Nu blir denna post på engelska, då den skrevs för forumet på steam. Men vill även bevara denna anteckning här.
Three key points that make Football manager such a great game
1. The many challenges
Getting your club from where it is to where you want it to be is often a long road. Personally I think taking on a top notch club as your first job is a waste of challenge. This in my opinion should only be done to test tactics – if you already have the best players available and a top reputation you’re skipping alot of steps. Either working your way to that top notch job, by performing well with lower tire clubs and getting better job offers, or even better – transforming your club to be one of the best in the nation is just a great feeling. It takes time, but once you’re up there and managed to grab your first national title we go to the second step. The game is kind enough to simultaniously run a nation and a club, giving you more big title opportunities.
2. Staying on top
What’s so fascinating about Football manager is that once you reached the top of the mountain there are still several more mountains to climb. Winning the major continental titles can be one of the most frustrating challenges in the game, and truly simulating the reality of the game of football. While keeping your core and gradually changing parts as the players age can give you a domestic league dynasty with long runs as champion. But winning the champions league is a whole different cookie. You can prepare all you want – it will still be a goal one way or the other that decides your fate. The reason I write this post is because I recently lost the olympic games final as Spain U23 fell to Germany U23, 1-2, despite having 16-3 goal attempts. And in the same season (where I built a 7 season streak as serie A champions) lost to AC Milan in the champion league semis with 2-2 on away goals decision (having won away 1-0 and lost home 2-1 (despite 17-7 in attempts). But even a perfect season where you win all cups and league title will still leave me with thirst to give it another go.
3. Having a truly long career
I failed to mention this season on my save is 2044/45 season. In a career where I’ve won the premier league, the german league, the danish league and got the achivement scottish hero (getting a club from lowest league to highest in the nation). Tried but failed to win in argentina. And now I manage Bari and the Italian national team. I have also won the Euro’s and World cup as France, African nations cup as Senegal and Olympics as Italy. What is so exciting to me is that the parameters keep changing. Your squad either improves or declines as a year passes, it’s never the same game all over again. You have to find the talent – and as I have choosen clubs throughout my career that do not start with a big load of talent or cash, and have a low reputation – I generally have to find talented young players and turn them into stars, to get anyone else to join my clubs before being a top club in europe I really have to overpay and there is no chance of getting established stars that are playing for other clubs (only disgruntled ones or free agents join me). The fact that the game lets you play as long as you want to is an amazing feature – there are naturally zero actual players left in my simulation 30+ years into the game. You see the merits above, and the clubs were Wolverhampton, Odense BK, Hoffenheim, Annan, Godoy Cruz. I never made it easy on myself and I still love this game.
