Good morning and happy Monday! Please welcome back Rob Tait, who has added the title of 2020 CM Cup champion to his CV since he last blogged with us. He’s been a busy boy in the editor…

Welcome to an alternate reality, made possible through the editor of CM9798. I’ve always thought about doing this, however the logistics of making such a lot of changes to the database felt a little overwhelming. However with some time and a free piece of spreadsheet-ing software I set about compiling and organising the “best” (based on reputation in the editor, with a few caveats and wildcards) 172 teams on the game into the English, Spanish and Italian leagues.

The top three divisions in England, Spain and Italy have been randomly assigned to the top 58 teams. The next 66 teams have been placed in the second tier in England, Spain and Italy. This leaves the final 48 teams in the English second and third divisions. Teams who would normally play in those leagues but didn’t make the cut have been scattered to the winds and now play their football in other national leagues, which might make European competitions interesting.

Some really high reputation South American teams who only have half a dozen players in the database have been placed in the English third division. I decided they didn’t have enough players to compete at the top straight away but really wanted them to be there. Finally Eik-Tonsberg, Skeid and Stabaek have been given Wildcards into the English third division, why these Norwegian teams you ask? Well, because I wanted these players in the game and it was the only way I could think of to ensure they loaded up.

I really have no idea how this will work or what will happen. Game day one sees three pages of job adverts as loads of the clubs I’ve swapped in don’t have a manager, should make for some interesting early managerial changes. One constant remains, Bobby Gould’s job as Wales boss is V.Insecure!

Anyway I’ve decided to take on Sao Paulo as they are a club who I have never been able to manage before. They only have a squad of 6 real players, I mean they seem to be six really good players, we have most likely all signed Marcio Santos and Denilson before. I will try and hang on to them and add some bargains with the £2 million at my disposal, probably starting with a keeper, then, Christian Bye Anderson and maybe Christer George, depending on how much they cost. Oh also now would be a good time to mention that I’ve made all the nations in the game part of the EEC so there shouldn’t be any forign players, I’m sure I’ll have missed one somewhere, but I’ll take that as a nice surprise as and when it happens.

I certainly won’t be buying any of these guys who are the most expensive players at the start of the game, making everyone part of the EU has upped Shevchenko’s value a tad, as well as correcting his name I also gave him his correct birthday and adjusted a few stats, nothing silly just making him come out a bit more consistently each time.

Finally before I get going here is what all the leagues look like after the super shuffle.

I really have no idea what to expect in terms of challenge, division 3 is full of highly rated South American sides but they all started with between 3 and 10 players so they will need to build a squad. I too need to strengthen (I need 5 players just to get a starting eleven!) my Sao Paulo side, something that is helped by the sale of season tickets injecting £7.5 million into the bank. It also helps having a high reputation and I manage to attract some “talent” to rough it in the fourth tier of the English International League.

Pirri is a favourite of mine from previous saves, everyone loves the real Marc Emmers and Venison and Foda are squad players who fancied a move to Brazil in the twilight of their career. Brolin is a bargain signing with International experience to support the attack, Luis Garcia is a Mexican wizard who I’ve never signed before he can play up top or behind the front two. I’ve never signed Kostadinov before either but he played up top with Stoichkov in the 1994 World Cup so he must be ok, although he didn’t score any goals in the tournament. The keepers are solid, I’m hoping Richard Wright develops quickly. I’m most happy with my signing of Javier Margas (the same one who played for West Ham) who has amazing stats, apart from tackling, but who needs that as a defender? Margas is appointed club captain and if the attackers get injured I might just play him there instead.

Opening day of the season and I’m worried, we need to get a good start, I think everyone has a non-promotion release clause and for good measure it is a local derby against Vasco da Gama who have appointed Sir Bobby as their manager.

It turns out to be a bit of a thriller, Vasco have also had to build a squad so that probably helped, unlike Denilson’s red card for an elbow and Pirri’s 84th minute injury but it’s a good start.

Next up we are hosting Austria Vienna for the 1st round 1st leg of the League Cup, I would normally rotate a bit to keep us fresh but I don’t have enough players to do that so we go out at pretty much full strength, which is really the only strength we have right now.

Another victory but also another injury for one of my attacking support players da Costa, I’m going to have to go shopping. On the plus side an attendance of 114,039 puts an extra £2 million in the bank, a good cup run could finance some much needed purchases.

League action is another local derby this time away to Flamengo, they have appointed Kev Keegan as their manager and sport the attacking prowess of Palhinha and Romario balanced with Mark Wright, Steve Harkness and Mark Crossley, sounds about right.

Kostadinov could be a bit of a player, six goals in three games, Garcia chips in with another as well, it all seems to be going well, despite the injuries and red card, Denilson got a three game ban for that elbow!

Before the second leg of our League cup tie I draft in former Czech international Milan Luhovy who despite being a striker is a central midfielder in the game. South African born, United States international Roy Wegerle agrees to delay his golf career for some fun in the Brazilian sun. Finally another defender who really wants to be a striker is signed, never heard of him and he is injured with a fractured skull for four months but he looks so good I can’t help it.

Two more Kostadinov goals but a second red card in four games!

Middlesbrough visit the Morumbi, this is a real test, they have a full squad and usually walk back into the Premiership after one season thanks to Marco Branca. The game isn’t dull but it ends goalless thanks to the annoyingly good Mark Schwarzer. We had a 50th minute stonewall penalty turned down and Kostadinov had an off day.

Off to Norway next to face wildcard entry Eik-Tonsberg, sneaking in because of star man and captain Christian Bye Anderson, who annoyingly doesn’t see us as a big club so we can’t activate his release clause.

Kostadinov bounces back and Brolin chips in then chips out. That’s three red cards in five games. We seem to be an angry bunch. Bye Anderson had a goal disallowed, I’ll get him one day.

Gordon Milne’s Olympiakos are our next opponents, this time it’s the opposition who get a player sent off and goals at both ends of the match give us an easy win. Go on Roy Wegerle.

Off to Serbia to play Red Star and Kosta-D just can’t stop scoring goals. Brolin gets another before his suspension and Pirri comes back from injury with a goal.

CM Legend Tommy Svindal Larsen brings another wildcard entry to Sao Paulo. They put up a good effort but it’s that man again Kosta-D who gets the only goal to give us another win.

I have to tweak the formation for our match against Ron Atkinson’s Partizan Belgrade, all the suspensions and a few injuries mean we play one up top and three at the back. Fortunately Denilson is back and he means business scoring a goal for each of the games he missed.

Another lucrative cup tie next as Lens come to the Morumbie, 122,338 fans put another couple of million in the bank but nearly leave disappointed until Kosta-D pops up with an equaliser ten minutes from time. Lens are two leagues above us but hopefully we can do something in the away leg. I just want some more money!

Before the last game of this update Man Utd put in an offer for Denilson, he’s been getting some interest but he’s happy living the life in Division 3. I was tempted by the £24.25 million though.

Finally Gerry Francis brings his LA Galaxy side to Brazil. I have a little confession about LA Galaxy, they only had one player, Jorge Campos I think on the database, so I added all the other MLS teams players to their squad. It was looking like a mistake too as after 13 minutes they were 1-2 up. Then playmaker and Side Show Bob impersonator Valderrama goes off injured and Denilson shows me why even £24 million isn’t enough.

After 10 league games we are top of the pile but it is close and the top of the table is dominated by the sleeping South American giants who have been asked to get to the top the hard way.

It has been good fun so far, winning and lots of goals help.

If you’d like to have a go yourself, the database files can be downloaded here.

Just copy the three files into your cm9798 folder but remember to back up the current ones first so you can go back to the original database in future.

Also if your team isn’t here it is really easy to do a swap and tweak the game to have it how you like it.