Hello!

Well if it isn’t the return of the 5 point list. Seeing as we’ve been running for a year, I’ve encountered a lot of strange things in this game, but what’s great is that you lot have also sent some odd things over.  So, without further Freddy Adu, let’s countdown.

We’ve got a whole lot of history

Player histories are a great thing, but if you create a player in the editor you can’t add in any history unfortunately, but ho hum. In great news, there are certain “hidden” histories in the game, all you have to do is create that player with the right date of birth. Here’s Eric Cantona

Are there others? Well, maybe. But I don’t know who they are. And neither does Google. Lionel Perez was mentioned but he was added into the game anyway after inexplicably missing out pre-patch. Let’s move on.

You’re Barred!

Anderlecht got caught out being naughty boys and, with no detail missing, their resulting ban in Europe was built into CM9798

Screenshot courtesy of @obsoletelyfab

Of course the eagle eyed amongst you will see the ban is for 1998-99, meaning anybody unaware flogged themselves to death for a season, got into Europe only to learn they wouldn’t be allowed to play with the rest of the elite. Nightmare.

Winner takes it all

Ok we’re cheating a bit here but I genuinely didn’t know this was a thing. Seemingly, neither did half of twitter. In Italy, if the top two finish on the same points, none of this goal difference malarky – it’s a playoff to determine the true winner.

Apparently this really happened in Serie A up until 2005/06, though I can’t find any record of the last time it actually transpired that way, mainly because my Italian leaves a lot to be desired. So there you go – another great bit of a detail.

Unrateable

We all know the stats in CM9798 range from 1 – 20. Right? Wrong. When a player declines so badly, their stats can actually fall of a cliff and be essentially zero

Here we have blog favourite Peter Beardsley, still player-managing at 55. Pace? Slow. Stamina? He’s practically dead. Strength? Floppy. He’s really determined though, so that’ll help.

That’s all folks

Don’t you just hate it when you’re finally hitting your stride, 30 seasons in, and the game tells you to move along

So if we get to 30 seasons, and to be fair we are just 10 short seasons away from that, I can call it a day. I only hope I’ve achieved all I need to by then, or I’ll be livid.