FM 2020

[Highland Capital]

I downloaded it for free the other day and to be honest, I'm really hating it.  The last FM I've played was FM17 but I can't get into this at all.

[DrewDon]

I downloaded it last night in an isolation-induced boredom. I'm struggling to remember the last version I played before this. Anyway, after years of bemoaning Derek McInnes for a lack of creativity in the transfer market, basically the first thing I did with Aberdeen was to sign Jayden Stockley on a season-long loan from Preston North End. 

[IrishBhoy]

Bought this a few weeks ago and it’s driving me crazy. I’ve just been sacked by Dundee United and I’ve got a properly good team. I know it’s just a game but I’m genuinely angry and I’m in two minds wether to go back to an older save file and try and keep my job. I’ve not done it yet because I know it’s an absolute p***ks move and I should take my sacking on the chin,  but I was genuinely looking forward to the next few weeks taking Dundee United as far as I could and have no doubts I would have won the title in the next few seasons. I knocked back job interviews from Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen, Hearts, West Ham, Wolves and Leeds during my 5 seasons. There could be absolutely no doubt where my loyalties lay. To be sacked in the position I was in is an absolute slap in the face to the sacrifices I made, and has left me questioning if the relationship I had built with the Chairman was genuine. It may take a bit of time for me to fully recover from this mentally, and be able to trust people I believed I had a genuine friendship with. 
 

I started the save at Fulham and got sacked with 8 games to go in the first season as I sat in 7th place, but also only 4 points away from 3rd. Fair enough Fulham should be challenging for the title but I wasn’t miles away. 
Got offered the Dundee United job with 1 game of the season left as they sat top of the Championship, got promoted and then finished 6th in the Prem following season, which the board were delighted about. Next season was 7th but board happy as mid table was the expectation, however... following season I get lucky and sign 3 absolute stars on free transfers. Tavares from SLB, an LB called Marc Bola and a forward Julien Ngoy, who had me equal on points with Rangers and Celtic with 3 games of the season left. Ended up 3rd but qualify for Euro Cup II, which the board are naturally over the moon about, seeing as the expectation was mid table. 
 

All 3 players get transferred in the pre season with Tavares going to Athletico Madrid bringing in £30 million and the other 2 £10 million combined. Also sold Ian Harkes to some Chinese team for £8 million. 
 

Next season expectation is qualify for Euro Cup and admittedly I’m having a poor season sitting in 6th, but I win the Euro Cup beating Lazio in the final, who had Haaland up front. Get into my inbox after the game and the message says ‘Sack Looms Over Dundee United Boss’. Of course my next game is away to Celtic who have a multi million pound team of absolute superstars, and get beat 2-1. One day later I’m sacked. I would have thought winning a European trophy and leaving the club with almost £30 million in the bank might have gave me a bit of breathing space but obviously not.

Edited March 25, 2020 by IrishBhoy

[charger29]

Free week extended again. Ends on 1st April now.
Trying my first football manager game since 2011. There's so much stuff going on it's hard to know what to do. I'm finding the scouting and budgeting side of things incredibly confusing for a start.
I started as Queens Park with only 12 players in the squad, no physio, no gk coach and told not enough scouts either. Figured with only 12 players I shouldn't blow my 30k budget on one or two players and should just sign some players for free to fill out my squad first. Filled in some of the positions but was struggling to find a left back so I sent a scout out to look for one. He came back with players worth 200k. WTF am I supposed to do with that! I'm sure it's my fault for not telling him a max fee or something but I didn't see any setting like that.
Still playing a midfielder at LB just now. Tried looking in my reserves and u18s but there's about four RB's and only one LB who is a shite teenager.
I also got an email offering me Andy Goram as a GK coach but he wants more than twice as much wages as the board are willing to give, so that was pointless.
The only part of the game I'm enjoying just now is adjusting the tactics during a match. Will give it another week to try and figure things out. So frustrating playing a game I don't understand.

[CM.]

21 minutes ago, charger29 said:

Free week extended again. Ends on 1st April now.
Trying my first football manager game since 2011. There's so much stuff going on it's hard to know what to do. I'm finding the scouting and budgeting side of things incredibly confusing for a start.
I started as Queens Park with only 12 players in the squad, no physio, no gk coach and told not enough scouts either. Figured with only 12 players I shouldn't blow my 30k budget on one or two players and should just sign some players for free to fill out my squad first. Filled in some of the positions but was struggling to find a left back so I sent a scout out to look for one. He came back with players worth 200k. WTF am I supposed to do with that! I'm sure it's my fault for not telling him a max fee or something but I didn't see any setting like that.
Still playing a midfielder at LB just now. Tried looking in my reserves and u18s but there's about four RB's and only one LB who is a shite teenager.
I also got an email offering me Andy Goram as a GK coach but he wants more than twice as much wages as the board are willing to give, so that was pointless.
The only part of the game I'm enjoying just now is adjusting the tactics during a match. Will give it another week to try and figure things out. So frustrating playing a game I don't understand.

If you click "Staff" then "Responsibilities" you can alter certain things for other members of your staff to deal with to make the game more straight forward to you like scouting, training, recruiting staff, press conferences etc. That way all you're really doing yourself is player transfers/contracts and picking the team.

I stuck my Salford save to one side and decided to go Clyde since it'll be the closest I get to the real thing for now Signed goalie Brendan Pearson, Graham Webster from Montrose and a young loanee called McArthur from Dundee Utd for CB/RB cover. 

2nd at the end of August which I can't complain about. Seething about the 2 league defeats though, Falkirk I was cruising until Kieran Duffie decided to help out his former club big time by getting sent off. They'll just need to remain our bitches IRL when it all gets back to normal. Dumbarton scored a last minute winner against me that looked about 3 yards offside Ross Cunningham is a pler in it, few goals and assists already. 

 

 

 

[charger29]

If you click "Staff" then "Responsibilities" you can alter certain things for other members of your staff to deal with to make the game more straight forward to you like scouting, training, recruiting staff, press conferences etc. That way all you're really doing yourself is player transfers/contracts and picking the team.
I stuck my Salford save to one side and decided to go Clyde since it'll be the closest I get to the real thing for now [emoji38] Signed goalie Brendan Pearson, Graham Webster from Montrose and a young loanee called McArthur from Dundee Utd for CB/RB cover. 
2nd at the end of August which I can't complain about. Seething about the 2 league defeats though, Falkirk I was cruising until Kieran Duffie decided to help out his former club big time by getting sent off. They'll just need to remain our bitches IRL when it all gets back to normal. Dumbarton scored a last minute winner against me that looked about 3 yards offside [emoji38] Ross Cunningham is a pler in it, few goals and assists already. 

 
 
 

I think I may have to do that. Don't even know if I've got enough eligible players for cup games due to loan conditions.
Not sure I've got the patience for this type of game.

[Gourdie11]

I know this is a bit off topic...

But would anyone be interested in playing in a revamped Scottish league? I've just uploaded one to the steam workshop if it does tickle anyones pickle?

Consists of

20 leagues, 4 cups, prize money is done for the top 4 leagues 

[Homer Thompson]

5 hours ago, charger29 said:

I think I may have to do that. Don't even know if I've got enough eligible players for cup games due to loan conditions.
Not sure I've got the patience for this type of game.

You might be better off starting with a bigger club. More resources means more staff, which makes it easier to let them sort out training etc and will definitely help with scouting. Then you can start to take control of more stuff as you get to grips with it.

Being at a small club with no money or staff is a slog at the best of times!

 

[AsimButtHitsASix]

Speaking of delegation... does anyone do training or do you all pap it to the assistant?

I generally take over individual training but that's it

[charger29]

You might be better off starting with a bigger club. More resources means more staff, which makes it easier to let them sort out training etc and will definitely help with scouting. Then you can start to take control of more stuff as you get to grips with it.
Being at a small club with no money or staff is a slog at the best of times!
 

Might be a good idea. Maybe championship in England. Some of those clubs should have a decent amount of money. Should probably have watched a few explainer videos on YouTube first.
Will give it a few games into the season to see (just) how (bad) results are going with Queens Park first.

[Homer Thompson]

Speaking of delegation... does anyone do training or do you all pap it to the assistant?

I generally take over individual training but that's it

I leave training to the assistant, mainly because they new version has become overly complicated.

I only take individual training if I want to change a players position

[Ludo*1]

Had a Dundee save going for over 10 seasons and a crash dump setting me back 10 games and a transfer window back (Auto-saves monthly) has put me right off it.

Can't get into any new save.

[RandomGuy.]

46 minutes ago, Ludo*1 said:

Had a Dundee save going for over 10 seasons and a crash dump setting me back 10 games and a transfer window back (Auto-saves monthly) has put me right off it.

Can't get into any new save.

I started a new save, simmed 18 months, and then just looked through the leagues for a struggling side I fancied managing.

Ended up at a Bayer Leverkusen side sitting just outside the relegation zones in December. Due to starting the save then I couldnt get Kai Havertz to sign a new deal so lost him and now having to replace him, something I wouldve overcome if I started from the start.

Wee things like that which can reignite some interest in it, for me.

[IrishBhoy]

5 hours ago, AsimButtHitsASix said:

Speaking of delegation... does anyone do training or do you all pap it to the assistant?

I generally take over individual training but that's it

I sort individual training for any players on 3 stars or more, and once every 6 weeks or so go through the squad and add traits for them to learn. The main body of training though is left to the assistant. 

[CM.]

9 hours ago, Gourdie11 said:

I know this is a bit off topic...

But would anyone be interested in playing in a revamped Scottish league? I've just uploaded one to the steam workshop if it does tickle anyones pickle?

Consists of

20 leagues, 4 cups, prize money is done for the top 4 leagues 

Had a wee look at the photos on steam, looks decent. Why are Formartine and Leith in the Championship and Albion and Annan in league 1 though?

[IrishBhoy]

I wouldn’t mind having a go at one of these edited leagues. Did anyone watch the guy on YouTube that had Red Bull buying a team in Barcelona, and transferring some of the talents from Salzburg and Leipzig over? Ultimately I don’t know how satisfying it would be, as once the leagues/players have been tampered with its not the same game you are playing. In saying that I had Dundee United winning the Europa League in 2025/26, so the game is hardly realistic. 

[CaspianChris]

Even by FM standards Arbroath reaching the Betfred Cup semi finals is bizarre. 

[Highland Capital]

3 hours ago, CaspianChris said:

Even by FM standards Arbroath reaching the Betfred Cup semi finals is bizarre. 

I had save on an FM years ago where Buckie Thistle got to the Scottish Cup semis!

[CM.]

On 25/03/2020 at 09:59, C. Muir said:

I stuck my Salford save to one side and decided to go Clyde since it'll be the closest I get to the real thing for now Signed goalie Brendan Pearson, Graham Webster from Montrose and a young loanee called McArthur from Dundee Utd for CB/RB cover. 

2nd at the end of August which I can't complain about. Seething about the 2 league defeats though, Falkirk I was cruising until Kieran Duffie decided to help out his former club big time by getting sent off. They'll just need to remain our bitches IRL when it all gets back to normal. Dumbarton scored a last minute winner against me that looked about 3 yards offside Ross Cunningham is a pler in it, few goals and assists already. 

 

 

 

2nd going into the new year. Gap to Falkirk was 9 points in mid November and now down to 5 so still some title aspirations although I would be happy with a play off place tbh. Goodwillie got injured for a few weeks in September-October so signed free agent Chris Duggan to bolster my attacking options but he done f**k all in 5 apps, luckily only here till the end of the season then can bin him. At least somebody (Cunningham) could step up with the goals in his absence.

[DAFC.]

First time I’ve played this in about 25 years. Just plumped for a random League 2 team. Went Cowdenbeath. Any tips on signings, loans etc?