set myself as a former semi pro footballer, or something like that. ah well, i like a challenge....got a couple of players from Accrington reserves on loan now

Does anyone feel the issue of 'losing the dressing room' is being ever so slightly overplayed on this version?



I am in League 1 having been promoted from League 2. I signed 3 or 4 really good players who are really too good for League 1. This means I'm top W18 D2 L1. Squad morale all green and 'superb'. I was 3-0 up at Charlton after 82 minutes, went for a drink and came back to a 4-3 defeat. Dorian Dervite got sent off early in the game and as it was a technical sending off (Professional foul) I didn't do anything about it. Midway through the week after Yannis Tafer (19 goals in 14 games, worth 7 times what he was when he signed for me and being courted by some of the Premier League's best clubs and should really have more to think about) complained to the press that he was concerned about the lack of discipline at the club. I tried to discipline him for it, but couldn't as the option wasn't there. During the following week 19 of my first team squad players announced they were 'dismayed at the lack of harmony at the club', I got 6 transfer requests and one has gone AWOL (Lee Carsley, one of the worlds most dedicated professionals FFS!).



It was then suggested I have lost the dressing room and my job status has gone from 'Untouchable' to 'Under Review'.



Slightly OTT? I could understand it if I was near the bottom or performing way below expected. I'm now no longer dreaming of Premier League management, the dramatic fairies in that league would be a nightmare!

Kolo Toure has kicked off on mine. In the reserves and stripped of captaincy.



I think it is slightly OTT, there are still a few little bugs in the game, especially when it comes to selling players.



Can't believe you've got Tafer in that league, he's easily one of the best young strikers in the game and he easily exceeds Benzema when he's around 24.

Bargain central. Available for next to nothing. I sold a young player for £550k, spent £250k on Tafer who was listed, although the big boys are now circling and I expect the club will force me to sell him when they make an offer. I've also signed Kakuta, Barazite and Dervitte. I was amazed when they agreed to sign, but they were all in the reserves and listed with tiny expected fees. With freebies like Lee Carsley, Sean Morrison and Gibson from Man U and four top quality Premier League loanees, it really is too easy in L1 but despite being 11 points clear (Having been expected to remain in the division) it looks like I'm going to be sacked. When i go the game and look at the assistant advice it says, "The majority of the players are having serious issues playing for you". All because I didn't chop Dervitte's fingers off and murder his family for committing a professional foul?



There doesn't seem to be a button for 'get a grip FFS!'.

Kakuta also goes amazing on it.



There are apparently some decent freebies at the start of it. Abukari Yakubu (sp) I think is one. Ebi Smolarek another. There is also a Mexican holding midfielder who's about 36, but has amazing stats for at least a season. Mario Bolatti is another player who is available for a cheap fee but is a very good player. Not sure if you could attract him but he is very good.

My Leeds team are flying. 3 points clear @ the top of League 1. Let in 17 goals in 22 games (rest are on about 25 already) and my strike force of Lucciano Becchio and Daryl Murphy are scoring for fun. Also I signed Chris Rawlins from Liverpool, he's a quality young midfielder

Do you have to install Steam for FM 2009, or can you play the game without it?

I had to for mine.

Don't think so. I used to be able to play it without going through steam. It's probably worth playing it on steam as it will give you the latest update, although that's probably not needed with an older game.

Steam is an interesting idea. They've tried to make it a gaming hub, much like the consoles handle games. You can download demos, buy games, get updates, add friends, chat, earn achievements etc. But it does take up system memory sitting there doing nothing most of the time. It also seems to make a mountain of a molehill when installing and running games.

Most annoying thing with steam is when I'm at my mate's. His internet is one and off, sometimes, it says everything is connected but there is no connectivity, so Steam reads it as being connected to the net but it won't start because there is no connection. It can be really annoying and we finally figured out, it's better to just disconnect everything and go offline if the net's playing up.



I like the look of it, they seem to have all sorts of offers on but I don't play games on my laptop other than FM. There's a demo on my games list called wings of prey, not sure what it is, anyone tried it?

Started a season as Welling United, in the Blue Square South, need some decent free midfield signings, any suggestions?

Sean Doherty was outstanding on the left wing for me at Fleetwood.

Also try and get Simon Heslop from Barnsley/ He's listed at around £5k but can be got for nothing if you're lucky.



I've just got automatic promotion from the BSN with Fleetwood. Brought in a couple of players (signed two of last season's loanees permanently (Terry Gornell from Tranmere and Liam Dawson from Oldham) and re-loaned another (Spencer Harris from Huddersfied).



After a pretty miserable pre-season, life in the BSP hasn't started too badly. Set a target of "learn from your experience in the BPS (whatever that means), I'm on four points from the first two games.

It means get relegated with dignity.

Touch wood, but things are going slightly better than that. Only defeats from the first six games were at home to Oxford and away to Histon. Managed to clock up a good 1-0 win at York with a makeshift side full of youngsters. This looks like being a really tight league.



One thing that is concerning me a bit is the finances.



I've not spent any of my transfer budget (all signings have been freebies) and I'm around £800 under my £11k weekly wage limit but the club is still losing money hand over fist. There was a deficit of £250k at the end of last season before a board takeover. Even after the takeover, with bigger crowds in the BSP and a similar wage budget (I've shipped out / offered pay cuts to any high earners who weren't making the first team) we're looking at monthly losses of around £15k-£20k. Part of me says not to worry, after all the chairman could be happy to underwrite this in the short term and we're expected to make the FA Cup first round as a minimum. Draw depending, should also do well OK in the Trophy which will bring a few quid in. The board say that they are "content" with the wage bill but I'm just slightly concerned that I've got Peter Ridsdale as a chairman with no concept of budgeting that will try to pin the blame on me when the hits the fan.

well its all over.....following a run of 10 games without a victory, a squad in turmoil, fans in uproar and having slipping from 5th to 14th in the league, I finally handed in my resignation as manager of Southport last night, and am now having a well deserved holiday.

I've moved on from Bradford having got them from L2 to the top of the Championship. I found that much easier that my current position at Arsenal. I was offered an £80m transfer kitty so thought it would be easy. But the squad is full of totally average players bar Fabregas and because they are not in the Champions League I can't sign anyone of any real quality to improve them either. The best players that come up on the transfer screens are the likes of Milner and Ashley Young. I reckon I only need to find 7 or 8 players to make them decent. (They finished 16th in the previous season).



I think they need to tie in your individual earnings to something somehow. I was on £1,200 a week at Bradford and was offered £91,000 a week to join Arsenal

There is the option to haggle over your salary, but why would you want to increase it? All it does is mean you have less to spend as manager. They should let you save your wages until you can afford to buy a club, let you become an owner and appoint a manager etc.

think the wage thing is tied into your job security i.e. if you are on £91k a week on a 4 year contract, they will have to pay you a huge amount to sack you and may not be able to afford it (as seen in real life at Liverpool).

Regardless of competitions, you should be able to attract some quality players to Arsenal still. On the City season, you can attract the majority of top players, despite not having any kind of European football to offer them.



Try sending out scouts on assignments to other leagues, have a nosey around, Young is good but Milner isn't anything special on it.

I've spent a couple of months up to the January window (I joined them in October in 19th position!) doing that. They have 17 scouts (!) and their scouting knowledge is full bars almost all of the way down the list of countries.



I have got no problem finding the players I want, but the likes of Dzeko (At Lazio) turned me down so did Subotic (Osasuna) and Fellaini (Everton in Champions League) and apart from Dzeko none of them are elite players. I tried to sign Michael Owen (At 33) on a free, but he wouldn't consider it and signed for Genoa. I think Arsenal's reputation in the game took a nose dive through not being in Europe at all for 3 seasons on the spin.

My lineup is pretty hillarious:



1 - Fabianski

2 - Phil Neville

3 - Clichy

4 - Gallas (35 and terrible)

5 - Senderos

6 - Blodznyswky (Terrible Eastern European midfielder)

7 - Barazite

8 - Febregas



9 - Bendtner

10 - Vaughan (Of Everton fame)

11 - Vela



This is genuinely the best side I can field, having inherited the squad with the window shut. There is only Clichy, Senderos (As backup) and Febregas I'd keep out of those. I've taken them from 19th to 6th by January but every draw or defeat is met with 'fans are unhappy' messages.



Barcelona are after Fabregas despite his asking price being £90m, so if he goes I'm off. My Bradford team in the Championship was better than my Arsenal squad).

Where are Wilshere and Ramsey? RvP?



You should try for the lower rep, higher PA players. Any good new-gens in the academy/reserves?

Yeah I've cheated and had them all rated by FM Scout. There is a lot of decent prospects in there but they are all the 108 CA and 174 PA types that will take a few years to turn into anything.



Wilshere is at QPR, Ramsey is at Portsmouth and RvP is playing for Inter Milan.

What is FM Scout?



Have you tried for people like Verratti and Kadlec? Both become immense but start off at lower clubs at a very young age.

I've never heard of those two, I'll have a look. I'm in my 4th season now, so no doubt they are going to be moving up the ladder by now.



FM Genie 2010 I think it's called. It's just a little program that imports your FM game save and lets you search the database, showing you the PA and CA of all the players in the database. You can also see the hidden stats, like injury proneness, consistency, ability to handle big matches etc and how much the AI will sell you the player for.



It ruins the game but I use it occasionally if I'm truly stuck.