SamuraiPizzaRob - Comments

One last FM23 save, returning to an old favourite of mine - AS Roma!

 

A Brief History

 

A Newcastle Fan IRL, the majesty of Francesco Totti was brought to my TV screen thanks to Football Italia on Channel 4 through the mid-to-late 90s. From there a CM00/01 Roma save - which helped me through one of the most difficult periods of my life - saw a life long affinity with the Giallorossi develop. They've been a regular FM save choice of mine ever since.

 

In FM23

 

A simple set of goals; to first deliver another Scudetto, and then grow Roma into the biggest club in the world!

 

The Technical Bits

 

I'm using the Winter Update database (c. January/February 2023) - so Cristiano Ronaldo to the SPL, Gakpo to Liverpool and all that jazz.

 

How It's Started…

 

A limited wage budget meant some rebalancing of the transfer kitty, but with a few squad depth issues I needed to wheel and deal in order to have my Roma side ready for the season ahead.

 

In came Simone Bastoni to backup Leonardo Spinazzola at left back, Houssem Aouar arrived to add midfield depth (especially with Georginio Wijnaldum ruled out through injury until after the World Cup), and I signed Yunus Musah from Valencia, primarily with the intention of performing an old FM trick and converting him to a right winger! Secretly, I hope to bring Nicolo Zaniolo back to the Olimpico at some stage though.

 

We're not deep deep, but with some good youth prospects - like Nicola Zalewski and Edoardo Bove - I feel we have enough to challenge for a Champions League spot, compete in the Europa League, and maybe make a little Cup run in the Coppa Italia.

 

The club staff was also thoroughly revitalised, with Brian Kidd and Dennis Bergkamp among those joining the first team coaching staff, whilst Real Madrid legend Guti was hired as the new Under 18 Manager among a raft of changes to my youth staff.

 

I setup us up with a 4-3-3 DM to begin the year with, plus a 4-2-3-1 (with a double DM), and a 5-3-2 that encompasses two DMs and an AM - no doubt tweaks will be needed as the season goes on, but that's how we're starting out.

 

Up to the World Cup

 

An opening day loss at Atalanta (0-1) is quickly forgotten as we win ten on the bounce in all competitions - propelling us towards the top of Serie A, whilst setting us up to progress to the next round of the Europa League. Despite some minor injuries, and a few tired legs due to the compressed schedule, we reach the World Cup break sitting in 1st place in Serie A, and top our Europa League group, booking out place in the Last-16.

 

The season resumes on January 5th at Fiorentina, with a home tie against Bologna in the Coppa Italia six days later.

 

I also send a contract offer to Marcus Thuram, in a bid to bring the Frenchman in on a free during the summer - with Andrea Belotti struggling as second choice behind Tammy Abraham, it seemed like a good move, especially as Thuram wanted similar money to Belotti (and can provide further depth at AML). 

Just wanted to stop by and say a big THANK YOU for making these available - looking forward to tinkering with some of my own designs

“We don’t talk about 2002” I’m reminded, as my new assistant shows me around the BayArena. Suddenly the tale of how I became a professional footballer (Regional Level), the knee injury which cut short my fictitious playing career, and my journey to a (also fictitious) Continental Pro License are lost in the wistful gaze of the young employee stood next to me. How could I be so foolish as to even mention the word ‘2002’ on my first day as the new Manager of Bayer Leverkusen…

Football fans with a solid recollection of 2002 will remember two things about this particular vintage: the World Cup in Japan and Korea, and Bayer Leverkusen’s catastrophic collapse at the end of what had, at one time, shaped up to be a legendary campaign.

 

By late April of that year, Die Werkself led the Bundesliga by 5-points with just three games to go, had qualified for the DFB Pokal Final, and were into the Champions League Semi-Final – later beating Manchester United (on away goals) to reach the Final. Things unravelled in truly brutal fashion however; losing to Werder Bremen, and Nürnberg to allow Borussia Dortmund to slip through and steal the league title by just 1-point; collapsing against Schalke in the Cup Final; before tasting one final, bitter defeat as Zinedine Zidane’s iconic volley saw Real Madrid crowned European champions at Leverkusen’s expense.

 

This triple heartbreak was further compounded by the departure of star midfielder Michael Ballack, and Ze Roberto to rivals Bayern Munich that summer. Centre back Lucio followed a year later. It kicked off a cycle of developing, then selling; helping keep Leverkusen on a solid financial footing, whilst also making them largely competitive – with multiple top-5 finishes, and even a run to the DFB Pokal Final again in 2020 – but ultimately unsuccessful in terms of silverware. The 1988 UEFA Cup, and 1993 DFB Pokal remain the clubs only major honours since being founded by workers at Bayer AG in 1904; this despite a host of future stars passing through the industrial city.

 

No more however; I’ve stumbled into town with my Duolingo German and ‘can do’ attitude. The players eye my cautiously as I lay out our hopes for the season:  qualify for the Champions League, reach the second knockout stage of the Europa League, and look to make a healthy run in the DFB Pokal. It’s a tidy squad, something that can be built on, or in the case of Florian Wirtz, built around. I am determined not to see this young star leave Leverkusen.

 

The transfer budget is a modest, but useful £7 million – though closer to £6 million once I’ve made adjustments to create extra breathing room within the wage budget. Some wheeling and dealing is required, judicious use of installments and clauses helps land young starlet Karim Adeyemi, while Pierre Kalulu arrives from AC Milan to flesh out the defence. Mönchengladbach’s £4 million (potentially rising to £4.5 million) offer for Daley Sinkgraven helps ensure there’s enough left to secure the signing of Andrea Papetti, as well as left back Simone Bastoni.

 

Inevitably, the sharks are circling around some of my star players – Patrik Schick, Moussa Diaby, and Paulinho draw admiring glances from Bayern and RB Leipzig respectively, but my plan is to hold on to all three unless a significant offer is received.

 

The back room staff is shaken up to, with veteran Assistant Manager/Coach Brian Kidd arriving as my number two, while Dennis Bergkamp also joins the coaching staff. Club legends Simon Rolfes, and Stefan Kießling retain their roles as Director of Football and Technical Director respectively, but my recruitment team sees a raft of changes otherwise, becoming one of the best in the Bundesliga by the time I’m finished.

 

Tactically, it’s a tried and tested 4-2-3-1, and a slight variation on a 4-1-4-1 I’d picked up elsewhere, which form our template to start the season. Both allow our best players to play in positions that can, in theory, excel in, whilst providing both a reasonable defensive base, and a threat going forward.

Pre-season goes well, slowly building on each performance, with a win over Galatasaray in our final friendly giving reason to be hopeful entering the new campaign; which begins with a regulation 2-0 win away at Babelsberg in the DFB Pokal. Could it have been more? Perhaps; but as the first game under a new manager, and his new system(s), well, we’ll take it. Frustratingly we cannot secure a first Bundesliga win of the season away at Union Berlin a week later; despite dominating possession, our shooting is wayward, with just three of our 16 shots on target. At least Schick scores, annoyingly so do Union – Taiwo Awoniyi turning home one of their two chances on goal to see the game finish 1-1.

 

Things do not improve when we host Mönchengladbach on Match Day 2, with the visitors securing just two shots on target (to our nine…): one in the opening minutes, and in the 90th minute; guess which goes in? You guessed it, Marcus Thuram’s late header condemns us to a 1-0 defeat. Ah well, better days are to come, as we dispatch Augsburg 2-0 thanks to goals from Lucas Alario, and Diaby; although we were somewhat labouring for the first 60 minutes. Nevertheless, a win is a win, and the Europa League draw has been relatively kind, pitting us against Celtic, Slavia Praha, and Brondby – it’s a group which feels…winnable.

 

Next up after the international break: Borussia Dortmund.

I've had Valencia saves in FM20, FM21, and FM22 - the latter of which I really should return to after a break from it recently. That or restart to include the Winter Transfer update. 

 

I've found them to be a really good team to manage, as there is a good youth academy, sufficient reputation to attract good players and compete, but also financial limitations and two serious challengers in Real and Barca to overcome. I'd recommend Valencia to anyone looking for an FM save, they're one of my faves now, and I've sort of gained an affinity for them in real life too as a result.

 

For comparison, I've finished 3rd for three season in a row in my FM22 save, and won the 2023 Copa de el Rey (and 2023 and 2024 Super Copa) - really we should have won La Liga in 2023/24, but we choked in our last couple of games. I was gutted, and it's partly why I took a break from the save (well, that and a bad start to the 2024/25 season - needed to take a step back before there was an FM related laptop breakage ha ha). As I said, I might start over with the Winter Update.

By Lynx 28 February 2022 - 17:57 PM UTC 

How did you fix it? I have the same issue and no matter how many times I reinstall it, Juve is still Zebra.. 

 

Thanks! 

 

My Valencia save was from the 2210 (previous) update - like a plum I'd overwritten the dbc, edt, and Inc folders in the 2210 sub-folder when I was trying to patch everything so any new saves with 2230 show up ‘correctly’. Basically I had to re-apply the change to the City, Club and Stadium Names.Inc file in 2210/Inc folder and hey presto, everything is back as it was.

By mons 26 February 2022 - 09:40 AM UTC 

As outlined a few posts above, 

 

This is one of the reasons why it is recommended that you reinstall the files from this download into every folder listed every time an official update is released.

 

If you do so, I'm led to understand that it would work 👍

As also outlined above, doing this seems to work for existing save games too 👍

 

 

Thanks - something's definitely gone weird for me, as the Brazilian clubs show up ok now, but Juventus are back to being Zebre, several Spanish clubs are back to default. Have re-followed steps but still not right; will figure it out 🙂 

 

EDIT: I figured it out 😀 

Hi all - sorry if this has already been answered in the thread and I missed it, but…

 

I have an existing Valencia save (in third season); and I've just noticed that the Brazilian club names have reverted to the three letter defaults (SAN for Santos for example). I'm assuming the Winter Update has maybe changed something? Anyway, I have reapplied the fix following the steps ‘at the top’, and reloaded skin, but the names are still appearing as SAN, FLA etc. Do I need to relaunch the game for the fix to kick back in? I am 99.999999% sure the fix was working fine prior to today (e.g. Santos showed up as Santos).

 

Other clubs appear fine - Juventus as Juventus etc.

Dressing Room atmosphere has also collapsed as a result of the poor run - it never rains, it pours eh

It's enough to make you paranoid about reload

Winless in six now, having been pushing for top spot, through to knockout phase of Champions League and in TIM Cup semi-final (and playing well overall)

A general frustration post

Playing nicely in my Napoli save, good record etc etc.

Reload to carry on, form has completely collapsed in what feels like an 'over night' style - can't figure out why (yet); still creating chances but people seem to have forgotten how to score

Is there a download/kit available for Wisbech Town?

If not, what info do you need? Happy to do my bit/the research if required

Given difficulty I am having in finding time to load up the full fat FM18 on my laptop these days, I've been considering picking up FM18 Touch for my Switch; which (at least in theory) should give me the opportunity to fit a few more bite size playing sessions in on lunch breaks and so forth.

Has anyone else tried FM Touch on Switch? Thoughts?

It's just over £20 via the Nintendo eShop right now (until July 16th), so I'm very tempted - I believe Game (please don't spit at me) have it for a similar price on Switch, so may trade in some old games to knock a few extra £££ off the price.

Thanks both - I suspected that might be the answer (rather than just being able to yank the latest FM18 db and import it into FM10 - too many changes in the 'tech' for that)

Assuming this is some wishful thinking on my part, but no harm in asking - is it possible to import the database from FM17 (or 18) into FM10?

I much prefer the gameplay in 10 (twas a simpler time that hits the sweet spot for me personally) but would like, if at all possible, to use a more recent DB for squad updates yadda yadda

As noted, I suspect this is just a shot in the dark on my part, due to technological changes etc, but thought I'd toss the question out there

Thanks SS! There is a theory (or 'common belief' perhaps) that Richard the Lionheart adopted the flag (and St. George) from Genoa's original - though there doesn't seem to be any specific proof to back this up (perhaps unsurprisingly given how long ago it was etc etc)

Have had a rough run following yesterday's update - will provide a proper update soon

Thought I'd better update this story:

Preseason Problems and Positives

After taking up the reigns at Genoa C.F.C, it was time to set about moulding this once mighty club back in to a powerhouse of Italian football.

Very quickly it became clear this would not be easy – but equally not without hope.

Per the introductory post in this particular Football Manager tale, Genoa are a little light on stars.

Captain Nicolas Burdisso has been around the block, whilst striker Giovanni Simeone, goalkeeper Mattia Perin 23-year-old winger Diego Laxalt head up a small group of younger players with potential – but we’re not exactly bursting at the seams with talent right now.

Teenagers Gabriele Gibilterra and Flavio Junior Bianchi both show promise, which is going to be important giving the startling lack of first team quality players trained at the club right now – something which proved problematic when submitting my squad list for the season, with four club trained and eight nationally trained players required among the 25.

The addition of 16-year-old Brescia centre midfielded Mattia Viviani for £220,000 will also, hopefully, pay dividends down the line.

In an attempt to boost my fortunes in the short term I also opted to forgo any further spending and instead divert funds in to wages; signing former Inter, Manchester City and Roma wing back Maicon and 2005 Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldinho.

Whilst my Genoa team still lacks real star power, it at least looks like a team that can compete in Serie A, and with the board only requiring that I avoid relegation, and qualify for the First Round ‘proper’ of the Coppa Italia, I felt reasonably confident I had the squad to allow me to get my feet under the table.

Finding a formation and tactics that worked proved tricky however, and led to four straight defeats during the preseason as I tinkered with various combinations in a bid to find something that worked.

Ultimately things have settled with back three – with Armando Izzo currently playing in the middle of the trio in a ‘cover’ role whilst first choice Ezequiel Muñoz continues to recover from injury – and wing backs whilst I operate a 2-1-2 style formation to complete the look.

Defensively it has smoothed things out for me, with Maicon and loanee Edenílson (playing out of position down the left) both making solid starts to the campaign proper.

Where things have stumbled is in the final 25-ish yards of the field.

In our first competitive game, a Cup game against Bari, Mauricio Pinilla found the back of the net but we still required penalties to dispense with the Serie B side – not helped by Izzo being sent off in extra time for a second bookable offence…

Likewise the first Serie A game saw some nice build up play, but few chances as we were out shot 17-3 and had a man sent off (Luca Rigoni) on the stroke of half time; though a late header from Burdisso did salvage a point at the Olimpico.

The tinkering does mean my squad aren’t more than around 50% familiar with our tactics right now though, providing some hope that when Ronaldinho regains match sharpness and Simeone finds some form we will be alright.

The return of Miguel Veloso, who broke his leg in the preseasons, should provide a timely boost in around January time – at least that’s the theory.

Oscar Hiljemark has also been solid coming off the bench in both games, so it’ll be interesting to see what he can do in the next game with Rigoni suspended. At 24, and with a full transfer to Genoa already agreed for next season when I started the game, Hiljemark could be an important player for me over the coming seasons.

Right now I see the pros and cons as follows…

PRO: Some good players under 25, some good build up play, ability to play in an ‘attacking’ style. All in all it adds up to hope for the future.

CONS: Squad depth is still an issue, especially in some positions (left wing back for example). Lack of scoring chances is also a concern, though hopefully a temporary one.

Next up – Cagliari.

So after several unsuccessful attempts to ‘get in to’ Football Manager 17 following years of being a Football Manager 10 addict, the time came to change tact – to move away from stalwart team selections such as Peterborough (my local team), Newcastle (the team I supported as a boy), Roma (a Championship Manager 00/01 throw back), Ajax and Borussia Dortmund (both FM10 favourites of mine).

It was time to try someone new. It was time for a fresh challenge.

Not unlike previous saves on old versions – such as Dortmund on FM10 – the idea of taking charge of a club which has tasted success in years past but had fallen on ‘hard times’ appealed to me. It always does. The ‘hero’ who resurrected X Club and rekindled the glory days yadda, yadda, yadda.

Likewise – and I know I’m not alone here when it comes to Football Manager players, as dorky as it undoubtedly sounds – location matters.

Would I actually want to live there? Like, in real life. Yes, incredibly dorky to consider such things in a game but it helps whittle down potential candidates and invariably leads me to coastal clubs or ones situated in areas of great beauty (Freud would probably say this indicates my need to escape my home town. Freud would be correct).

Equally, as fun as it is having millions of pounds at ones disposal from the off, it does wear thin quickly when you feel you can just throw money at a situation and so I opted for a team of modest finances but with significant potential (at least, I hope&hellip.

So here I am, the new manager of Genoa Cricket and Football Club (or Genoa C.F.C, or just Genoa) in Italy’s Serie A.

Genoa are still classed as one of the most successful teams in Italian football, with no less than nine championships to their name – however the last of these came in 1924 and the only things of note Genoa have won in my life time are the 1988/89 Serie B title and the 1996 Anglo-Italian Cup…

Even European football has been lacking for I Rossoblu (The Red and Blues), with just one Uefa Cup and one Europa League appearance in their 119 year history*

* Granted European competitions were not what they were today when Genoa won the 1898 Campionato Italiano Finali, and they should have secured a Europa League place in 2014/15 but due to an administrative error and not meeting UEFA’s stadium requirements the place was passed to Sampdoria….who share a ground with Genoa…go figure…

Part of the challenge here is that, despite it’s scenic location, I know very little about today’s Genoa team. Captain Nicolas Burdisso and forward Goran Pandev are names I recognise, but otherwise I am learning everything about the team as I go.

Thankfully my assistant manager’s report has already taught me we lack leadership among the squad, as well being lazy and unable to jump very high…

The first weeks of the preseason will undoubtedly be rife with flicking through scout reports and sorting out my staff – to ‘add to the realism’, new staff can only be found via the Job Centre whilst player searches will rely on my own scouting and that of my, err, scouts.

No fiddling the filters to only show players with high stats in certain categories. If I’m going to go all in, then I might as well do it properly.

I expect things at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris to start slowly as a result of a) my own ignorance and b) a squad which in real life is only marginally above the relegation zone – but at least we have a cool nickname: Il Grifone

Move over the phoenix – The Griffin shall rise again!