulu are based in the city of Durban.
Formed in 1932, the club was originally
known as Zulu Royals. Nicknamed
‘Usuthu’ (a Zulu war cry), their home is
the 20,000 Princess Magogo Stadium. The
versatile Lovers Mohlala, is perhaps their
best known player.
• Team strengths: Good creative
midfielders with the potential to
score goals
• Team weaknesses: Defence needs
strengthening if they are to have any
chance of a top half finish
• Transfer funds: £135,000
• Predicted finish: 14th

Page 46 League Guide: South Africa

 League Guide:
South Africa

Bidvest Wits Bloemfontein Celtic Golden Arrows

Founded in 1921, the team is nicknamed
'The Clever Boys' or 'The Students'
because of their close affiliation with
the University of the Witwatersrand.
The 8,000 Bidvest Stadium in
Johannesburg is their home ground and
goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs is the
player to watch.
• Team strengths: A good combination of
youth and experience in defence
• Team weaknesses: Lacking quality
cover in midfield
• Wages available: £11,250 per week
• Transfer funds: £275,000
• Predicted finish: 13th
Regarded as one of South Africa’s
wealthiest sides the Celtic’s were
founded in 1969 (as Mangaung United).
Their home is the 25,000 seater
Bloemfontein Stadium and with a large
fan base, are one of the best supported
sides in the league. The player to keep
an eye on is 24 year-old Ugandan
international defender, Timothy
Batabaire, who has the potential to be a
leading star in the league.
• Team strengths: A good strong defence
• Team weaknesses: Midfield will need
to be improved if a top half finish is
to be achieved
• Wages available: £9,250 per week
• Transfer funds: £130,000
• Predicted finish: 8th
Formed in 1996, Golden Arrows are
relatively new to South African football.
They play their home games at the
10,000 all seater King Zwelithini Stadium
in Durban. Their best player is the 27
year-old goalkeeper, Brendan Wardle.
• Team strengths: Good creative
midfield which links up well with
attack
• Team weaknesses: Weak and
sometimes error prone defensive unit
• Wages available: £6,000 per week
• Transfer funds: £45,000
• Predicted finish: 12th

Black Leopards Free State Stars

Formed in 1983, the Leopards are a
relatively new club. Based in
Johannesburg’s Limpopo province they
play their home games at the 10,000
capacity Thohoyandou Stadium.
Attacking midfielder, Christopher
Netshidzivhe is their star player and will
attract attention from some of the
bigger teams in the PSL.
Free State Stars are based in
Bethlehem, Free State province.
Originally founded in 1979 and
previously known as Qwa Qwa Stars,
they play their home games at the
20,000 all seater Charles Mopeli
Stadium. Their best known player is the
29 year-old South African international
forward, Jimmy Kauleza.

• Team strengths: Good attacking • Team strengths: Experienced

players
• Team weaknesses: Shortage of quality
defenders
• Wages available: £6,000 per week
• Transfer funds: £45,000
• Predicted finish: 11th
defenders
• Team weaknesses: No real squad
depth, especially in midfield
• Wages available: £6,750 per week
• Transfer funds: £45,000
• Predicted finish: 15th

Show no fear - even when boot meets head!

League Guide: South Africa Page 47

League Guide:
South Africa
Jomo Cosmos
Jomo Cosmos are based in Johannesburg
and are owned and coached by South
African soccer legend Jomo ‘Black
Prince’ Sono. The club was previously
called Highlands Park, but was changed
to its current version in 1982 when Sono
ended his playing career in the USA and
decided to name his newly bought club
after his former NASL club, the New York
Cosmos. The Cosmos play their home
games at the 8,000 capacity Mehlareng
Stadium. 29 year-old Botswana
international forward, Diphetogo
Selolwane is their best known player.
• Team strengths: A good strong 1st
team squad, capable of mounting a
serious title challenge
• Team weaknesses: Could do with a
couple of new defensive players to
provide additional cover
• Wages available: £7,750 per week
• Transfer funds: £45,000
• Predicted finish: 7th
A near-capacity crowd looks on as the referee sports the new ‘red kit’
Page 48 League Guide: South Africa
Kaizer Chiefs
Founded on 7 January 1970 in Soweto,
Johannesburg, the Kaizer Chiefs are
South Africa’s best known club.
Nicknamed ‘Amakhosi’, which means
‘lords’ or ‘chiefs’ in Zulu, they usually
play their home games at the 60,000
seater Loftus Stadium. Current star
player is Zimbabwe international
midfielder, Nengomashe who has been
playing at the club since 2001.
The Chiefs are currently banned by the
Confederation of African Football (CAF)
from competing in African club
competitions until 2009 after their
abrupt withdrawal from the 2005 CAF
Confederation Cup.
• Team strengths: Strong squad, one of
the best in the league
• Team weaknesses: Extra midfield cover
would be welcome
• Wages available: £16,000 per week
• Transfer funds: £275,000
• Predicted finish: 3rd
Orlando Pirates
Formed in 1937, Orlando Pirates are
South Africa’s oldest football club . They
play their home games at the 65,000
capacity Ellis Park. Hailing from Soweto,
the ‘Buccaneers’ as they are nicknamed,
are the nearest rivals to the Kaizer
Chiefs. Lebohang Mokoena is the star of
the current team and with four
international caps to his name, the 20
year-old looks to have a great future in
the game.
• Team strengths: A strong 1st team
squad, capable of winning the league
• Team weaknesses: Lack of a quality
back-up goalkeeper
• Wages available: £14,750 per week
• Transfer funds: £275,000
• Predicted finish: 2nd
Platinum Stars
The club is the historical descendent of
Highlands Park, one of the most
successful and popular teams in the old,
whites-only apartheid era South African
league. They play their home games at
the 33,000 all-seater Royal Bafokeng
Sports Palace. League Runners up in the
2006-07 campaign, they will be playing
continental football in the 2007-08
African Champions League. Their best
player is 28 year-old defender Michael
Khaile.
• Team strengths: Strong athletic
defence
• Team weaknesses: No real depth in
midfield
• Wages available: £7,000 per week
• Transfer funds: £130,000
• Predicted finish: 10th

Thanda Royal Zulu
Based in Durban, Thanda Royal Zulu play
their home games at the 25,000 all
seater, PAM Brink Stadium. They are
formerly known as Hellenic FC and then
Benoni Premier United until 2006. Their
current star is left winger, Scara
Ngobese.
• Team strengths: Creative attacking
midfielders
• Team weaknesses: Overall depth of
the
squad will need to be dramatically
improved if they are to avoid the drop
• Wages available: £8,750 per week
• Transfer funds: £22,000
• Predicted finish: 16th
Santos FC
Santos Football Club or simply Santos,
also known under their sponsored title
as Engen Santos are based in
Lansdowne, Cape Town. Established in
Heideveld, Cape Flats in 1982, they
share the Athlone Stadium with nearest
rivals, Ajax CT. Zimbabwe international
centre half, Zvenyika Makonese is their
number one player.
• Team strengths: A good defence built
around Makonese
• Team weaknesses: Wide midfield will
need to be looked at
• Wages available: £7,000 per week
• Transfer funds: £45,000
• Predicted finish: 9th
Mamelodi Sundowns
Current league champions, Mamelodi
Sundowns play their home games at the
Loftus Stadium in Pretoria. Founded in
1970, the Sundowns are nicknamed ‘The
Brazilians’ in reference to their kit,
which is the same as the colours of the
Brazilian national team. Most promising
player in the current squad is Vuyo
Mere, who at the age of 23 is a full-back
with great potential.
• Team strengths: Strong squad that has
what it takes to retain the title
• Team weaknesses: None really, though
you may wish to bring in additional
defensive cover
• Wages available: £22,500 per week
• Transfer funds: £450,000
• Predicted finish: 1st
Super Sport United
Formerly known as Pretoria City, Super
sport United play their home games at
the 25,000 all seater Atteridgeville
Super Stadium. Liberian international,
Anthony Laffor is the current star of the
first team.
• Team strengths: Experienced central
defenders
• Team weaknesses: Overall depth of
the squad will need to be improved
• Wages available: £10,500 per week
• Transfer funds: £275,000
• Predicted finish: 6th
League Guide: South Africa
League Guide:
South Africa
Moroka Swallows
Founded in the 1940’s (under the name
Congregated Rovers), the Swallows play
their home games at the 5,000 all
seater, Germiston Stadium in
Johannesburg. Left winger, Patrick
Thwala, is the player to watch. At 25,
he has played once for the South African
national team, but has the potential to
add to this.
• Team strengths: Good, experienced
forwards
• Team weaknesses: Defence will need
to be strengthened
• Wages available: £10,750 per week
• Transfer funds: £130,000
• Predicted finish: 4th
South Africa is the only playable African
nation in Football Manager 2008 and it’s
not the easiest place for the casual
gamer. You will never be able to attract
top overseas players and you will
struggle to keep hold of your own stars
once the European clubs begin to show
an interest. Nevertheless, the Premier
Soccer League is a great place to start a
truly global career game. Cut your teeth
in the Premier Soccer League, build a
side capable of winning the African
Champions League and who knows, a big
European or South American club may
approach you.
Page 49
Bootroom Feature:
Myth Busters
Can FM's AI really take a Didier syle swan dive?
Here at The Bootroom we like to give
our readers a chance to interact, so we
are offering you the opportunity to
vote for your favourite introduction to
this article.
OK, choice number one is the Toyah
Wilcox lisp, bought to you by the Sun’s
headline writing team. Cue song…”It’s a
myth-tery, oh it’s a myth-tery.”. Choice
number two has an 80s film theme…
“When there’s something strange in the
neighbourhood, who you gonna call
MYTHBUSTERS!” Choice number three is,
well, just shut up and get on with it.
Press your buttons…. now! Quick
count…and… oh… So, in this month’s
issue we are looking at some FM myths
and rating them so that you know
whether there is any truth in them.
There, that was easy.
The AI Cheats
We all know the situation; you’re 3-0 up
against struggling cannon fodder, about
to clinch the league title then WHAM!
(that’s just a sound effect not another
rubbish 80s music reference), all of a
sudden they come back at you; 3-1, 3-2,
Page 50 Bootroom Feature: Myth Busters
3-3, 3-4 and then the final whistle. Your
previously invincible team then goes on
a five game losing streak to finish an
unlikely second. This, of course, is
because the AI detected that you are too
good at the game and had to find a way
to balance things out.
Well, actually no it isn’t. For a start the
match engine does not know the
difference between a human manager
and an AI manager. Software is generally
divided into modules – little black boxes
that know nothing of the world outside
of themselves. The match engine module
is designed to accept two inputs, one
from each manager. It does not
distinguish between human or AI.
In fact it would take double the code to
recognize certain situations and then
force a goal. For every kick of the ball
the match engine would have to be sure
of making it go one way rather than the
other. When would you start and stop
this process? The complexity behind
achieving something like this far
outweighs the complexity of balancing
the game and bug fixing other issues.
Rather than reducing the effect of
morale or tweaking the over
effectiveness of pace or dribbling, SI
would check every kick of the ball to
ensure a goal was scored? Except, of
course, we know they have fixed all of
those issues over the last three or four
years to keep the game realistic.
Myth Buster Rating: 0/10 – A total non-
starter this one. Simply not true, or even
feasible.
Super-Keepers
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Superman?
No, it’s the opposition goalkeeper. You
have 23 shots on target and not one
single goal, then the oppositions striker
breaks his 15 game goal drought to score
with their only shot on target. 1-0 to
them and who is the man of the match –
it’s the goalkeeper.
This has to be FM’s number one
conspiracy theory and dates back to well
before the built-from-scratch turkey that
was Championship Manager 4. Surely we
can’t deny this one, right? Right?
Actually, as a conspiracy theory we can.
The phenomenon occurs partly because
the game does not make it clear
whether a goal chance is clear cut and
then gives the keeper too much credit
for a simple save. What you are seeing is
simply a rating mistake and it can
happen for good or bad keepers,
including yours.
The new goalkeepers kit goes down
a storm with the ladies.

So does the keeper gain a confidence
boost from his ever increasing rating?
Perhaps, but even then there are still
two flaws in the super-keeper theory.
First of all, a real goalkeeper would
naturally gain confidence from making
easy saves. Keepers like to handle the
ball. Secondly, if your strikers stick it in
the top corner instead of down the
keeper’s throat then it doesn’t matter
how good the keeper is. We’ve all seen
the commentary line “No keeper in the
world would have saved that” and don’t
pretend you haven’t.
Myth Buster Rating: 4/10 – The poor
ratings calculation certainly makes it
look real, but there is no invisible
barrier to you scoring.
The AI Has Sussed
My Tactics
Newspaper journalists refer to this as
‘second season syndrome’. It normally
applies to promoted teams who did well
the first year, then end up fighting
relegation in the second year. In FM it
really applies to any human manager
that exceeded expectations in the first
season.
Previously successful tactics that went
unchanged for a year suddenly seem to
become worse than useless, with 30-
goal-a-season strikers going on massive
scoring droughts. I’ll leave tactics
expert ‘wwfan’ to explain this one:
The AI susses out England's tactics
and makes them play like pub players.
Then doesn't everyone.
“Once you have reached a level of
success opposing teams will begin to be
more conservative against you and are
thus tougher to break down. You need to
work out how to do it. Your tactics are
not 'sussed', just not appropriate for the
situation you are now in.”
This actually leads to a second variation
on the myth – re-ranking. All teams in
FM have a reputation score. The rumour
was that this would be re-ranked at
certain key points. The end of the
season would be one of those key
points.
SI inform us that this is not strictly true.
Re-ranking occurs constantly throughout
the season – as your results affect your
league position, so the opposition
reassesses the threat you pose. This is
exactly how it should be.
However, it is clear that the biggest
changes in reputation do happen in
between seasons as final league
positions are sorted and qualification for
continental competitions are sorted.
Again, this is perfectly correct.
Using an example close to my heart, no-
one can deny that Portsmouth entered
this season with a higher reputation
based on winning the FA Cup and thus
qualifying for the UEFA Cup, or that
home goals were much harder to come
by after thrashing Reading 7-4.
Looking at this from another angle, what
are tactics exactly and how would you
suss them out? Is it just the formation,
or the combination of instructions? What
happens if one instruction changes?
When is a tactic sufficiently different
that the AI is fooled?
Clearly coming up with something that
completely gazumps your tactics would
be very difficult, giving more credence
to the idea that opposing teams have
simply become more conservative.
Myth Buster Rating: 3/10 – The AI’s
mindset does change, but it plays
defensive rather than sussing you out as
such.
Bootroom Feature: Myth Busters
Bootroom Feature:
Myth Busters
The Famed Everton Bias
We seacrhed Google for 'Collyer' and
'Everton'. All we could find was Ov
paying £1000 to charity to buy a
signed shirt, then donating the shirt
to a sick child. Dirty rotten cheat!
Ov Collyer who founded SI is a well
known Everton fan. In old versions of
the game Everton used to do rather
well. Put two and two together and
what do you get? Well probably five, but
we’re not entirely convinced.
In the 80s Everton were regular top ten
finishers (and champions twice), as they
have been four out of the last six years.
When Championship Manager appeared
on the scene and took hold of our lives
Everton could be seen as
underachieving. It is easy to believe that
the rose tinted specs were on and
players were rated according to
expectation rather than actual
performance.
Ov has of course denied any such bias
and as the development and research
teams have become larger and the rules
and guidelines stricter so the database
has become more realistic and less
prone to individual influence. There is
certainly no bias now. But then Ov left
SI before returning to make FM Live.
Coincidence?
Well we have no hard evidence and the
Ov Collyer denies it, but we don’t care
about reason or logic…
Myth Buster Rating: 7/10 – There’s no
smoke without fire!
Page 51
Newshound:
October News
Download the podcast...NOW!
The Podcast Strikes Back
Good news for those with an hour and
a bit to kill – Studio Director Miles
Jacobson has started a new season of
podcasts. For those yet to ‘tune in’ the
podcasts are 70% football talk, 20%
stuttering whilst eating crisps and about
10% Football Manager.

There are a few FM2009 features that

have only been announced through the
podcast and the football discussion is
a good deal more worthwhile than
anything BBC’s Match of the Day can
offer, but we’re not quite sure why we
need an explanation of every background
noise, or who’s left the room.

You will need to download iTunes to hear

the podcast, but it’s free so that’s hardly
a tragedy.

Stop Press
Miles is giving us a bit of a nightmare at
the moment by dropping lots of FM2009
features into his podcasts, plus other
news. So very quickly, FM2009 will be
available for download on Steam, as will
the demo. The long promised blogs will
be starting as we go to print, which no
doubt means the following list of
features that we didn’t fit into our
preview will be out of date already.
Here goes…
Deep breath – The distance players
run will be tracked; Team reports are
improved; There are changes in team
awards; More options for applying for
jobs while on holiday; Subs that are on
for a short time won’t get a six rating,
which means a more accurate average
rating; You can ask for specific feeder
clubs once you have gained the board’s
trust; Better loan options; Stadium
expansions are timed for off season not
during the season; B team relationship
improved; French ‘joker’ rule included;
Squad numbers can be retired; Inactive
teams have been improved for better
stats; Citizenship rules improved; Pundits
comment about referee performance;
Real life injury histories included where
possible; New match engine sounds have
been included.
FM Live Goes, er, Live Best Price for FM2009
Beta testing on FM Live is now drawing Those of you yet to pre-order FM2009
to a close and the first ‘real’ gameworld might want to take a look on
is due to go online on 27th October. www.shopto.net. They are offering the
According to footballmanagerlive.com game at a very reasonable £24.99, while
the remaining gameworlds will come Amazon, Game, Play and HMV all quote
on line on 28th/29th/30th October and £29.99. They quote the RRP as £39.99,
early November. but we would suggest you avoid
anywhere that actually quotes that price
The gameworlds are filling up, some when you can get it for nearly half of
more than others so make sure you take that.
a look on the official site and get on the
gameworld that suits you the best.
The subscription costs are £22.99 for 3
months, £43.99 for 6 months and £72.99
for 12 months. That’s about 29, 56 and
93 Euros.
For more information look for a thread
title ‘Football Manager Live Pre-Order
FAQs’ on SI’s FM Live General Questions
forum.

Page 52 Newshound: October News

Next Month...
Football Manager 2009
...we give the new game a good testing and reveal all

in association with

The Bootroom - Issue 4 October 2008