Hello! Welcome to another edition of Champ Man & Me. My guest this time is Lee Rothery, also known as Commitee_FM and the author of The Journals of Hampus Widgren. Intrigued? Well, you should be. Let’s find out more…

Thanks for taking the time out to speak to us Lee. Can you tell us about your site; The Journals of Hampus Widgren?

Firstly, a huge thanks for allowing me to be interviewed! Of course, basically, I was playing a long term save and was thinking to myself that I never seem to be able to remember any of my saves in detail so I wanted to create a blog. Initially for me but then other people in various Facebook groups became really interested in it, which really inspired me.

 It was 2059 in game and I said to myself that the next Physio name I see, I am going to retire my current Manager and start with another (within the same save) and create a new character starting from scratch. So I loaded up a load of 1.5* leagues and took it from there and ended up in Belarus.

Initially I started it with the intention of a  simple career update thread but now I am looking to expand upon this and indeed I recently released my first interview I conducted as part of my ‘Meet The Managers’ series. Groups such as FM Central and individuals I admire such as Cleon, Chris Darwen, Rashidi etc have given me some good advice so this is my way of paying that back into the community whilst allowing me to continue enjoying my writing. My hopes are that as my blog continues to expand in popularity it will then enable me to showcase new writers too which is my aim, as well as give me a chance to interview people I really admire.

What made you decide to start writing?

Writing is not actually new to me at all, I have been writing for a number of years. At University, I used to write music reviews, album reviews, film reviews as well as that I have kept journals since I was 17 and I am 32 now! Further to that, I am a published poet and a musician and I only ever write my own songs.

It was only recently I thought why not have a go at combining my passion for FM and writing and so far it’s gone really well. I’ve had some wonderful feedback so far. I really want to keep going with it but it’s just fitting it in as well in amongst my many other interests.

What are your memories of CM97/98? I appreciate it was a long time ago!

It was indeed a long time ago, my over-riding memories are many nights saying to myself ‘1 more game’ but even then I was slightly anal about things which I still am. In those days, I used to choose ten attributes per position and then add them up on paper to give my players a rating out of 200! It was a great game though! I remember a guy two years older than me managed to install the game in the IT room at school, it lasted 2 months until the teacher found out and we were busted. It was so much fun! In terms of my own saves I can’t for the life of me remember who I managed but I do remember scribbling down tactics in many a Science class and printing out my squad to show my mates. One of my favourite players of that series is Erik Nevland, he was superb! It also had a nice skin.

Do you have a favourite version of the series?

I would have to say either FM08 or FM14. I’m a bit of an OCD nut and I love the FM08 font and skin! Yes I am sad but for me little things like that make the game easier on the eye. FM14 because well, I still play that now, I do plan on coming back to the series though for 2017. It will be a huge step up! I was also a part of a clan in FM14 online for the SI games forum so I have some good memories from it. For me FM14 is perfection. I love the tactical creator but more so I love micro managing training, transfers & finances. It’s really interesting and I’m hardly ever bored playing as I look to only ever be spending 40% of any wage budget I get given (Can you tell I’m a Yorkshireman).

Everybody has at least one FM story – what’s yours?

There are so many to choose from and honestly I could talk at length about taking Harrogate Town to Champions League winners etc etc but my most recent highlight was when I was managing Elgin City, it took me 12 years to get them from league 2 to the Scottish Premiership and in my 2nd season I finished 2nd and go to the group stages of the Europa League. Our first group game was PSV away, can you imagine my shock, my unadulterated joy as we battered them 5-1! One of my best ever performances! (We finished 3rd in the group).

What’s your take on the #Wearethecommunity movement? Do you get the chance to read much of the FM Community’s work?

Firstly, I am new to twitter so I can only talk about my experience so far. I think in principle the idea is a very good one, however do I feel it’s doing much for new writers? From what I’ve seen so far I don’t think it does. I only say this because it seems people are only promoting work they like as opposed to anything new. I mean no offence to anyone and as I said I am new so I could be totally wrong. I probably am, it just seems that way! It seems to be the same few people who work tirelessly to promote new content. However, it’s a fantastic tool Twitter, I’ve already made some nice friends and even thinking of starting a podcast with someone, I won’t say who with yet!

This is why if I can achieve half of what Cleon has done by showcasing new writers I will do my best as I think it’s important to absorb as much varied work as is possible. I wish SI games could showcase people more as well, they could really do a lot more to encourage people.

At the same time, I think people should still write and eventually you’ll find an audience, other than my blog I have some of my work published and some of my work rejected. I pursued feedback and decided to continue writing in my own style. I did think of tweaking it but the positivity I received far outweighed the negativity and I always ask myself the same question – would I enjoy this? If the answer is yes then you’re on the right lines. This is not limited to FM either I’ve had several of my poems & stories rejected but I keep doing it for my sins!

Yes I read loads, I must admit I find 99% of FM You Tube videos as dull as dishwater; I even tried my hand in them but got bored by my own videos. There are just two I recommend which are ‘Bust The Net’ which is so entertaining yet really informative, no one else is covering every aspect the way he does. He shows that by playing the game in a simple manner you can be a success. It really opened my eyes on so many things. The other is IstanbulNLGaming – I will let you look that up, some great work on training, PPM’s etc.

In terms of reading, well, would it surprise you if I told you that I am currently looking at 77 bookmarks of work I need to catch up on, there is some fabulous content, some I prefer to others but I would still be happy to promote them. I really hope this does not exclude anyone but I can only name my favourites in this short article, in no order my absolute favourite writers are:

Chris Darwen – his search the stats methodology have been a huge influence on me.

Cleon – He has been so nice to me and very supportive – a really nice guy and every article he writes encourages me to load up my game. If I’m ever bored of the game I read his works.

Rashidi – I am so thankful I have him on Twitter now, we have exchanged a few messages and again he has helped me a great deal, you really need to check out his Bust The Net page but also his old works such as when he took Stafford Rangers to the heights of Champions League winners!

A guy called Ben who apparently now resides in the FM Now forums, he did an amazing piece on managing Vitoria Setubal.

Alex Stewart who’s work in his moneyball series was so inspiring

Guido Merry – his articles are fantastic, again not related to one thing either, so varied.

There are many more I could mention!

In terms of podcasts, I really like what FM Central produce, they have a weekly FM podcast which is usually interesting and I was lucky enough to be invited on the show a while back, it was a lot of fun and Paul who owns it does a lot of work for the community and of course the Deep Lying Podcast, really great listen, if you see this – I want to come on the show!

Let’s talk real life for a second – which team do you support?

FC Halifax Town – I really do wish everyone would support the team where they were born. I love the affinity and community spirit within the club, we’ve had it tough the past few seasons going bust and then having to start again in the toilet leagues. Now though we’re very much an established Conference side and I firmly believe we should be a League 2 team. We also have a repertoire of developing great strikers and selling them on, such luminaries include Lee Gregory, Geoff Horsfield and England’s Jamie Vardy and recently we did it again in the window just gone selling Shaun Tuton to Barnsley. All season, we have looked doomed but now Jim Harvey is in we’ve been playing so well and at the time of writing we are enjoying a 10 match unbeaten run in the league!

After I had trials at Bradford City & Huddersfield Town and telling a Liverpool scout to F-Off I actually played for Halifax Town from the ages of 15-17! I was gutted then they released me.

Unfortunately, after deciding to leave my job in the corporate world and deciding to become a full time football trader I don’t get to see them as much anymore despite living a brisk 15 minute walk from the stadium.

If you could change anything about the FM series, what would it be?

This is easy, I would change two things:

1 – You are only allowed one save and have to progress naturally as you might in real life.

2 –  You are only allowed to start as un unknown and more importantly your first job should be with an under 18 team and you must work your way up

Lee, thanks again for joining us and I wish you all the best with your blog and other projects. Remember to follow Lee on twitter and to visit his website here

After a short absence, I’m delighted to say we’re back with a new edition of Champ Man & Me. We’re joined by Paul from FM Central, a resource site for all your Football Manager needs. I spoke to Paul about the site, his favourite memories of the series and the new #Wearethecommunity initiative

Hello Paul, thanks for taking the time to join me. FM Central is a tremendously popular resource site for not only FM content but there’s also some real-life analysis. Can you sum it up for us as a starter?

FM Central was born due to a burning love for Football Manager, we wanted to create a home for people to feel happy whilst talking FM, setting up the website we knew we needed to make a base for the followers we hoped we would get so setting up a facebook group we never knew it would explode how it did and now we are closing in on 6000 as we speak.

FM Central is a community based site, we focus on making sure people in our community have what they need, from guides to stories, from Graphics to the Online League. My main aim was to always make FM Central feel like a down to earth place, somewhere people wanted to be and wanted to discuss FM and in all aspects myself and my admin team try to do that, be it talking to myself on twitter to posting on the group.

How did you come to be involved with the site? Is this your first role within such a project?

I had set up a site with a previous group I helped on but the group was unfortunately on a downward spiral so I decided I wanted to make somewhere better, bigger and stronger. Looking into it and talking with some lads who wanted to make the move with me it became simple, I messaged them within minutes knowing the name I wanted to call the site and everything went from there, I am proud to be the owner of FM Central and I know the lads who help on it have the same passion for it which is great to know and see.

What are your thoughts on FM16? How does it stack up to other versions of the game?

I love this FM, the detail is fantastic, the additions to the game with prozone and making sections like the tactics easier to navigate in my opinion, it is nice they listened to views and implemented them.
I am a fan of the online additions but also wary of the need to please the younger generation in my view with the fast paced draft mode. As long as it does not effect the making of the full detailed version I shall remain happy.

When did you first catch the CM/FM ‘bug’?

The bug hit early, in 98/99 it took control, the early mornings before school getting up at 5am to get some games played, running home to finish a season, it was a time of my life I remember well, my teacher at the time also was a fan of Champ Man and he used to print off his team and bring it in when he made new signings, the old paper, with the holed paper strip on the side, classic paper for a classic game.

Obviously I’m a big fan of CM97/98, do you have any memories of this particular version?

This was my first ever Football Manager, my brother had built me a computer and he had borrowed the game off a friend, I was the only football fan in the house so games like this did not get purchased randomly and I had not heard of it, I was moving up to the older school at the time and they wanted a way to keep me from mixing with the wrong crowds it seems, well it worked.

I had no idea what I was doing when firing the game up and made many mistakes but it was the first time I played it, I remember I had played for two or three months straight when his friend wanted it back. I cried myself to sleep that night hoping my parents would hear and get me it back, little did I know my brother had already planned on the following version being in my stocking along with a new computer.

Everybody has a favourite save – what’s yours?

A save that lives long in the memory, Cork City, a visit to the Irish league in FM08 which would turn my management style forever. Taking charge I had always being save before that, Italy, England, Scotland, Spain etc but I wanted to try to and expand, i was now hitting the age of 19/20, I had got sick of the late nights drinking and replaced it with pretending to be at Turners Cross, I think it held about 7,500 but when I was done, that place rocked like it held 90k.

It started well, Andy Jackson, I still remember him now, I am sure he plays in Scotland and I signed a Polish winger, his name slips my mind but he was amazing, with the core sticking together we romped to 7 titles in a row, in that time bringing players like Alex Bruce to play in Ireland, the big issue was signing Irish players who had not come from Ireland so they did not count as home grown for the European Squads, I did get some good youth but not to many.

Well season 8 came round, we were in Europe again, the Champions League, we had touched the groups before but never settled in them and the draw was made… Tottenham, Inter and arghhh it slips my mind. Anyways I had no hope, we were tired by the kick off of the groups with our season coming to an end but we pushed on, picking up points and before we knew it, we had got to the knockout rounds! This dream continued till the last eight of the competition before going out 2-0 to Barcelona. We never reached the heights again in my four further years but it was a journey with the Irish minnows I loved and lived every minute of it.

#Wearethecommunity is a new initiative launched by the online FM Community, can you explain what the goal of this movement is?

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.

Today marks one year since I launched this blog and in the absence of a party, balloons or a cake, I’d like to take the time to reflect on the last 12 months.

Before I move on though, this seems like as good a time as any to thank you all for reading, commenting, tweeting and generally putting up with me for the past year. If nobody read this, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as fun. This is a game from getting on 20 years ago and I’m humbled by the amount of nice words sent in my general direction for the memories this blog has evoked. I hope I can continue this in 2016.

What a 12 months it has been though. Right the way from my very post through to yesterday’s offering, we’ve been through a lot together. You’ll be glad to know what I’m not going to re-write every post from the past year, but I do have some highlights. The first save on the blog saw me go from Wimbledon to Deportivo, but my abiding memory will always be the outcry on Twitter when Steve Haslam went to Real Madrid, including one kind soul tweeting the man himself:

Alan Rogers to Man Utd also raised some eyebrows. That first save saw me move to Auxerre at the start of season 3, and one thing that didn’t make it to blog was that things got so bad I had the “David Black to go?” graphic. I was petrified I was going to be sacked and have to blog my failure, plus a period of being unemployed. Let me tell you, I studied that game to make sure my form turned around and fortunately, it did! Then of course, the  dreaded save game corruption happened.

What was really annoying about this was that I had Deportivo absolutely flying! Considering I hadn’t started that season particularly well, we had a lot of momentum by this stage:

I still have the save game (it’s the 3rd blank square on the above screenshot) but it’ll never work again – my laptop ran out of battery as it was saving, so I would think it is gone forever. I handled it well though:

As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. I reached out to twitter and gave the people what they wanted

And so the Darlington legacy was started. Everything about this save turned out perfect for a blog – I didn’t dominate every division or anything like that, but I genuinely felt the love for Darlington. Even after an early mishap regarding whether Darlington FC really still exists after their financial plight,  I was politely corrected, off we went. It just felt like the stars aligned a bit, especially when things like this happened:

I absolutely promise you that wasn’t set up either. During all of this madness, I needed ideas to keep the blog interesting, and decided to run with the live text idea. Basically, if a big enough game came about, I decided to give it the full coverage. Yes, I shamefully tweeted some prominent live texters but in my defence, they said these things:

So the Division 2 playoff final was my first attempt, before increasingly grander matches got the treatment. 2 FA Cup finals and a UEFA Cup later, I then wrote about 10 as part of a book. Ridiculous. You can review the live texts (and everything else) over at Season Summaries

Away from updating you on the saves I’ve tried to bring some variety to the page as I wanted this to become a one-stop shop for all your CM9798 needs. The Community XI was a load of fun, again I did fear nobody at all would vote but those fears were misplaced and you did the game proud. Even now, I can see in the site stats people search Google for the game, end up here and trawl through the nominations to try and find that bargain they may have missed. There were also a bunch of list articles in the early days that may be a little outdated now but the point still stands:

5 Players in CM9798 Who went on to Alternative Careers

5 Players in CM9798 with inexplicable positions

10 Current Premier League Managers still playing in CM9798

I could probably re-write the last one every few months, such is the modern management world. Seeing as it’s an anniversary, I do have another of these lined up.

This blog has also introduced me to a number of CM addicts through Twitter and email, and this was really the basis for the Champ Man & Me series. My original plan was to ask willing volunteers to answer a Q&A over e-mail with a view to combining it all. The problem was, more than a dozen of you sent in answers and it became a very cumbersome draft that was already 2000 words long after about 3 sets of answers. I still have the draft to this day. Instead, the series went ahead on a one-to-one basis with various people ranging from the creator of a 90s football podcast to a TV commentator. Just when I thought I’d peaked, the creators of the game Paul & Oliver Collyer agreed to answer some questions on the series, which I’m still amazed by to this day. The full list of Champ Man & Me’s are below:

Chris Darwen (Author & Editor of The Higher Tempo Press)

Ally Bain (Qualified Coach & podcaster)

Mark Carruthers (NonLeagueDaily.com editor and Pundit)

Dan O’Hagan (Football Commentator)

Ash Rose (Alive & Kicking 90s Podcast Creator)

Paul & Oliver Collyer (Co-founders of Sports Interactive)

Incidentally, everybody I asked to do this agreed with one exception, who didn’t reply. It was during the Rugby World Cup and so I asked a rugby player to take part, thinking that was good business. I would imagine he was a tad busy though, so we’ll let him off.

Of course, writing this blog has opened some doors that led to me writing a book about this great game. It started with me writing some pieces for The Higher Tempo Press and before long, Chris had asked me to write a book and now it’s on Amazon. Did I imagine that would happen when I started this 12 months ago? Absolutely not. But if you’re reading this now and you’re considering writing about something, just bloody do it. Who knows what can happen, and what have you got to lose?

It’s been a mad 12 months, to the point where I can’t remember what I did before I wrote this blog. What will this year bring? I have some new ideas that I’ll hopefully be able to roll out, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s still CM9798 at the end of the day. I would like to bring more interaction in though, maybe partnering up with some of the FM Community for scenarios or podcasts. There’s a bottomless pit of opportunity.

For now though, thanks for walking down memory lane with me. This turned into a much longer post than I anticipated, but then I have always had a good memory. Thank you for making this blog what it is.

Happy blogday to you all

Dave

Happy New year to you all. Welcome to the 2012/13 season, or season 16 if you prefer. Last time out, we witnessed Italy win Euro 2012 and I received the job offer I’d been waiting for, or perhaps it was an SOS call. Either way, I’ve answered the pleas and now I’m manager of Division 2 Newcastle.

Division 2 is not where I want to be, I’m a multiple time Champions League winner but sometimes, you’ve just got to do what is right. To paint you a picture, look at this for a history:

Pretty grim – we haven’t even been close to getting back in the Premier League since relegation in 1999. As it stands we’re not even one promotion away…

The squad is full of unknowns…and my ex-Darlington goalkeeper Philip Humphries, who has England caps. That should help.

Celestine Babayaro is also there but I’d rather he wasn’t.

Well that works.

To be honest, I expected to come in here, sign a few players and we’d get promoted easily. I couldn’t have been more wrong though – make no mistake, this squad is absolutely diabolical. It takes us a few games to get our first win, albeit in the League Cup.

That’s followed up by our first league win

After this start, we really needed reinforcements

George Weah’s re-gen isn’t available for transfer, but oddly they will loan me him. He makes a big difference!

The goals against column is a real concern though. It feels like every attack against us ends in a goal, and none of my goalkeepers are able to make a difference.

This is a good result

This is a bad result

Coventry are a Premier League side though, read into that what you will. I’ve tried all 4 of my keepers without success.

This game loves to put you in pressure situations too

Great, neither side want a derby in their current states. Sunderland are in Division 3 whilst we concede 3 a game! We get away with it with a late turnaround.

Phew. We’ve rallied a bit and we’re as midtable as it comes.

Only 3 points from the playoffs though! Goals against is a concern – I’m just not sure how to stem the flow though.

There’s been the usual array of stories away from Newcastle, starting with the Charity Shield

Batistuta broke my heart…and now Gerry’s too.

You’re probably (not) wondering who replaced me at Norwich. Well…

First division leicester have their manager pinched – they’re now bottom of that division. Norwich meanwhile…

Oh, Gerry. I say that a lot. The table is randomised I’m sure

Blackburn have just been promoted under Darren Huckerby, and now this. Sheff Wed have got to be a good bet for the league because of their Argentinian goal machine, whilst Liverpool are probably the strongest side over the last few seasons. Darlo aren’t going well but this is how Gerry does it. Where are Man Utd!?

15th! Gordon, what are you playing at? Boro prop up the division, 51 year old Peter Beardsley still a few weeks away from returning from a broken leg but it’s probably hampered his managerial ability. Wolves have also collapsed after some decent seasons.

Whilst I try and figure out the best way to stop leaking goals, I’ll look forward to seeing you all again in the next update. Tata for now.

The World According to CM9798 is available on Amazon now