The Higher Tempo Press
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#FM17 : The Boys of Bilbao 2.3 : Rafa? Really?
The phone rang. It was one of the local journalists letting me know they had given it to Rafa. I hung up and immediately dialed the President. “First you let that idiot transfer list most of my squad, then you sack him,” I started. “Then you don’t even put me on the shortlist. And then […]
#FM17 : The Boys of Bilbao 2.2 : Paco is wacko…
“The Boys of Bilbao is like a Director of Football challenge but on speed. It makes those DoF saves people do look so pony ??” -@fmgrasshopper Indeed it is Tony, indeed it is. Paco is, in fact, wacko and I believe he is on a personal crusade to ensure that I do not end nabbing […]
#FM17 : The Deep Lying Podcast 71 : Totality, Totality, Totality
@Shrewnaldo joins Ed Wilson in this week’s excellent @thedeeplyingpodcast
#FM17 : In praise of in-game team talks
Okay, so it’s hardly the most exciting element of Football Manager, but in-game or touchline team talks should not be overlooked. I am aware that many players of the game rarely use this concept, if at all, but I really must advocate it. I use the team talks in two scenarios; when I’m getting the result […]
#FM17 : Lessons from the BETA
Football Manager 2017 is just around the corner now. So close we can almost touch it. However, for those of us that have pre-ordered the game, we’ve had early access to it through the beta version. There’s a few different approaches that us content creators take to the beta. Some start their planned saves straight […]
#FM17 : The Boys of Bilbao 2.1 : Plans for Survival
As I lay on a beach in Torrevieja in very early November, the warm sun tanning my skin and the iced mineral water tasting delightful my mind wandered to what the future may hold back up in the Basque region where my Athletic Club Bilbao B side was likely to look a little different to […]
[Second Half] 4. Debut
The Blues sit 14th in the Vanarama Conference League South, exactly where the pundits expected them to be. The home game against Poole is expected to be an evenly fought game but with this being their unknown manager’s first game in charge, it might be anything but straightforward. The ProKit stadium is overwhelmed with murmurs […]
#FM17 : The Boys of Bilbao 1.6 : Don’t you dare take the kids…
As the celebrations of promotion quietened down, the stark reality of next season started to bite for me at Athletic Club Bilbao B. My boys had proven they could play. But had they done so well that I would lose them all? With the first team not really hitting the same heights as we had […]
[Second Half] 3. Now Arriving
“Hey Roy, heard your new gaffer is on the plane right now eh?” shouted Frank from the stands. It wasn’t difficult to spot where the voice came from. There was only one man seated in the rows of blue plastic chairs. Roy signalled to the team to move along without him and made his way up […]
#FM17 : The Boys of Bilbao 1.5 : Brilliant Bilbao!
Have you ever had a season that you don’t wish to end because you know it may never be the same again? Yeah, that’s how I felt after the final whistle went at El Toralín and Athletic Club Bilbao B had won the Segunda Divisíon B title against SD Ponferradina. We had fought back from […]
[Second Half] 2. Job Search
As January dawned to its end, Jac’s spirit whittled with it. There has been nothing from any of the football clubs, not for any of the positions. During this wait, he has been trying to get himself out of a rut by getting round to doing light exercises, reading up on mindfulness, and cleaning up […]
#FM17 : The Deep Lying Podcast 70 : Further FM thoughts…
Note from Chris: It gives me great pleasure to share quality work from the FM Community. Therefore signing The Deep Lying Podcast to THTP is great news. Each week, usually on a Friday, we will share their excellent podcast on the website. If you have never listened to it, why not start with #FM17?
#FM17 : Strikerless.com BETA Tactic Download
Note from Chris: With the #ArgSt17 tearing up the Segunda Divisíon B Grupo II, I felt it would be right to pay homage to @merryguido and his excellent Strikerless website which gave me the initial inspiration for the tactic back on FM15. Guido was kind enough to share his TI’s under the hood which I […]
#FM17 : Painting the Town Red Star
There’s nothing more thrilling than taking a small club to the heights of Europe. I’ve been looking for a new challenge to get to grips with on the new FM17 and this site’s editor suggested trying to achieve European glory with one of this season’s smaller sides. The benefits of picking a team already in […]
[Second Half] 1. Pre Game
He tapped “Cancel” on his phone, and slid it back into his pocket. He wonders if there is a phone out there that does not have a phone call function; it would be perfect for someone like him who doesn’t like to talk to anyone. He then picked up his wallet and keys, and locked up […]
#FM17 : The Boys of Bilbao 1.4 : Progress Report
So, do you like the new website? I hope so, and a big thanks to the guys @bbfootballuk and @ashlazy5 in particular for making it happen. Also, a big thank you to @fm0tter for creating the new logo, the tracksuit manager version for me and the artwork for the save. This is becoming like an […]
Taste The Feeling : Episode 6 : BETA Planning
Episode 6 – BETA Planning Finally the BETA is here, so it’s time to plan the exact backroom changes we’ll be making, as well as planning our tactics and development schedule. For player names, please click the link to see their stats (I’m aiming for this series to very comprehensive, and want you to feel a […]
#FM17 : The Boys of Bilbao 1.3 : The Talent
Welcome back folks – I hope you are enjoying this save as much as I am. Well, that would probaly be impossible as I actually playing it and you are reading my summary, but I hope you get my point. Either way, I hope it is going down well. So far you have had the […]
#FM17 : The Boys of Bilbao 1.2 : #ArgSt17
”It’s the beginning of forever, it don’t have to end” John Legend EDIT: Tactic download updated for full release All the way back in FM15 I randomly stumbled across a tactic that changed my FM life. I was at Boca Juniors and wanted to do something tactically traditional for Argentina and was reading a few […]
#FM17 : The Boys of Bilbao 1.1 : The introduction
Well folks, FM17 BETA was actually worth waiting for wasn’t it? Look, I am not going to sell you on the fact there have been loads of changes, improvements or anything like that but, for me, at this very early stage it feels like a better game and, providing things don’t change in the ME […]
Taste The Feeling: Episode 5: Potential Tactics and Q&A
Episode 5 – Tactics + Questions I originally wasn’t going to do this before the beta was released, but we’ve covered pretty much everything that we’ll be doing off the pitch, but what’s going to happen on the pitch? Rule number 2 in our philosophy was to “play attacking and entertaining football”, so obviously we’ll […]
Taste The Feeling : Episode 4 : Talent ID + Coaching
Talent ID We’ve established that we want to play entertaining and attacking football, in order to maintain our ethos, so what are we looking to nurture in our youth teams to promote that? Luckily in FM, players are defined by their attributes, and we can look for some key attributes – (dependent on the player’s […]
CLASSIC CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER: Euro 2004 Qualifiers Part II
Welcome back! It’s Autumn 2002 and the mood in Scotland is positive. Just a few months after a heroic run to the World Cup final, Euro 2004 qualifying has got off to the perfect start with wins over Azerbaijan and, more impressively, Poland. The Poles were dispatched 4-0 in their own back yard which is […]
The Higher Tempo Press FM17
Alright folks. It seems to be in the “in thing” at the moment to announce what your plans are for FM17, in the vague hope anyone cares less and might sit there for the next three weeks or so looking forward to your first post about it. As ever, I am a sheeple, so I […]
Taste The Feeling – Episode 3 – Scouting
Scouting + Transfer model A large part of our success will be down to the players we’ll be bringing into the clubs, and since one of our goals is to be as profitable as possible we need to get the talent in as young as possible and therefore as cheap as possible – adopting parts […]
Taste The Feeling – FC Coca Cola – Episode 2
Episode 2 – The Vision So we’ve established what club I’ll be taking over. But what’s our final aim? How will we achieve it? What changes will we make to Antwerp now it’s been chosen as the first club in our empire? The aim simply is to dominate football, with at least one team in each […]
Taste the Feeling : FC Coca Cola : 1.0
Introduction This is my first attempt at a FM series, despite playing FM and writing many articles on football down the years. I will be going in-depth on how a company can set-up a footballing empire to rival the likes of Red Bull, using aspects from a number of different clubs around the world. Whilst […]
CLASSIC CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER: Scotland on the Road to Euro 2004
Hello! It’s been just 2 months since Scotland lost the World Cup final to Italy, and so you are probably quite rightly wondering what I’m doing back again. Well, I enjoyed that run with Scotland so much, that I’m going to take on the Euro 2004 qualifying campaign. Every time there’s a real life International […]
#FM16 : Going back to Uni : Part VII (end of season two)
Yeah, the £55k I brought in for letting Boboc go early didn’t really equate to value for money. Since our skipper moved to Israel our form dramatically nosedived, meaning we went from dreaming of Europe to missing out on the last day. It was a bitter pill to swallow and a big lesson learned. It’s […]
FM16 : Going back to Uni : VI (end of regular season two)
That’s right folks, I’ve played on until the end of the regular season two without you. What a season it has been, and there is more to come. In Romania each team plays each other twice, then the top six go into the “Champions Play Off” and play each other a further two times. You […]
#FM16 : Going back to Uni : V (September 2016)
So we slip into September here in Romania. Do they have an Indian summer in Romania? I have no idea. All I am interested in is whether we can maintain our fine start to the Liga I season and keep ourselves in the European spots come the winter break. That would be marvelous, as would […]
#FM16 : Going back to Uni : IV (August 2016)
So what would August hold for the U’s? Following our unbeaten start to the season, including a 4-0 destruction of last season’s runners up Dinamo on the opening day, a lot of promise I would say. The surprise of the season has been the kid up front scoring three in three. Remember the name of […]
#FM16 : Going back to Uni : III (July 2016)
Welcome to Part III of “Going back to Uni” – rather apt what with all the exam results and all that in the air. Not that I can even remember being at uni now, it was rather a long time ago. For those of you wondering that the hell I am rambling about already, I […]
#FM16 : Going back to Uni : II
I’m actually excited about this pre-season. Normally I hate them, especially straight after a promotion. Due to my thrifty nature, I invariably believe my squad won’t be good enough to survive at a higher level. Sometimes I am right, most of the time we do ok though. But this is different, I have a young […]
FM16 : Going Back to Uni : I
The silence is over. Apologies for my recent absence from the totally resurgent FM blogging scene. Jesus, there’s some decent stuff being written, isn’t there? Allow me to drag that standard down immediately!
#FM16 : The #ArgSt is back baby…
Just another little teaser for those interested in the #ArgSt16…
#FM16 : The #ArgSt is back baby…
Fans of my FM15 tactic, The Argentine Strikerless, might enjoy these couple of videos….
#FM16 : Foggia dei Miracoli VI : StS v3.0 RWB
No, not right wing back. Real wage budget. I need to bring players in for next season, but I don’t trust my board to set me a sensible wage budget. What do I do?
#FM16 : Foggia dei Miracoli V : StS v3.0 (c)
Right then, no time for chit chat – we have a lot to get through.
#FM16 : Foggia dei Miracoli IV : StS v3.0 (c)
Right then, as promised let us have a look at my slightly updated StS v3.0 (c) methodology.
#FM16 : Foggia dei Miracoli III
Welcome back folks, and sorry for the delay in updating you. You join me at the end of my first season as Foggia manager and if you need reminding why I am here, read this.
#FM16 : Foggia dei Miracoli II
Foggia, you are doing funny things to me and we barely even know each other.
#FM16 : Foggia dei Miracoli I
So this is the new save folks, and boy am I excited by it.
FM16 : How to Build a Club (the final part)
I’m sure we have all been here at some point in our FM saves folks.
#FM16 : How to Build a Club (part XVII)
If this your first time reading this series, you might want to click here and get the back story! I’ve been fortunate enough to have a fair bit of playing time in the last three days, so have accelerated through the 2019 season with Urawa Red Diamonds. What a season it has been. I am […]
#FM16 : How to Build a Club (Part XVI)
I guess the biggest question of the day is, “is that the correct Roman Numeral for 16?” Thanks for joining me again, I have news much sooner than I expected hence this unexpected post. But before I give you the news, I want to thank people for some of the feedback I have been receiving […]
#FM16 : How to Build a Club (part XV)
Wow, part 15. Welcome back folks, and thanks for sticking with me through this series. What am I going to give you today? I’ve moved on apace and it is now May 2019, so it is a good time to let you know how my attempts at squad rotation have gone.
Classic Championship Manager: 2002 World Cup Final – Italy vs Scotland (not) Live text
Who is the FIFA equivalent of Noddy Holder? Because today is Football Christmas, or as it has come to be known, THE WORLD CUP FINAL. Welcome to The National Stadium in Tokyo for our sports show piece event. In one corner we have three time World Cup winners Italy, heavy favourites to make it four. […]
#FM16 : How to Build a Club (Part Fourteen)
Relax, I am in a better mood today. The pre-season of 2019 is treating me well so far and I finally feel like Urawa is becoming my club.
#FM16 : How to Build a Club (Part Thirteen)
I’ve really been dragging my heels on finishing this season and writing the next part of this series. I mean, the title has become a little irrelevant in many ways – I built a club and then moved on to trying to put life into a bigger club used to failure. Maybe I should change […]