Hello and welcome to the latest wacky idea I’ve cooked up in my head to throw at CM9798. What the f*** has happened here you ask? Well…Fergie’s success at Man Utd was built in the 1990’s. But which of his carefully crafted teams was the pinnacle? Many will say the treble winners of 98-99. But is that true?
We have carefully recreated the teams of each season from 1990-91 to 1999-00. Ten sides, pitched against each other.
We’ve used each version of Championship Manager to create the players for each team so:
The sides of 90-91 to 94-95 are crafted from a combination of the stats from CM93/94 and CM95/96 given 93/94 had limited stats. Beyond that, the sides are assembled from their data (including hidden data) in each CM version released for that season. We’ve only allocated players that had first team action in a first team competition that season (a handful in 97-98 and prior may have made it in without having played…what can you do).
We’ve also made sure set pieces, captaincy etc are aligned to as it was that season. So, for example the season Keane was out injured, Schmeichel is captain.
Their real-life achievements suggest that the ’98-99 treble winners ‘should’ come out on top, but you never can tell with this game.
1990-91: Cup Winners Cup
1991-92: League Cup, European Super Cup
1992-93: Premier League
1993-94: Premier League, FA Cup
1994-95: Diddly Squat
1995-96: Premier League, FA Cup
1996-97: Premier League
1997-98: Diddly Squat
1998-99: Premier League, FA Cup, Champions League
1999-00: Premier League, Intercontinental Cup
So, let’s get to it. Come on you reds! There were big injuries on the way:
Outbreaks of flu to content with:
The ’95 side complained at half-time they couldn’t see each other:
And there were some absolute ding-dongs between some of the sides, mostly those comparable in time periods.
We even had room for some Fergie time:
The highest scoring clash came at the seasons close as Fergie’s final team of the decade found some form when it didn’t matter.
And with those intermittent pieces of entertainment the season was over. But who came out on top, and who stank the place out?
The 1997-98 vintage came out on top (rigged by testing this in CM97-98? Surely not). They were given a fine chase by the 1992-93 vintage who, but for a loss to 1994-95 in their final game could have wrapped it up. It wasn’t easy going for the 1997-98 boys, in fact it was a late steal.
The vitals? Always the ‘keepers eh.
Solskjaer broke the Hughes/McClair domination (by having more domestic goals (12), Cantona had 10 – Hughes and McClair driving goals from Europe over the league):
As per the average ratings, it’s always the ‘keepers for MotM.
As for the complete lunatics…I’ll just leave this one here…
So, within this, who was the team of the season?
Fergie’s 90’s: Team of the 90’s
(Individuals not chosen more than once across all teams/years. Most positions defined by average rating. Strikers defined by goals scored)
That is a pretty f****** decent side I’d say. I’m tempted to load them into a separate save and give it a go!
(Not ultra-defensive, it was late, and I was tired).
So, can we conclude that the treble winning side of 1998-99 were actually a terrible side who just got lucky? I’m going to go with…yes. Ha-ha. According to this experiment, they should have arrived there a year earlier.
Despite having terrible ability and stats, the teams in the 90-95 zone seemed to fair pretty well over the season. Even a team that was headed by Les Sealey ended avoiding relegation, despite seeing ‘There was nothing Sealey could do’ a million times in the commentary.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this ridiculous effort, I’m sure many of you raging Man Utd fans will be pretty p***** off and offended by the outcomes here. If so, calm down, grab a drink, and remember, it’s just Champ Man!
P.S. I forgot, a year early, but how’s this for in-game realism?
