The Higher Tempo Press
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What if all the transfer gossip actually happened?
Transfer gossip is as much part of football now as press conferences, post match analysis or any other media produced article. Most of the time it is there to sell season tickets, sell newspapers or even to help renegotiate a players contract. But what if everything they said came true? I have taken one days […]
Tempo Experiments #006: Arsenal Transfer Targets
Just imagine for a moment that there is a world where targets on Arsene Wenger’s little list actually sign for Arsenal. I know, crazy right? Well we thought we’d have a look at that little fantasy land and have put four of the top French targets at Arsenal to see what happens – I mean, […]
Beyond the fruit salad: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 12
Scene: pizza restaurant, Ceadir Lunga, Moldova. Time: Saturday evening, Spring, following the final match of the Moldovan National Division season. Dramatis personae: The host: Eugeniu Merciu, Chairman of FC Saxan (also the founder of a successful agricultural machinery business) The guests: Anthony Haynes and Karen Haynes, directors of an engineering consultancy MERCIU: It seems to […]
Searching The Stats 3.9
Episode 9 – The Takeover + Transfers Episode 1 – Introduction and full-backs Episode 2 – Centre-backs Episode 3 – BWM + B2B Midfielders Episode 4 – CM (Su) Episode 5 – AP (Su) Episode 6 – AP (ATT) Episode 7 – Goalkeeper I said right at the beginning of the series that the team […]
Southampton’s Black Box: Part 4
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 […]
The Young Lions Roar: The Main Cast
Check my profile here on The Higher Tempo Press to read previous parts of The Young Lions Roar We should meet the main characters, and there are plenty of familiar faces in the squad. I won’t go through all 27 players and many staff, but only those that will play a key role in our immediate […]
Anticipation made methodical: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 11
‘So,’ says our host, Chairman of FC Saxan, ‘I challenged you to think how we could approach the problem of football management as an engineer. And you have suggested that we should approach football as a systems engineer would. And that we should develop protocols, the way that, say, a safety engineer might. Both good […]
Eibar: An Analytics Story Part 10 – Season One – Check
Hey, Eibar is back. Last time we met, there were just four games of the season to go so we are going to cover the end of the season now, looking at some of the best performers and at what lies ahead for the crew at Eibar. Results A 2-0 win at home against Valencia […]
The Spin-Off Story: Don’t Hollerbach At Me
Last time out – we took charge in Berlin, I shamelessly plugged the original series this is based on (read it) and I found out that I then lost the world’s greatest free agent. Manuel Streker is an arse… We also confirmed the signing of Shaqir Tafa whom I know very well from Salernitana and released some […]
The Moldovan protocols: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 10
‘Protocols.’ Our host, at what I have to say is a rather superior pizza restaurant in Ceadir Lunga, Moldova, looks curious when I say this. ‘In our work,’ I explain, ‘we find that a frequent source of sub-optimal performance is that people try to work out – or remember — how to do something at […]
Tempo Player Analysis: Ajax – The School of the Future
Ajax Amsterdam, along with AS Monaco, have been the darlings of the European season as they made it all the way to the Europa League final playing a talented bunch of kids grown in-house at their Academy, De Toekomst. But who are the best prospects currently at Ajax? Following on from Lee Scott’s blog post, […]
Do you want to win some free Football Manager merchandise?
Of course you do! How? How, you ask… It is very simple. The 8 best voted goals from our June Goal of the Week competitions will be put into the end of month Super Competition. And, the winning goal gets to choose ANY piece of FM merchandise available from the official SI shop, courtesy of […]
Five players to watch at the Euro U21 Championship
The 2017 European U21 Championships are due to kick off this week with Poland as the hosts. As with every iteration of this tournament over the course of the last two decades, every squad involved is littered with potential first team players with the prize of graduation to the senior squads looming on the horizon. […]
The Trophy Wife #4
After an incredibly successful season, I release the squad on holiday. Most of the players take advantage of the warm weather offered abroad, but Marouane Fellaini, fresh from his loan spell at Villareal, decides to hit the United gym in an effort to win back his place in the side. After two weeks of massaging […]
Banished To Bromley: Part 8 Time For Change
Back to Vanarama National League football and we’re faced with a trip to Xrexham to try out the new 4-1-2-3 formation out for a full 90 minutes in a game where Xrexham were favourites sitting at the top of the table. Here was the team I decided to go with to experiment this new tactic, […]
Perhaps not: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 9
‘Stakeholder management.’ Our host, the chairman of FC Saxan, looks quizzically at my wife, Karen. She has just volunteered this idea as a contribution to our conversation on how we can approach football management as an engineering project. ‘When you build a construction project – a housing development, say, or a transport system – it […]
The Land Down Under IV
G’day, mate! Welcome back to Gosford, New South Wales and the Central Coast Mariners! I tried my best to think up some creative storytelling like some of the others do, but alas, I am not as great of a writer as they are. Are you ready to check up on our progress in the Australian […]
Systematic management? Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 8
I’m sitting in a pizza restaurant in Ceadir Lunga, down in the south of Moldova, and I have just told the chairman of FC Saxan what he evidently wants to hear, namely that football management can be engineered, the way that many complex things can. And now, since he is footing the bill, he has […]
Rivalità Tra Fratelli, Episode 11
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 […]
Leiria recover from bad start to fly up the league
A run of nine league wins in 11 matches has moved Leiria into contention for promotion from the second league for the first time since 2012. After much change in personnel over the summer the side had stuggled to settle and sat in the relegation zone after four games. A very good run of form […]
An Alternative Guide to Alternative Leagues: Chilean Primera División
Episode 3: Chile Campeonato Scotiabank The Campeonato Scotiabank, as the league is officially called, holds 16 teams. The league also has the two tournaments: The Apertura and the Clausura. Every team plays each other once, 15 games in both tournaments. There are 8 spots for continental football, 4 for the Copa Libertadores and 4 for […]
Tempo #FM17 Goal of the Week: June 17th 2017
Welcome back goal fans – we have 8 absolute thunderbastards for your viewing pleasure today. Every so often you get a group of goals that would grace a goal of the season competition, let alone a goal of the week, and this is that group. Watch the video and then vote for your favourite goal […]
Southampton’s Black Box: Part 3
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, […]
The Young Lions Roar – Planning the Future
Starting a new save induces a certain buzz. The excitement that anything could happen. Will I succeed or fail? I find particular joy in deciding on my next save and then planning for it. This is a guide to planning for your club/save, and an announcement that I will actually start a save right here […]
How do England’s U20 World Cup winners develop? Part 2
In the second part of our look into the future careers of the England U20 World Cup winning side, we will look at the remaining players. From the first part (https://www.thehighertempopress.com/2017/06/englands-u20-world-cup-winners-develop/) we saw that none had featured for the England senior side but some had gone on to have successful International careers elsewhere. At club […]
How to engineer football management? Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 7
It turns out that the question Mr Merciu, the Chairman of FC Saxan Ceadir Lunga (Moldova), has just asked – ‘Football management – is it not possible to engineer it?’ – is not a rhetorical one. He is looking at me, awaiting an answer. Tempting though the pizza that has just arrived – capricioasa (sheep’s […]
Tempo Experiments #005: Marcelino Makeover
Let’s be honest, Valencia haven’t really been that good for a while, have they? Heavily in debt, not-very-good players on massive contracts and an owner that appears to be losing interest in the whole thing. And Gary Neville, well Gary Neville. So what’s going to happen now Marcelino has taken over. I know, why don’t […]
Searching The Stats 3.8
Episode 8 – The Goalkeeper Episode 1 – Introduction and full-backs Episode 2 – Centre-backs Episode 3 – BWM + B2B Midfielders Episode 4 – CM (Su) Episode 5 – AP (Su) Episode 6 – AP (ATT) Episode 7 – ST We’ve now found targets for all our outfield positions, but now comes the difficult […]
Eibar: An Analytics Story Part 9 – Youth Intake & Match Prep
Hello everyone, Eibar is back. We are getting to the back end of the season and the race for places in Europe, the place at the sun and the remaining places in the league. Like every season, this coincides with what some people call the most exciting day in the season – Newgen day. It […]
The Spin-Off Story – Ich bin ein Berliner
Welcome back to the Spin-Off Story where the summer of 2021 sees big Mohamed Yattara take over at Hertha Berlin (if you hadn’t already guessed from the title). [For those who aren’t regular readers of *shameless plug alert* my FM stuff on my own blog (The Long Ball), Mohamed Yattara was an unexpected goalscoring machine […]
Can football management be engineered? Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 6
‘You see,’ said Mr Merciu, as we tucked into our okroshka soup, ‘I enjoy being Chairman of FC Saxan. But there is one thing I’m not happy about: the problem of football managers. ‘We have had a succession,’ he continued. ‘Good, bad, and indifferent. You never know in advance. A manager does well at some […]
To Dare Is To Do #25
FM17 Tottenham Hotspur FC To Dare Is To Do | #25 Speechless | Let’s Play Football Manager 2017 Today we take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, can we get a win over our bitter rivals and keep up our momentum. Join me on this adventure on Football Manager 2017. Thanks for coming to watch […]
New signings struggle to settle in new look Leiria side
An almost completely unrecognisable side took to the field as Leiria lost 1-0 away to Penafiel. There has been a vast amount of changes from the side who missed out on promotion last season in what has been manager Bruce Parker’s ‘most challenging’ transfer window. All ten senior squad members left the club in the […]
How do England’s U20 World Cup winners develop?
Following England’s U20 success in winning the World Cup on the 11th of June there was some discussion around how to ensure these players reach the top level of the game. For sure game time would be among the key factors in whether these players can make it to the top or not. Using Football […]
What has this to do with football? Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 5
As soon as we entered the pizza restaurant in ‘downtown’ Ceadir Lunga, Mr Merciu, the chairman of FC Saxan, pointed to a table in the corner. ‘That’s our table,’ he said. I liked how he had his own table. I liked too how, as soon as we were seated, the waiter brought a bottle of […]
Tempo Tips: How to Balance the Books
It’s never easy trying to stay in financial shape when managing a smaller club. @fm_adventure wrote an excellent piece with some useful tips for us last month, so we decided to turn it into a video for all you YouTube fans. As ever, don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already. Enjoy!
The Land Down Under III
G’day, mate! Today is October 11, and it’s a pleasant 68 degrees in Western Australia as we get ready to line up against Perth Glory away from home to open up the 2016/17 Hyundai A-League season. We will, however, not get to that match-up right away, because we have some final pre-season information to go […]
How to Create Gegenpressing in FM17
Follow @DistanceCovered on Twitter for more. Introduction Before I get started, I’ve got to make two things absolutely clear to before going into detail. Firstly, this is MY guide to gegenpressing within Football Manager, not THE guide. The guidance, recommendations and information proposed throughout the piece is based on my footballing knowledge, tactical awareness and […]
Banished To Bromley Part 7: Similar Stories
We start this episode with a F.A. Cup 4th Qualifying Round draw before our next home game against Woking, the team we were eventually drawn to play in 2 weeks’ time. But today we face them in the National League in a bid to extend the winning run to 4 games. 20 minutes into the […]
Top-flight football? Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 4
Mr Merciu had described Ceadir Lunga as a ‘city’; everybody describes it as a city; Ceadir Lunga describes itself as a city. It is in fact a modest town, with a population of under 20,000, lying a few miles north-west of the border with the Ukraine. One wonders how big a crowd FC Saxan, playing in […]
The Land Down Under II
G’day and welcome back to Gosford, New South Wales! In case you missed it, my name is Damon, and I’m in charge of Central Coast Mariners of the Australian Hyundai A-League. In the last update, I spoke briefly about myself and my Football Manager career before getting into the rules of the A-League. If you […]
To Dare Is To Do #24
Today we take on Manchester United in the Premier League, and it’s first against second in this top of the table clash as we head into the second half of the season. Join me on this adventure on Football Manager 2017. Thanks for coming to watch my latest Football Manager content. If you enjoyed […]
Rivalità Tra Fratelli, Episode 10
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 […]
Do we like football? Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 3
We’ve been enjoying the holiday in Moldova. I wouldn’t recommend the place for fine dining. But, at least, if you’re not vegetarian, you can find good wholesome local cooking. I’ve developed a liking for mutton soup and goat stew. Pretty much everything is accompanied by mamaliga, a kind of porridge. Though the cuisine lacks finesse, […]
The Spin-Off Story – Vote for the team now!
It’s the year 2021. Brexit is happening and it’s a bit hard. Monaco have just won Ligue 1 with 103 points. An Alvaro Morata inspired Manchester United have just defeated Kevin de Bruyne’s PSG in the Champions League final while Paulo Fonseca’s Spurs won the Europa League (a competition won by Leicester in 2020) by […]
Leiria miss out on promotion but must now build on good results
Next season will be once again spent in the second tier for Leiria’s fans as the club miss out on promotion to Liga NOS. Having started his time in Portugal slowly, the manager turned Leiria’s fortunes around to build hope of an unlikely promotion. With only 5 games remaining Leiria were six points from the […]
To Dare Is To Do #23
FM17 Tottenham Hotspur FC To Dare Is To Do | #23 Kop That | Let’s Play Football Manager 2017 Today we take on Liverpool in the Premier League. Can we do what we haven’t done since 1995 and win at Anfield? Join me on this adventure on Football Manager 2017. Thanks for coming to watch […]
An Alternative Guide to Alternative Leagues: Colombian Liga Aguila
Episode 2: Colombia Narco Football Colombian football has a big history which is often associated with the influence of drug cartels. The most known leader of one of these cartels, Pablo Escobar, indeed has a history of Colombian football. Growing up in Medellin, Pablo was a fan of Atletico Nacional. He invested a lot in […]
CLASSIC CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER: Scotland on the Road to Euro 2004 Part IV
Welcome back! It warms my heart to see how Tempo has grown since I started this save. You may recall last summer we went on an epic journey, in not only qualifying for the 2002 World Cup but reaching the final, only to be toppled by Italy. Clearly not familiar with the phrase “quit whilst […]
The Higher Tempo Press Goals of the Week: June 2nd 2017
Welcome back folks, we have another bonanza of goals for you here today. Nice passing moves, long range blasters, top banana free-kicks are all in today’s competition just for you. We also announce last week’s winner which qualifies for the June Goal of the Month competition. Take a look, enjoy and then come back and […]