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1.13 Boeren, Boeren PSV Champions League Match 2: Napoli v PSV
Pre-Match PSV are the underdogs today with odds of 11/5 away to Napoli. Napoli are without the injured Emanuele Giaccherini and Lorenzo Tonelli while Raul Albiol and Piotr Zielinski remain doubts. Menno Koch is ruled out for PSV and Marco van Ginkel is still unlikely to feature. Arkadiusz Milik has been picked out as the […]
Mission completed: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 30
With the help of Grace Price, my personal assistant who can speak Moldovan and so act as an interpreter during phone calls, I offer contracts for a Head Physio, a Physio, a Fitness Coach, and Goalkeeping Coach, an Assistant Manager, a Coach, A Chief Scout, and a Scout. Having read his team report, I terminate […]
1.12 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 8: Vitesse v PSV
Pre-Match PSV are billed as favourites despite being away from home. Odds of 4/6 are the best available. Adnane Tighadouini is picked out as the creative outlet for Vitesse, a player we’ll have to watch very closely. The Teams First Half Vitesse have the first chance of the half on 10 minutes after an intricate […]
Timo Werner
German football has a long and storied history of developing predatory goalscorers. From the penalty box brilliance of Gerd Muller to the strike partnership in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s of Rudi Voller and Jurgen Klinsmann through to the perhaps underappreciated tenure in recent years of Miroslav Klose and Mario Gomez. However, for all […]
Scouting for scouts: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 29
The club currently has no scouts. We will certainly need some. Searching for scouts is relatively straightforward. For the chief scout, I search for the ability to judge players’ ability and for tactical knowledge, so that they can produce helpful team reports. For the second member of the team, the plain scout, I search for […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XXI: The Champions League is underway…
Firstly, I have to come clean. I didn’t get through anywhere near as much as I hoped yesterday so if you are tuning in expecting to hear about ten or fifteen games you are going to be very disappointed. But, we did potentially find a new house to go and play in so swings and […]
The Land Down Under XII
G’day, mate! It’s been a nice couple of weeks off on holiday to watch the World Cup, as I mentioned in the last post, but we’re back to business and it’s time for the grind of a new season once again. Oh, and England won the World Cup for once, but that won’t be covered […]
1.11 Boeren, Boeren PSV – KNVB Beker Round 1: PSV v GVVV
Pre-Match The bookmaker’s’ odds reflect the disparity in quality between the two sides today. PSV are available at odds of 1/8. PSV are still without Menno Koch, Joshua Brenet and Marco van Ginkel due to injury. There is no team news for GVVV. Not too much is known about this side other than our Chief […]
Rivalità Tra Fratelli, Episode 15
This is the story of two brothers, a modern-day Cain versus Abel if you will, based in the northern powerhouse Italian city of Milan. If you’d like to replicate this challenge, we’re using the updated medium database with the following leagues: England (Premier League, Championship, League One & League Two), Italy (Serie A & Serie […]
The remaining coach: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 28
According to the board, I’m entitled to appoint one other coach – or to retain the incumbent coach, Vasile Arlet. He’s not so bad – quite versatile, in fact. But I’d like to see if anyone can do better. Here there are four criteria: The candidate needs to be strong in an area of coaching […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XX: We are raining down in Africa
Welcome back folks, welcome back. You’ve got to love having all day Saturday to progress through a season, haven’t you? I managed to motor through 14 fixtures yesterday and, on the whole, it was a good day. In a moment you’ll find out whether it being a good day includes getting the better or Warri […]
Leiria Top the Table at the Half Way Point
An impressive 10 wins from the last 13 games sees Leiria sitting pretty at the top of the Portuguese second division. They currently hold a four point advantage over second placed Benfica B and six points over their closest rivals for promotion. After a devastating end to last season where they missed out on promotion […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XIX: The Lions start to roar…
As I announced, exclusively, yesterday I (sorry, Mark Monroe) is the new manager of Cameroon. Today I will let you know how the first matches in charge of my adopted country went as we had a B team match and a full match against Gambia B and Senegal respectively. But first I really want to […]
The Land Down Under XI
G’day, mate! Welcome back to The Land Down Under! The end of the season is upon us, so you know what that means? It’s time to wrap up what we started this season before I take off to spend some of that AU$425k I’ve earned these last two seasons so that I can go watch […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XVIII: What do you do when the country calls?
Things move fast in football, we know this. One day you are in a job, the next day you are not. Then sometimes, you get a job offer completely out of the blue. And that’s what my adopted homeland did to me. After much deliberation, and some research into what I had available to me […]
The Vagabonds: Part 3
Firstly, allow me to apologise for the extreme tardiness of this post. A combination of festivals and summer colds have kept me in various states of knackered so I’ve been a bit lax with FM. Updates should resume at a regular tick from here. So, onto part three! It’s indicative, I feel, of my desire […]
1.10 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 7: PSV v FC Utrecht
Pre-Match A return to domestic football at home to FC Utrecht. The odds, as ever, are in our favour with prices of 4/6. Menno Koch and Joshua Brenet remain out for PSV. Marco van Ginkel is on his return to training but will be doubtful to be fit to play yet. Utrecht’s Sean Klaiber is […]
10 Things You Learn From Being Sacked in Football Manager
So, you’ve probably gathered by the title of this piece that I didn’t have the success of a save with Bromley as I would’ve liked. If you haven’t read about my Bromley save it was a very topsy tervy journey that led to me getting let go. But getting let go isn’t that bad as […]
Specification for Assistant Manager: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 27
Normally I like members of staff if possible to have high attributes for (a) determination, (b) discipline, and (c) motivation. Here, however, I’m less worried about those things for the simple reason that I believe that I’m strong on each of those myself. Motivation I’ll not worry about – nice to have, but I can […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XVII: Didn’t want to win the cup anyway…
Didn’t want to win the cup anyway. Both legs against Fovu Club ended 0-0 and we lost on penalties, something like 10-9. Gutted. Still, we only had to score one sodding goal and we failed to do that. So that is the 2018 season over, and it wasn’t too bad at all. I’ve decided to […]
Podcast: Tempo10 Episode 7 with @offthepitchfm
Welcome back listener(s). Today we bring a lovely little treat, by way of a chat with @offthepitchfm talking about his Lions save. Definitely worth a listen as he goes into quite a bit of detail as to why he has chosen this journey. Enjoy! Oh, and like it, subscribe etc etc etc. You know the […]
The Young Lions Roar – 2016/17 Review
I like to think of myself as the curator of England’s future in this save. I am managing tomorrow’s England stars as The Lions boss, and today’s current stars as England gaffer. Thanks to my position, I am playing God with the future of the England National Team. But, this puts me under the scrutiny […]
1.9 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Champions League Match 1: PSV v Celtic
Pre-Match PSV are the slight favourites at odds of 6/4 as the Scottish Champions come to town. Menno Koch, Joshua Brenet and Marco van Ginkel remain out for PSV. Christian Gamboa, James Forrest and Stuart Armstrong are injured for Celtic and Scott Brown misses out through suspension. Moussa Dembele is the obvious dangerman for the […]
Banished To Bromley Part 13: Time for change
Now into March and if you read part 12 what you’d know is a crucial month for me now, after other systems failing to work I’ve gone for a 4-4-1-1 to line up against Boreham Wood who sit in 11th, hopefully something goes right. Thankfully Sergio Torres’ emergence back into the starting 11 was accompanied […]
The problem of the assistant manager: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 26
In my judgement, FC Saxan’s incumbent assistant manager, Ivan Burduniuc, is pretty hopeless. Apparently he’s an adaptable chap. But being prepared to move from one thing to another isn’t much good if there’s nothing you’re any good at. I decide that he can apply his adaptability to coping with redundancy. Given my approach to other […]
1.8 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 6: Willem II v PSV
Pre-Match The bookmakers have made PSV 4/6 favourites for this afternoon’s clash, having obviously missed our previous outing. The hosts are without midfielder Thom Haye (sports hernia) and Anouar Kali is a doubt as he continues his recovery from a slipped disc. PSV will miss Menno Koch, Joshua Brenet, Hidde Jurus and Marco van Ginkel […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XVI: Dogs, cars and title races…
Alright folks? Sorry there was no update from me yesterday, time got away from me. Having picked up three new youth prospects (puppies) at the weekend we needed a new team coach so that was collected today. I have high hopes for the big lad, Buddy. He’s a bit clumsy right now, but I think […]
A Guide to the Head of Youth Development
Youth Intake day is one of the most exciting days in football manager. We look forward to it every season, hoping for that next superstar. There is not a lot more satisfying than seeing your youngster turn into a world class player. Your youth and training facilities are obviously very important if you want to […]
Our protocol for acquiring a goalkeeping coach: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 25
Here is the protocol that I use, as manager of FC Saxan, for acquiring a goalkeeping coach. Check the personality. If unsatisfactory (e.g. ‘unsporting’), abort. Check whether the goalkeeper-coaching attribute meets the threshold for the club? If yes, shortlist, If not, abort. Rank the shortlisted coaches initially on the basis of their goalkeeper-coaching attribute. Then […]
Slack FC: Season 1 – March to May 2017
Alright guys and girls! The first season of Slack FC – a team based on some of the FM Slack community members (see @fmsamo on twitter for more details) – has come to an end. When I left you last time (and that was a long time ago, my apologies), quite a few of Heskey’s […]
1.7 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 5: Roda JC v PSV
Our first round of international call ups and 11 of our first team squad have received a call up to join their respective international squads – first team players indicated by red underline. We also were notified of our Champions League group – a tough draw for us. Pre-Match Despite being away from home PSV […]
Banished To Bromley Part 12: More of the same
So, with a week gone the squad hopefully have had enough time to adapt to the new 3-1-4-2 formation, well it’s time to see against Southport. Unfortunately though we weren’t able to turn our form around as we lost 1-0. On the ball we seemed to be in control more than we have recently but […]
Our protocol for acquiring a fitness coach: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 24
Here is the protocol that I use, as manager of FC Saxan, for acquiring a fitness coach. Check the personality. If unsatisfactory (e.g. ‘unsporting’), abort. Check whether the fitness-coaching attribute meets the threshold for the club? If yes, shortlist, If not, abort. Rank the shortlisted coaches initially on the basis of their fitness-coaching attribute. Then […]
The Land Down Under X
G’day, mate! Welcome back to the Land Down Under and Gosford, NSW. When I last left off in the series, I was going over our run during the first half of the season and promised I’d be back to talk about our first ever Champions League run, which is underway as we speak. In February […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XV: We broke the curse, I repeat we broke the curse!
Remember those nights where we always lost the final game 1-0? Those days are gone baby, they are gone! Yes, that particular curse has been lifted so high it looks like a little balloon floating away in the sky. For last night, my friends, we….. Drew the last game of the night 0-0. Woop! And […]
1.6 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 4: PSV v SC Heerenveen
Pre-Match On the back of that fantastic victory over Feyenoord, PSV are heavy favourites for the upcoming home tie against Heerenveen. The bookies are quoting odds of 1/4 for the Eindhoven side. Van Ginkel and Locadia remain on the injured list for PSV, joined by defender Nicolas Isimat-Mirin (abdominal strain). Siem de Jong is fit […]
Rivalità Tra Fratelli, Episode 14
This is the story of two brothers, a modern-day Cain versus Abel if you will, based in the northern powerhouse Italian city of Milan. If you’d like to replicate this challenge, we’re using the updated medium database with the following leagues: England (Premier League, Championship, League One & League Two), Italy (Serie A & Serie […]
Six into five doesn’t go: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 23
The memo from the board on the staffing allocation specifies that we’re allowed an assistant manager and three coaches. With me that makes five. Between us, the backroom team will have to cover six coaching functions, namely fitness, goalkeeping, defending, attacking, ball control, and shooting. Six into five doesn’t go, so at least one person […]
The Tempo Goal of the Month Competition is Open and we need a Voting Panel!
Right then guys! Following the success of June’s Goal of the Week competition we have decided to move the competition to MONTHLY and offer a cool prize for the winning goal. So – what this means is you have ONE WHOLE MONTH to get your goals over to us at Tempo Towers where our Voting […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XIV: Why do we always lose the last game of the night 1-0?
That is a genuine question. The last three nights, no matter what has gone in the previous matches, we have lost the last one of the night 1-0. It’s a tad frustrating. Especially last night. It brought to an end a superb ten match unbeaten run, including six wins and four clean sheets. That run […]
Stong start for Leiria as transfer window finally shuts
Three wins from the first four games leave Leiria in a promotion place. The side, which just missed out on promotion last season had a long break from the game over the summer to help get over last seasons disappointment but look to have returned stronger for it. Their manager, who went off the radar […]
To Dare is To Do #31
FM17 Tottenham Hotspur FC To Dare Is To Do | #31 Title Decider | Let’s Play Football Manager 2017 Welcome to a Football Manager series on my channel, that’s right its Tottenham Hotspur. Today we take on Southampton in our final match of the season and it all comes down to this! if Manchester United […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XIII: You can probably skip this one…
Well, this feels a little bit familiar. Last night’s session ended in the same fashion as the night before, a grotty 1-0 defeat in a game we should have won. OK, this time it was to the current league champions Coton Sports, but we still should and could have got something out of the game. […]
The Land Down Under IX
G’day, mate! Welcome back to New South Wales! We’re well sunk into our second season in charge of the Central Coast Mariners. There wasn’t much I could think of worth sharing during the first half of the season. We’re just running through the same motions as last year, so I opted to save the more […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XII: I think we just fired out of a Canon Yaounde…
I shall tell you this for nothing. Having lost to Canon Yaounde late in the last season, a defeat that cost us (it turned out) a place in Africa, I was looking forward to facing them in the first game of the 2018 season. A few things to remember about Tonnerre KC… We are paying […]
Disciples of the Rafalution: A Cup Tie Story
The early rounds of the domestic cup competitions can often be an early season opportunity to build up additional fitness levels, match sharpness, or rotate a squad and allow fringe players the opportunity the stake a claim for themselves. In my current season in FM Touch 2017, I haven’t had such luck with a domestic […]
1.5 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 3: PSV v Feyenoord
Pre-Match The pre-match odds give us the slight edge as we’re down as evens favourite. The draw and Feyenoord are both priced at 11/5. Dirk Kuyt is the key player picked out in our scouting report, however he seems to draw a lot of fouls – we’ll mark him tightly and close him down but […]
Southampton’s Black Box: Part 5
Welcome back to ‘Southampton’s Black Box’: a story focused on the organised success of the club known for their over-achievement. As the title implies, the save will be highlighting and representing the recruitment strategy by Southampton. I will be compiling a large database of players in the game to assist me in my FM17 successes, as well […]
Negotiating staff contracts: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 22
My approach to negotiating staff contracts at FC Saxan is as follows. The wage demanded by the candidate is typically well above the maximum that Saxan, as a small club, permits. I therefore tend to offer the maximum allowed straightaway. In Moldova, some staff work on part-time contracts. It can be easy not to notice […]
Tempo Tactics: Recreating Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid
“We must not let ourselves get driven off course, no matter what happens we must stick to our natural game.” Zinedine Zidane Plaudits given to Zinedine Zidane focus on his personal skills – his ego management if you will – and that’s not just the players we’re talking about. This club in particular has many […]