Championship Manager Thread

[billyireland]

On the subject of money, I forgot to mention that I have almost 200mn in the bank! (Euro's)

[DutchFootballRulez]

Money is made by profiting Player + Staff salaries vs. Gate Receipts, Sponsorship and Transfer Income, not to mention where u finish in the League and winning cup competitions.

[Tony Cheval]

Tried unsuccessfully to play some CM this evening. Unfortunately managed to snap my CD. Not good.

I know it's a touchy subject, but did a noCD crack ever come out?

[Greddy]

On the subject of money, I forgot to mention that I have almost 200mn in the bank! (Euro's)

I have Close to 400mn euros, but to be fair I'm playing with Barcelona. I just sold Ronaldinho yesterday:(. It broke my heart to do so, but Bayern offered me 70mn and since I didn't think he could possibly get any better(he had just won the FIFA world footballer of the year) I couldn't refuse. On the bright side, It was Barca's Highest transfer fee ever, and it got my name in the record books once again.

[Bonji]

I have Close to 400mn euros, but to be fair I'm playing with Barcelona. I just sold Ronaldinho yesterday:(. It broke my heart to do so, but Bayern offered me 70mn and since I didn't think he could possibly get any better(he had just won the FIFA world footballer of the year) I couldn't refuse. On the bright side, It was Barca's Highest transfer fee ever, and it got my name in the record books once again.

I have a new game going playing with Barca. Where did you play Ronaldinho? I have him as the attacking midfielder in the middle of a 4-4-2. He doesn't seem to have the crossing ability to make him a left winger, especially when you have Marc Overmars.

Thanks!

[Greddy]

I have a new game going playing with Barca. Where did you play Ronaldinho? I have him as the attacking midfielder in the middle of a 4-4-2. He doesn't seem to have the crossing ability to make him a left winger, especially when you have Marc Overmars.

Thanks!

I have him as a central midfielder who moves forward into the box. That serves two purposes.

1. It gets him in the box. Good things happen when Dinho gets in the box:)

2. Since he makes a lot of short passes to the strikers in the box, his completed passes ratio gos up.

3. Being in the center of the midfield gives him more chances to dribble the other teams players. Something which he is very good at.

I believe his average match rating was 8.96. Like I said, it was tough to sell him, but that money completely made up for my 70mn euro purchase of Thiery Henry. And Henry was my two time Fan Player of the Year.

On an unrelated topic, Querisma now want's to be transfered. He asked for a raise during the season and I promised him one in the summer. Well, about a month later, I decided that I would give him his new contract sooner, but even after I did, the "promise" never disapeared from his profile. I figured it would disappear during the summer and forgot about it. Well, at the end of the summer, he got angry because he didn't get his contract and is now upset with me. I'm hoping that it doesn't affect the teams moral.

[Greddy]

--------Saviola--------Henry-----------

---------------------------------------

Motta--------Ronaldinho-------Quaresma

-----------------Xavi------------------

Heinze----Marquez----Puyol-----Hinkel--


I bought Gabriel Heinze From PSG in my first season and picked up Andreas Hinkel on a free transfer from VFB Stuttgart the next. This is the team that won me the treble, something I've been unable to do in many many seasons with many different teams. That's why it hurt to so much to break it up:(

[astabooty]

i have heard and kind of seen in the game that ronnie isnt that good, at least when compared to his real-life self.
when i finally took over barcelona i had a 4-4-2 that i made which was veyr good imo, but i was bored of it so i decided to use rijkaard's 4-3-3 with ronnie on the left wing and it worked quite well with his assists and goals.
iirc he had run with ball, free role, gung ho,had an arrow point to the middle of the box which was the closest to goal you can set the arrow to, and his actual positioning was in between the midfield and the forward, not all the way up.
i am obvioulsy forgetting some things so you can try it out yourself, but i can send you my 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 if you want.

[GersMan]

Anyone in UK who can help me get the newest version of the game. I got a game from an in-law at Christmas which was 1) the old CM4 - and 2) broken.

At least it seems to be. Nothing ever seems to go right with it. My system is juiced and everything else works on it, but not the game. I'd like to buy a new one but I'm distrustful of some of these online stores. Anyone with BS Cred who can help me out please PM me.

[Fleck]

Man my team sucks. I cant seem to score at all. I have no money and have signed $1,000,000 in players (All my players' contracts ended at the same time, which sucked). What happens when you get relegated from the English 3rd Div. ?

All my prospects keep getting signed by other teams for some reason. the Youth Contracts seem pretty pointless to me.

[astabooty]

--------Saviola--------Henry-----------

---------------------------------------

Motta--------Ronaldinho-------Quaresma

-----------------Xavi------------------

Heinze----Marquez----Puyol-----Hinkel--


I bought Gabriel Heinze From PSG in my first season and picked up Andreas Hinkel on a free transfer from VFB Stuttgart the next. This is the team that won me the treble, something I've been unable to do in many many seasons with many different teams. That's why it hurt to so much to break it up:(

wow, only 3 additions but i like them all.
i would sell saviola if i were you only for the $$$. i would then try buying edgar davids, jerko leko (i have never been able to buy him but he is one of the best in the game), or another player who can go forward but is very good defensively. maybe even 2, it matters how well iniesta is coming along (he is out of position in the game just like xavi) and motta. overmars and quaresma should be enough for the right side, but if you feel not then buy another winger. oh ya xabi alonso would be great if you can get him for the center of your midfield.
.............henry
ronnie...............overmars
......leko/davids....xavi
........motta/cocu/alonso
would be awesome!!!

[Greddy]

wow, only 3 additions but i like them all.
i would sell saviola if i were you only for the $$$. i would then try buying edgar davids, jerko leko (i have never been able to buy him but he is one of the best in the game), or another player who can go forward but is very good defensively. maybe even 2, it matters how well iniesta is coming along (he is out of position in the game just like xavi) and motta. overmars and quaresma should be enough for the right side, but if you feel not then buy another winger. oh ya xabi alonso would be great if you can get him for the center of your midfield.
.............henry
ronnie...............overmars
......leko/davids....xavi
........motta/cocu/alonso
would be awesome!!!

I so wanted Davids but I didn't have the cash after buying Henry. The overall idea for last year was to bring down the average age of my team. I want to be able to keep the team together for a long time. With that in mind, I sold a lot of the old guard including Kluivert, Cocu, Overmars, and Luis Enrique. It obviously wasn't fun because I love these guys in real life, and selling Luis Enrique just felt plain wrong. I took that money and made a 60mn bid for Henry, which went up to 70mn in negotiations, and picked up Heinze for 5mn. Midway through my season Hinkel was negotiating a contract extention with Stuttgart and I was able to steal him. In this process I also transfer listed many of my B team players and I was able to decrease my payroll quite a bit. In the end I think I had 1.3mn euros salary room.

Iniesta is coming along very well, though I still use him mostly as a backup. He comes in very handy when the schedule gets crowded. I'm actually considering selling Saviola like you suggested, but I'm caught up on a couple of things. First, he has scored more goals for Barcelona than any other player on my roster(though Henry will surely over take him) and he's a fan favorite. Since the fans have simply loved all of my moves so far, I'm kind worried about selling one of only three players on the team to achieve * status. That said, he does have many suiters. Xavi Alanso would be great as well, but he'd cost an arm and a leg.

This year my goal is to bring more spanish players into the squad. I only plan on making one or two purchases max, but your suggestions were pretty good. And yes, that team would kick ass.

P.S. I forgot to mention that Victor Valdes is my GK. He's done pretty well for me, but that is one area that I'm looking to improve on. Do you know of any good young guys that won't break the bank, preferably spanish but he doesn't have to be.

[Greddy]

Man my team sucks. I cant seem to score at all. I have no money and have signed $1,000,000 in players (All my players' contracts ended at the same time, which sucked). What happens when you get relegated from the English 3rd Div. ?

All my prospects keep getting signed by other teams for some reason. the Youth Contracts seem pretty pointless to me.

Youth contracts are pretty much pointless unless you're a big enough club that young players will want to stay. That said, even big clubs let go of great players who are slow to develop, so not all of your possible future stars will be stolen.

You should spend a lot of your time on tactics. Try and figure out who your best 11 players are, then try and make a tactic that will get them on the field. Also, set your strikers and whoever else you want in the attack to "Gung Ho". That way they'll forget about all the other parts of the game and just try to score all the time.

You're working on a pretty small budget so go through your squad and decide who you don't want. Transfer list them and release the youth prospects. I know that the youth is your future, but when managing a lower division club (IMO) winning right now is all that's important. Winning means more money and better players in the future.

And don't forget that loans are your friend. Go into Player/Staff search, set the filter to "listed for loan", and set a reasonable wage limit. You might be able to pick up some skilled reserves from a Premiership club.

Hope that helps.

[billyireland]

Youth players are vital to making a steady rise as a club. At Tranmere, I have achieved unrealistic success throuh investing almost primarily in yongsters. The only players over the age of 21 I have bought have been Metteo Ferrari (27) & Michael Dawson (22/23), iirc. The rest I got for a few hundred grand and worked up to become worth tens of millions. They are cheap, willing to go to far smaller teams (Cerci went to Tranmere in the 2nd division from Roma, since he would get starting time), have smaller salaries, and can only get better (if you get the right coaching staff, which isn't hard at all). Youth players & fantastic training facilities are the way to go, regardless of your clubs stature..

[Peakite]

What happens when you get relegated from the English 3rd Div. ?

You get to play in the Conference.

[BillQ]

Well, three weeks after getting CM 03/04, I am an addict again. Been up every night the last week until 1:00am playing Sunderland. Currently have them 7th in the EPL in the 04-05 season.

One of my best pickups was Lionel Morgan, who I bought from Wimbledon for a steal and now is my best midfielder. Yesterday I did a search on him on BBC.co.uk about him and it said he has had a few knee injuries and that Wimbledon had just released him. Sad.

[Fleck]

And don't forget that loans are your friend. Go into Player/Staff search, set the filter to "listed for loan", and set a reasonable wage limit. You might be able to pick up some skilled reserves from a Premiership club. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the advice, I went out and got a couple good scorers to ignite my offense.

[Fleck]

How come throw-ins always go to the other team? That drives me crazy...

[Fleck]

Is anyone else having problems with the program crashing? Whenever it wants me to press enter for a yes/no question, and I press spacebar instead (because i use spacebar for the continue button) the program always crashes. "Array Access Out Of Bounds" Sucks big time...

[hertha supporter]

There are a lot of good players you can get on loan if you look well. Here's some good examples of high-profile players you might get on loan at the beginning of the game for a small club potentially.

Florent Sinama-Pongolle/Anthony La Tellec (Liverpool)
Kleber (Corinthians B of Brazil)
Borut Semler/ Bastian Schweinsteiger (FC Bayern Munich)
Hamit/ Halil Altintop (FC Kaiserslautern/ FC Schalke)
Kieron Richardson/Ricardo (Manchester United)
Andy Moogan (Everton)
Maarten Stekelenberg (Ajax, GK)
Mikael Forsell (Chelsea, but you have to wait until he's done at Birmingham)
Trond Fredrik Ludvigsen (Hertha BSC Berlin)

There's more to this, feel free to add on.