Well i decided to start a new game on CM, and while others have decided to go for unknown teams or teams i have absolutely no interest in managing, ive gone for the FA cup heroes, no not Man Utd - my old pals Millwall
I last graced the New Den pitch back in 2002 with a 3yr stint on CM0102 were i enjoyed success under the alias 'Samot Nosiddor' taking the club into the Premiership via automatic promotion in my second season largely due to a magical performance from 1yr sensation Radoslaw Kaluzny.
However, the bright lights of the premiership wasn’t enough to draw my attention away from the Champions league and international football so after a few months i reverted back to an older game entitled 'Valencia', but that as they say is another story.
Anyway, i decided to watch the FA Cup final the other day and realized that i still loved the old lions, all the regulars where still there - Ifill, Cahill, Harris, Ryan, only the injured Warner was absent from an otherwise almost frozen in time team from my old days there. So, i decided to undertake the job again in the hope i could emulate what the club had done in real life. I put the CM Cd in and started a new game.
Now starting games on my PC isn’t a walk in the park, more like a horrible limping crawl, so while my computer churned through endless amounts of noises i made a list of things to do.
Tactics, new players, training, cup of tea, Finances, Biscuit.. oh look its done!
Once again i used Samot Nosiddor and brought back to life an obsession with the London club. Immediately i felt at home like an old pro going back to his home town club, all the old things where there, the Blue and White kit, the pretty stable finances, and the three stars reserved for Warner, Harris and Ifill. I sat back in my fake leather chair and sighed as i felt at home, one with the mouse - scrolling through the profiles of each player making remarks to myself.
As the peaceful period of knowing a new team started to disappear, it was filled with expectation, i wanted to get the club in the premiership first time round, i want to win the FA Cup, the undignifying competitiveness from me towards a computer game all to apparent in my eyes and my actions, i NEEDED this.
By this stage of 'want', revision for my impending exams had been thrown away with no apparent reason to learn, i simply needed to play my first game. However, im no CM noob, and there was more than a few ticks of the clock before i finally pressed continue game that first time.
First came the squad, i thought to myself as i hunched over the keyboard, "Hmm, god this is no Valencia", the squad was i remembered, hard, aggressive and strong, the kind of squad small boys tremble about facing in a sunday league match, forget neat stepovers - these players where getting the ball of you however you played. For anyone who’s managed Millwall recently you'll know exactly what i mean - its a weird mix, on one side you have older aggressive players such as Wise, but on the other hand you've got younger, more skillful players surely whispering to themselves, "shouldn’t i be at a nicer team", players such as Sweeney.
But Millwall seems to have a mentality all to itself, 'you don’t get in the team if your a puff', and its all too apparent across the first team - look through all the players who regularly start and they all have high aggression and bravery - all its missing is a stupidly aggressive manager, oh wait, Wisey
But Millwalls squad isn’t as bad as im making out; they've got the best keeper in the division (due to James impending move to someone like Schalke04) and enough defenders to mount a small army. But while the militaristic ways of the defence and the midfield are useful, they lack decent wide players.
Ifill is very good, quite possibly premiership standard, but the left wing is like next generation phones: They've got the potential to rule the world and change how people connect to one another, yet somehow they remain decidly lame and with a shark lack of reliability. Sweeney clearly had potential like a phone, hes sharp, quick and has the mentality to go a long way. But when your best winger has crossing 14 and passing 9 - you're starting to worry. As back up for the 18year old we have a..... 20yr old in the form of Fofano, now I know a bad workman always blames his tools, but the only stats he has in that glorious highlighted yellow is acceleration...... and pace.
With this i made a note to sign either a new LM or a reserve R/LM.
This then brings me to my next problem - the attack. Now ill admit im not and never will be the biggest fan of Neil Harris, once again another player plagued by injury who doesn’t really have one stat to set him apart from the rest. However, he scored an amazing 12 from 40 last season for Millwall so i decided to give him a shot upfront, alongside him is a player ive never heard of, Bob Peeters - now im trying (oh so very hard) not to make any comparisons with him to Giles De Wilde here - but its so terribly hard not to. Hes strong, good in the air, is about as fast as Tony Adams and has the technique of me. However, when i think about it things could be worse... I could be Rotherham.
So on my little piece of white paper stolen from the printer next to me i scribbled down some notes of what players to buy and immediately set to it with a transfer budget of 1.5m and a wage bill spiraling out of control. In my mind i had 3 players, a strong striker who could hold the line. A half decent midfielder who can cross a ball and finally someone else who could bring a sparkle to the team to show our passion to get to the premiership.
I found 2...... and a half....... kind of...
The first two where done after just a few days of processing, in a strange case of CM imitating real life i signed Danny Dichio with Strength 17, Jumping 18 and Heading 18 - just what id always wanted! The second player was harder to find but was perfect for the job, a young starlet who wouldn’t mind warming the bench waiting for his chance on EITHER wing. He is David Cuellar… ok don’t all jump up at once in amazement, iv never heard of him either. But with Acceleration 15, Pace 15, Crossing 16 and Dribbling 15 he had all the hallmarks there to be a decent sub this season (he’s only on loan). For my third signing I decided to give into the premiership manager inside of me waiting to be released. I decided to sign the rubber stamped seal of approval good investment that is Krasen Trifonov. While he doesn’t come until next summer im hoping, nay praying we’ll already be in the premiership by then so he can show Ronaldo how its done, hehe.
After (or during) these transfers where been checked and verified I decided to take a look at the wage bill, hmm… One player on 15,000, one player on 10,000 and the rest on under 5. Clearly there was a some horrible miss management error here of colossal proportions. So with the two players having no future in my team I immediately transfer listed them – The aging and utterly useless Noel Whelan and the pathetic Muscat. Now im the first to confess that the god like CM isn’t the most realistic in the world, so when I had a 1m big for Noel and a 500k bid for Muscat both from… Sevilla, I was a little skeptical as to what their motives where. But sure enough both unsurprisingly accepted deals and where on their way to the continent leaving me in a GREEEEEAAAT position financially – 2m in the bank with a decent wage bill and two new players.
So with the squad seemingly sorting itself out I decided to sort out the tactics. Hmm… what to play, after tampering with a 4-5-1 I decided I didn’t have the depth in midfield and opted for a defensive looking 442. My idea was to play to my strengths – get balls down the wings to the fast midfielders and then to look for de Wilde and Dichio in the centre aerially. With this sorted I looked at the set pieces and free kicks and made sure they were all looking for aerially forceful people.
With my tactics, squad and finances sorted I looked at the training screen. It hardly made happy reading, 4 terribly sub standard coaches and 3 phyisos who all seemed perfectly happy to be doing pretty much nothing at the club. I got rid of all the groupings and pitched everyone together in one schedule governed by all coaches/physios. With this I assigned Daves ye old training schedule and tampered with it slightly to help with the vertically challenged players of my squad.
I then realized I didn’t have an assistant manager, I was thinking of signing Ray Wilkins… then decided against it as I found the legend Peter Beardsley on a free; I signed him up on 200 quid a week straight away.
So there you go, Squad, tactics, finances, training all done with a few days to go before my first friendly.
It’s 12.30 here and to be quite honest, my eyes are starting to bleed so bed seems the only answer, until next time, good bye.
TROD.
I last graced the New Den pitch back in 2002 with a 3yr stint on CM0102 were i enjoyed success under the alias 'Samot Nosiddor' taking the club into the Premiership via automatic promotion in my second season largely due to a magical performance from 1yr sensation Radoslaw Kaluzny.
However, the bright lights of the premiership wasn’t enough to draw my attention away from the Champions league and international football so after a few months i reverted back to an older game entitled 'Valencia', but that as they say is another story.
Anyway, i decided to watch the FA Cup final the other day and realized that i still loved the old lions, all the regulars where still there - Ifill, Cahill, Harris, Ryan, only the injured Warner was absent from an otherwise almost frozen in time team from my old days there. So, i decided to undertake the job again in the hope i could emulate what the club had done in real life. I put the CM Cd in and started a new game.
Now starting games on my PC isn’t a walk in the park, more like a horrible limping crawl, so while my computer churned through endless amounts of noises i made a list of things to do.
Tactics, new players, training, cup of tea, Finances, Biscuit.. oh look its done!
Once again i used Samot Nosiddor and brought back to life an obsession with the London club. Immediately i felt at home like an old pro going back to his home town club, all the old things where there, the Blue and White kit, the pretty stable finances, and the three stars reserved for Warner, Harris and Ifill. I sat back in my fake leather chair and sighed as i felt at home, one with the mouse - scrolling through the profiles of each player making remarks to myself.
As the peaceful period of knowing a new team started to disappear, it was filled with expectation, i wanted to get the club in the premiership first time round, i want to win the FA Cup, the undignifying competitiveness from me towards a computer game all to apparent in my eyes and my actions, i NEEDED this.
By this stage of 'want', revision for my impending exams had been thrown away with no apparent reason to learn, i simply needed to play my first game. However, im no CM noob, and there was more than a few ticks of the clock before i finally pressed continue game that first time.
First came the squad, i thought to myself as i hunched over the keyboard, "Hmm, god this is no Valencia", the squad was i remembered, hard, aggressive and strong, the kind of squad small boys tremble about facing in a sunday league match, forget neat stepovers - these players where getting the ball of you however you played. For anyone who’s managed Millwall recently you'll know exactly what i mean - its a weird mix, on one side you have older aggressive players such as Wise, but on the other hand you've got younger, more skillful players surely whispering to themselves, "shouldn’t i be at a nicer team", players such as Sweeney.
But Millwall seems to have a mentality all to itself, 'you don’t get in the team if your a puff', and its all too apparent across the first team - look through all the players who regularly start and they all have high aggression and bravery - all its missing is a stupidly aggressive manager, oh wait, Wisey
But Millwalls squad isn’t as bad as im making out; they've got the best keeper in the division (due to James impending move to someone like Schalke04) and enough defenders to mount a small army. But while the militaristic ways of the defence and the midfield are useful, they lack decent wide players.Ifill is very good, quite possibly premiership standard, but the left wing is like next generation phones: They've got the potential to rule the world and change how people connect to one another, yet somehow they remain decidly lame and with a shark lack of reliability. Sweeney clearly had potential like a phone, hes sharp, quick and has the mentality to go a long way. But when your best winger has crossing 14 and passing 9 - you're starting to worry. As back up for the 18year old we have a..... 20yr old in the form of Fofano, now I know a bad workman always blames his tools, but the only stats he has in that glorious highlighted yellow is acceleration...... and pace.
With this i made a note to sign either a new LM or a reserve R/LM.
This then brings me to my next problem - the attack. Now ill admit im not and never will be the biggest fan of Neil Harris, once again another player plagued by injury who doesn’t really have one stat to set him apart from the rest. However, he scored an amazing 12 from 40 last season for Millwall so i decided to give him a shot upfront, alongside him is a player ive never heard of, Bob Peeters - now im trying (oh so very hard) not to make any comparisons with him to Giles De Wilde here - but its so terribly hard not to. Hes strong, good in the air, is about as fast as Tony Adams and has the technique of me. However, when i think about it things could be worse... I could be Rotherham.
So on my little piece of white paper stolen from the printer next to me i scribbled down some notes of what players to buy and immediately set to it with a transfer budget of 1.5m and a wage bill spiraling out of control. In my mind i had 3 players, a strong striker who could hold the line. A half decent midfielder who can cross a ball and finally someone else who could bring a sparkle to the team to show our passion to get to the premiership.
I found 2...... and a half....... kind of...
The first two where done after just a few days of processing, in a strange case of CM imitating real life i signed Danny Dichio with Strength 17, Jumping 18 and Heading 18 - just what id always wanted! The second player was harder to find but was perfect for the job, a young starlet who wouldn’t mind warming the bench waiting for his chance on EITHER wing. He is David Cuellar… ok don’t all jump up at once in amazement, iv never heard of him either. But with Acceleration 15, Pace 15, Crossing 16 and Dribbling 15 he had all the hallmarks there to be a decent sub this season (he’s only on loan). For my third signing I decided to give into the premiership manager inside of me waiting to be released. I decided to sign the rubber stamped seal of approval good investment that is Krasen Trifonov. While he doesn’t come until next summer im hoping, nay praying we’ll already be in the premiership by then so he can show Ronaldo how its done, hehe.
After (or during) these transfers where been checked and verified I decided to take a look at the wage bill, hmm… One player on 15,000, one player on 10,000 and the rest on under 5. Clearly there was a some horrible miss management error here of colossal proportions. So with the two players having no future in my team I immediately transfer listed them – The aging and utterly useless Noel Whelan and the pathetic Muscat. Now im the first to confess that the god like CM isn’t the most realistic in the world, so when I had a 1m big for Noel and a 500k bid for Muscat both from… Sevilla, I was a little skeptical as to what their motives where. But sure enough both unsurprisingly accepted deals and where on their way to the continent leaving me in a GREEEEEAAAT position financially – 2m in the bank with a decent wage bill and two new players.
So with the squad seemingly sorting itself out I decided to sort out the tactics. Hmm… what to play, after tampering with a 4-5-1 I decided I didn’t have the depth in midfield and opted for a defensive looking 442. My idea was to play to my strengths – get balls down the wings to the fast midfielders and then to look for de Wilde and Dichio in the centre aerially. With this sorted I looked at the set pieces and free kicks and made sure they were all looking for aerially forceful people.
With my tactics, squad and finances sorted I looked at the training screen. It hardly made happy reading, 4 terribly sub standard coaches and 3 phyisos who all seemed perfectly happy to be doing pretty much nothing at the club. I got rid of all the groupings and pitched everyone together in one schedule governed by all coaches/physios. With this I assigned Daves ye old training schedule and tampered with it slightly to help with the vertically challenged players of my squad.
I then realized I didn’t have an assistant manager, I was thinking of signing Ray Wilkins… then decided against it as I found the legend Peter Beardsley on a free; I signed him up on 200 quid a week straight away.
So there you go, Squad, tactics, finances, training all done with a few days to go before my first friendly.
It’s 12.30 here and to be quite honest, my eyes are starting to bleed so bed seems the only answer, until next time, good bye.
TROD.
40% of my salary budget... 
hope you do well