How Football Manager has ruined my life…part .3

Published February 22, 2011 | By James R Shaw

Here lies Part 3 of my Football Manager series: Looking back at the time(s) when the game took over my life. Read Part 1 and Part 2 first.

It felt good I must say. Usually with any new Football Manager game I would have the tendency to first dip my toe, picking, perhaps, a high end Championship side to build my knowledge of the game. Instead, I chose moneybags over knowledge and opted for the new-found riches of Manchester City, under the chairmanship of Carson Yeung.

By now, everyone knows it is a crime not to buy Antony Vanden Borre and Vincent Kompany to sure up the defence, giving me every good reason to sell Richard ‘own goal’ Dunne. As such, Vanden Borre moved to right-back and 18 year old Richards switched to the centre, forming a formidably partnership with my good friend Vincent. In addition to this, and bizarrely, my quest for a decent keeper was solved by looking in the reserves. A resurgent Nicky Weaver, won the right to don the no. 1 jersey, and he turned out to be a revelation.

After the first season a Carling Cup victory and a third placed Premier League finish boded well for future development. Much of this, admittedly, was down to the attacking talent in the middle of the park, congested with the likes of Luka Modric, Rafael Van Der Vaart, Ever Banega, Michael Johnson and Gabriel Torje. As for my main striker, things were a little sketchy. Elano or Bojinov usually led the line in a striker-less formation. A move that meant that there was no linchpin, resulting in a record high for scoreless draws and one-nil wins.

In the second season Weavers showed his true colours, conceding on every occasion in pre-season – I knew it would never last. He was replaced by Argentine, and football manager legend, Oscar Ustari. As for solving my problem up-front I remember vaguely turning to Florin Bratu and Bogdan Stancu for help. In this season I had to settle for third place in the League again, but added an FA cup to my growing silverware cabinet.

In comparison to my HSV game, or any long term game for that matter, the time between the first two seasons and the last two seasons are usually a blur. What I do know is that in those 10 years I had won two trebles, spend billions, and breed the world’s best players – including my new addiction: Re-gens.

Re-gens, add a whole new dimension to playing football Manager. Previously, when it was called Championship Manager, these players’ sported names like Luis Rivaldo, Gianluca Canavaro or Tore Andre Iverson – it was like playing a game solely containing the love children of world Class footballers. In 2008, re-gens were now players in their own right – with computerised pictures that would scare the wits out of any disconcerting child.

Dave Koppers – My Hero

The best thing about re-gens, especially in the more recent football managers, is that they are personal to you. They were added to your squad, chosen by your staff, trained by your coaches and given first-team action by yours truly. The two that stood out for me were David Koppers: A Dutch Maestro with the skill of Dennis Bergkamp and with an eye-for-goal as sharp as Ruud van Mistelrooy’s, and Emond O’Boyle: An Arfo-Caribbean-Irish Left/ right back; consistent as Ashley Cole and with a deadly cross as good as Leighton Baines.

As a result I grew a strong emotional attachment to them – It was like I was the virtual Arsene Wenger; finding talent from across the globe to build a side future-proof and to my own personal requirements. The players grew to love me, the fans continued to love me and I, of course, ‘virtually’ loved them. Perhaps a song lyric that I listened to regularly at that time explains my position emotionally. It comes from a tune by Bright Eyes, entitled ‘I must belong somewhere’. The lyric that stood out was: “Everything it must belong somewhere I know that now, that’s why I’m staying here.” I belonged at Manchester City and I was going nowhere.

Then, disaster struck; returning to a Bright Eyes lyric: “She breaks. She breaks. She caves. She caves”. Unfortunately, that ‘She’ was my Laptop, my trusty Acer was gone, her hard drive written off…beyond repair. My Manchester City game a mere memory, a speck of dust in the sands of time. Dave Koppers left the World at just 26 years of age…he would never live to fight another day at Eastland’s…I need a moment.

http://sotb.bluefields.com/ Oliver Jay (Bluefields.com

Beautiful!

I wish I could’ve saved my glorious teams from years gone by to reminisce easier. The teams have disappeared, but their memories will always be with us!

Big shout outs have to go to Alexander Farnerud, Lebohang Mokoena, Serge Makofo, Fernando Cavenaghi, Giampaolo Pazzini, Freddy Guarin, any player of the Ajax Youth from 2002-2007 and many of those whom you’ve already mentioned.

OJ
Andy

farnerud and mokoena! yes! am suprised at how few people picked up labinot harbuzi and anatoli todorov. they were class. also sherijll macdonald and rory may.