Stories

1. FC Köln

The Billy Goats; Part One – Getting Started

1. FC Köln have been a club who have only been successful in the past. In 1962, 1964 and 1978 the club has managed to win the Bundesliga and in 1986 they lost a Uefa Cup Final against Real Madrid. 1. FC Köln have had their 21stcentury ups and downs due to the mixed performances the club recently has had. They have been relegating from the 1. Bundesliga to the 2.Bundesliga and promoting the other way around quite a few times. Their last relegation to the 2. Bundesliga was last season. So I’ve set out to bring this glorious club back to the top of German football. Once we achieve that milestone European and Global domination are going to be our new objectives.

By thefmveteran, ago

A new season, new players and new hope

Well, I was not sacked by Chairman Guido, I guess winning the Croatian Cup and a super impressive run in the Europa League were enough to make up for an incredibly poor league finishing position.

Guido really pulled out all the stops in summer transfer window. With excellent players on both wings and keeping the all central midfielders we have to challenge for the league and by challenge I mean win the league. Now on paper winning the league should be pretty easy but the Croatian is only 10 teams and we play each other 4 times. Which means it’s very easy for teams to take and drop points of each other.

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By Greig Stewart, ago

Masters From The Sea – Choppy Waters

This has been an incredibly difficult save as I did not want to let you the reader down and I did not want to let Guido down as he was taking the time be the Chairman of the club but I at the start of this save I really really struggle getting this team to play with the tactic that Guido requested I use.

Since we were tipped to win the league this obviously could not continue, so I changed the tactic and the results improved. I have since spoken to Guido who said just change the tactic so you get the best out of the team. So that tactic has been changed and results have improved tremendously. Still not perfect but at least we are competitive. For me, this is why I love playing FM as you never know what stories the game is going to create. Sometimes you are lucky to get a newgen who can lead your team to glory or a normally good team get relegated and they have to sell their players cheap. So may options even before you talk about the rules that player may add to the game. Youth Acadamy Challenge, players only from one nation, start in a country with a crazy league format yes Argentina I am looking at you. FM creates a world unique to every save game and it never fails to suck us in.  Anyway on to how I am faring in Croatia?

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By Greig Stewart, ago

Masters From The Sea – Part II

Having visited Croatia before and having visited Split in particular, I jumped on the chance to help out in this multiplayer save. I enjoy scouting and setting things up and it will be interesting for me to see if I can convey my ideas clearly enough to see if anyone else can follow in my footsteps. I hope to create circumstances in which Beppe can flourish and make the entire team shine like the stars they undoubtedly are.

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By Guido, ago

Masters From The Sea – Part I

Player 2 Has entered the Game

Some people were lucky enough to grow up with an elder brother or sister who played games with them. Me I was the older brother, so I was player 1, I was Mario and my younger brother was Luigi. I had the official joy-pad while my brother had the joys of the 3rd party super cheap joy-pad that sometimes stuck but in the main was OK. There really were some great games for SNES that could be played Co-Op gems such as Smash TV, Zombie ate my Neighbor and the amazing NBA Jam.

I am not even including the totally awesome Original Mario Kart. I honestly don’t know how many hours I played that with my brother. Being the older brother I got to set the rules, what game we were going to play. The rules of the games, if you died did you have to go and make the person a cup of tea? If one of the parents called who would have to go?

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By Greig Stewart, ago

Perishing Partizan; Halfway Into Season Two

In the Perishing Partizan series, I am chronicling the demise of a Champions League winning club after the AI has taken over. Erratic spending, no clear vision as to which new players are needed and only average results compared to the quality of the squad, so far we’ve seen it all. Today’s post focusses on the half-way point of the second season the AI is in charge.

The financial status

As I mentioned last time, I need FMRTE to view the financial status, due to not actively being in charge of Partizan. This is what their financial status looks like as we wrap up the January transfer window.

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Compared to the previous updates, there have been some changes.

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Whilst their total funds are still plummeting, the club appears to have raised some transfer funds, which means they have probably sold players or received a financial injection from the board to keep the club afloat or sign reinforcements. The hemorrhaging of money over the course of 18 months is worrying though, as the club seems to has lost 125 million of its initial assets

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By Guido, ago