I walked away from my computer last night still not knowing. Blyth or Truro?
Blyth Spartans are the club I settled on more than a month ago now, having looked through the Vanarama North and South, skipping over every other club, including Truro City. The idea of Truro is growing on me though. They’re local, the fit the profile of a club that suits the premise of the save, and they’re probably a better side than I give them credit for, as I mentioned in the last post, I always consider Truro to be a struggling side at the kind of level they’re at now, although I think a lot of that is how I consider the standing of clubs from this area. Plymouth Argyle were a great example of this when they went on a run and got themselves promoted into the Championship, they finished as high as 10th in 2007-8, and then the wheels fell off, partly due to the inability to compete financially, and also down to the lack of desire from players to relocate to the South West to ply their trade. They now sit in League One having fallen as far as League Two and winning promotion last season. So maybe I am looking at Truro with a bit of scepticism, maybe they’re a better option than I had considered.
So I woke up, grabbed myself a coffee, set Football Manager to update from BETA to full release, and sat looking at my leagues.
They weren’t going to help me decide, but now is as good a time as any to check them out. All of the English leagues is a must, obviously, as I’ll be starting in the lowest division of England, whichever club it’s at. The Irish, Northern Irish and Scottish leagues were loaded, as they may represent an interesting first move, should I wish to pursue a change. I took out the two lowest Scottish leagues and the lowest Northern Irish leagues were also taken out, as I don’t see myself slogging through the divisions in those countries. Wales also weren’t included as I have no interest in managing there, although I have added all players of nationality from UK and Ireland to the database. The other countries, France, Germany, and Spain, were added as they will be options later in the save and I like to have them loaded from the start to keep teams developing throughout, more for the benefit of not having English dominance in the Champions League. I may come to regret leaving out Italy and less so Holland, but they’re countries I’m less likely to manage in, and can always be added at a later date.
Procrastination aside, I had to choose, otherwise this blog was going to be very short-lived.
I went with the local boys, a Cornish club for a Cornish manager! They really do fit with the idea of the save better, and although they may turn out to be a very short-lived first stop on my journey, I do like the idea of creating a connection to my local club, maybe one that can keep me coming back year on year.
So the club is decided, let’s have a look around at a couple of bits to wrap up, before we get into Pre-Season next time.
These are the stats I’ve started myself with, a Sunday League experience is pretty much the standard for this type of save, but I have given myself a National B license. I toyed with no badges, but the suggestion was National B, and although I did then take a look at dropping it down to a C license as a compromise, with all of the new Dynamics features this year, I didn’t want to put myself in a situation where the players wouldn’t play for me based solely on my starting stats.
My next move was to set up the squad view that I want to use, I’m not one for having lots of view set ups and flicking between them, I like to have the information I find most useful available to me, so I had a play and came up with this.
We’ll go through the squad next time, where I give a recap of Pre-Season and any signings, but right now I’m more interested in the information I have about each player in my squad. So the basics are there, information, name, position, and morale. I like to have my assistant’s opinion of a players best position there too, as sometimes they may suit a role but in a less natural position. I then get an overview of my assistant’s view on our quality, firstly current and then potential ability, as it gives me at a glance a chance to see any glaring weaknesses in our side. I then have a few contract details, which I think are vital especially at lower clubs, I’ve added in Contract Type and Appearance Fee, which are columns I’ve never used before, but at this level knowing which players will get paid more if I decide to rotate may just stop me from making any stupid mistakes, and gives me a rough idea of the squad’s average when it comes to making offers for other players. I then have my standard season stats, covering form, goals and assists. On the far right I’ve added a couple of items that tie in to the new features of the game – Each player’s standing in the Dynamics Hierarchy and their Injury Susceptibility, which is a rating coming from the new Medical Centre.
This view may be adapted from time to time, I’m not one for having lots and lots of individual stats on-screen, but I do like a general overview or what’s happening over a period of time, I’ll document any big changes to the view if and when they occur.
The last thing I like to cover on my first day at a club is the responsibilities of my staff, as although they may not be of a high calibre, I don’t feel it’s realistic to leave them with essentially no work to do as I cover everything myself. There is one issue with this right now though:
We have coaches, and physios, but not a single member making up a recruitment team, which means no scouting, no youth development, nothing. These are the things that I like to set up and get started straight away, but that can’t happen until I get some staff in, so expect some news on this in the near future.
Next time we’ll have a full pre-season round-up, including an overview of the friendlies, any transfer dealings, and my tactical set up for the upcoming season. Thanks for reading.
Comentários