[FM10] Back to the Future - A Legendary Career

[edgar555]

Back to the Future - A Legendary Career - Starring 'Nathan Dayspring'

Finally its time for me to dip my toes into the Career Update forum. For my first effort I am making use of something you may be aware of: Deus84 Legends Database for FM10. Deus84 does some amazing work and his database can be found in the Editors Hideaway and is gaining much acclaim.

Basically he has created thousands of legendary players and put them into appropriate teams, eg: Real Madrid 2002 (1st Galacticos), Milan (late 80's Dutch influnced team), Munich and Ajax 70's vintage etc.

So here's the boring bit:

Version: FM10

Patch: 10.3

Database: Large

Edit: Deus84 Legends Database (note all transfer budgets are lowered at the start to stop mass movement in 1st window)

Leagues: All top division only -

England

France

Germany

Holland

Hungary

Italy

Portugal

Scotland

Spain

Argentina

Brazil

Uruguay

My manager character is 'Nathan Dayspring'.

My team: It was soooo hard choosing who to be, my beloved Spurs with Greaves, Blanchflower and co? Milan with Van Basten and Gullit? Zizou and Figo at their peak with Madrid? Total Voetbal at Ajax? German efficiency of Bayern starring Muller, Beckenbauer et al?

Finally I settled on Barcelona, Dream Team edition starring Romario, Stoichkov, Laudrup, Guardiola, Bakero and many more.

As mentioned above transfer budgets are massively lowered and I have a mighty £4m to spend with only £10k wage budget free. Luckily my squad is brilliant and doesn't want for much. My main needs are identified as just a back ups for Laudrup (AMC, playmaker) and for Stoichkov (AML Inside Forward or Striker).

I'm also obviously going to have to overhaul the staff, but both of those can wait until I've played the obligatory friendly versus the 'B' team.

I'm pretty sure we are going to play a 4-2-3-1

and thats how we lined up for this game. Tactics are control, short passing, slowish tempo but always looking for the fast break when its on.

The friendly was a stroll with all the squad getting a few minutes and running out 3-0 winners.

On to the serious business of sorting my staff and squad.

Whilst I turfed out most of the staff and upgraded them all I found 2 Uruguayans who fit my needs for playing staff.

£9.75m (spread over 48 months) for Schiaffino may sound a lot for his age but scout reports were fantastic and my coaches rate him just below Laudrup, 10 years his senior and at his peak!

Enzo Francescoli doesn't arrive until January but at only £1m (over 48 months) looks a bargain and can fill different roles. I expect a big future.

I hope this is of interest to you, because I've got more to come very soon!

[RichG]

Laudrup only 7 for finishing thats a shame for an attacking player

Why are some players older than others? what has dues84 based the players on for age and development?

Looks cool and i like a game with all the old players. I hope the olders ones like greaves and blanchflower don't spoil it with the classic 80' and 90's players.

Looks like a good save though and will keep watching

[edgar555]

Laudrup only 7 for finishing thats a shame for an attacking player

Why are some players older than others? what has dues84 based the players on for age and development?

Looks cool and i like a game with all the old players. I hope the olders ones like greaves and blanchflower don't spoil it with the classic 80' and 90's players.

Looks like a good save though and will keep watching

Thanks

Laudrups finishing should be better imo too, but he's going to be the creative spark and Romario and Stoichkov can bury them.

The teams are set, so all the Barca dream team players are the correct age. For players such as Francescoli who perhaps didn't play for one of the teams Deus didn't create they have been put in as 16/17/18 year olds at their original club.

To be honest its a massive project and has obviously taken up heaps of his life, I just hope Deus gets all the credit he is due.

Its too early to see how well balanced it is but last years legends db was very cool and lasted a good few years so fingers crossed.

[RichG]

Do I need any patch to play the Legends Database 2010?

Yes. You need the 10.2 patch in order to play with the Legends Database 2010. The database DOES NOT work the 10.3 patch..

Have you loaded the save game or the database?

[edgar555]

Have you loaded the save game or the database?

Both, but this one is from the savegame.

[edgar555]

July/August 1st Update

So time to play through the friendlies and see what this squad are all about:

29th July - Excelsior 0-2 Barcelona (Salinas, Romario)

This was a simple stroll with my second string starting. Romario didn't look interested at all coming off the bench, but did the business on the one time he bothered getting into a good position.

1st August - Girona 0-3 Barcelona (Laudrup, Romario, Eusebio)

The 1st string started this time and eased a win. Thats not the Portugese Eusebio in case anyone was wondering.

5th August - Al Ittihad 0-5 Barcelona (Schiaffino 2, Salinas 2, Bergiristain)

A chance for some 2nd stringers again, one that was very much taken by the goalscorers and Ferrer impressive at right back.

8th August - Bunyodkor 0-4 (Romario 2, Stoichkov, Bergiristain)

75% of my squad will be on international duty for the last friendly so the big boys get a run out for 70 odd minutes. Complacency set in towards the end unsurprisingly but they aren't good enough to punish our mistakes.

11th August - Barakaldo 1-2 Barcelona (Ceballos, Esteberanz)

A lot of youth get a game today, including some of these gems: Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol.

Our first foray into competitive action, the Spanish Super Cup and Euro Super Cup in the next update. Stay tuned.

[AcidBurn]

Stoichkov and Romario, that's enough to keep me following this thread lol. Good luck.

[edgar555]

Stoichkov and Romario, that's enough to keep me following this thread lol. Good luck.

Thanks

Those 2 were enough to convince me that this was the team to choose.

If anyone has any requests of players/teams they would like to see then let me know and I'll try and fit them in. As with the Eusebio one above I'll try and keep it relevant to my career so as I come up against teams/players of interest I'll link to them.

[RichG]

have you not got Hagi? he was great

[AcidBurn]

Is Puskas on it? I did my own legends database and he turned into the best player.

[Standard liege!]

Screenie of Romario please

[edgar555]

August 2nd Update

Before the season got underway I had to pick my captain. The assistant suggested Laudrup, however I wanted to keep it Spanish so went with Bakero, Laudrup is vice captain. The squad are pleased with my choices. Into action we go.

Spanish Super Cup

1st Leg Sunday 16th August

Athletic 1-1 Barcelona (Guardiola)

We still looked in friendly mode and should have had more than Pep's screamer before conceding a soft equaliser.

2nd Leg Sunday 23rd August

Barcelona 0-0 Athletic

The first home game of my reign and we draw a disappointing blank. It's enough to secure our first silverware though and the very next game brings our next chance.

Friday 28th August - European Super Cup

Shakhtar 0-3 Barcelona (Bergiristain 2, Romario) at the Stade Louis II Monaco.

This took far too long, but when it did it was sweet. A good start to my career.

That said, I am concerned that against stiff opposition my tactic is not as effective as I would like and Romario seems to be struggling up front on his own. This will give me food for thought with La Liga kicking off this weekend, but our first game not for 2 weeks after an international break.

The transfer market was quiet, these are the major transfers across the world.

These are my transfers as the market closes and we look forward to the league and Champions League kicking off.

Speaking of which the draw for the group stages bought some challenges in Stuttgart (complete with Klinsmann), Standard(with Preud'homme and Wilmots) and CSKA (with some good Russians).

Thanks for your comments so far, from here on it will be monthly updates every day or so, work allowing. Standard hope you like the Romario screenie

Acidburn, Puskas is on it, he's immense. If I can't find a reason to put him in an update then I'll put a screenie up anyway.

[edgar555]

Just been a bit of a noob and spent 45 minutes on my next update, only to have my session time out and logging back in lost everything. Any hints on how best to avoid that will be gratefully received.

As my missus has just come home and is ill I can't do it all again now, will sort it tomorrow. In recognition of your patience and hoping that someone will help me out you can have a screenie of one of the best players ever.

[AcidBurn]

I just write my updates in wordpad first then copy and paste, I might have to download this database and have a mess around on it.

[RichG]

lol thats some update

I usually have and update. Takes me about 30-45 mins but just keep on tweaking

[edgar555]

September Update

So La Liga has got underway without us and we have to wait for the international break before we can enter the fray.

La Liga Title Odds: Barcelona and Real Madrid 5-1; Valencia 8-1; The rest starting at 14-1 and beyond.

Fairly easy to see who the bookies think are in the running this year.

So with days to go I'm happy that I know my starters and back ups for each position (starters in bold)

GK: Zubizeretta; Busquets

DR: Goikoetxea; Ferrer

DL: Sergi; Ekelund

DC: Nadal; Puyol

DC: Koeman; Migueli

MC(d): Amor; Iglesias

MC(a): Guardiola; Eusebio

AMR: Bakero; Bergiristain

AML: Stoichkov; Oscar (Francescoli's arrival in January will mean me taking a serious look at Oscar's future, don't think he's dream team material)

AMC: Laudrup; Schiaffino

ST: Romario; Julio Salinas; Exteberenza (as with Oscar, may well find he is out the door in January)

Champions League Title Odds: The bookies obviously feel that this will be a tighter affair with Real at 6-1; we are together with Man Utd and Milan at 15-2; Juventus 8-1 and Bayern at 9-1.

So onto our first La Liga match...

13th September - La Liga: Barcelona (Stoichkov) 1-0 Sociedad

A match we dominated again without really looking likely to break the deadlock until Stoichkov picked the ball up about 25 yards out, skipped past 2 defenders and lashed the ball into the top corner with his left foot. It will save me a lot of typing over my career if you all just take it as read that pretty much every Stoichkov goal is like that, some from 6 yards, some from 35 but they all generally end up with a shimmy and a piledriver shot!

16th September - Champions League Group E: Barcelona (Stoichkov, Romario, Bakero, Schiaffino) 4-2 Standard

A dire first half that saw us 2 down and not even close to competing led to drastic half time measures and a change to this formation. Stoichkov went up top with Shorty and Laudrup dropped back to be the playmaker from MC rather than AMC.

The second half was the complete opposite of the first and Standard were up against it from the word go. 45 minutes is not enough to judge properly but the side looked much slicker in this formation.

20th September - La Liga: Barcelona (Bakero 2, Romario 2, Salinas) 5-0 Valladolid

Going into our 3rd home game in a row I almost felt sorry for Valladolid. The team and crowd had tasted blood in that 2nd half midweek and were up for it from the word go! A fine performance by all was marred only by an injury to Laudrup.

Finding out after the game that he's got to see a specialist for a shin splint problem and will be out for 4-8 weeks is a tough break but does temporarily solve a problem I now have - can I get away with Pep and Laudrup as my 2 MC's, they are both fine players but combined are probably too lightweight and too similar to be succesful. I'll find out in a couple of months when Laudrup gets back from injury.

23rd September - La Liga: Getafe 1-3 Barcelona (og; Guardiola, Koeman)

A fine performance again in our first away game in La Liga, the 4-2-4 is definitely working. The game was all wrapped up by the time they got their consolation.

26th September - La Liga: Barcelona (Stoichkov, Salinas, Koeman) 3-0 Racing

Back to Camp Nou and the team are impressive again, Salinas is really looking to grab a starting slot now that there are 2 forward slots up for grabs.

This game was marred by a serious calf muscle tear for Bakero, with him now out for 3 months. Thats the captain and vice captain crocked then. Romario also picked up a knock that means he'll miss at least one game, a trip to Moscow where CSKA lie in wait.

29th September - Champions League Group E: CSKA 1-3 Barcelona (Bergiristain, Salinas, Amor)

Salinas and his fellow Spaniards continue to show that this team isn't all about the showbiz foreigners as we again see off opponents that looked tough on paper. Shame for them we play on grass.

Despite the injuries, September has been a good month with 7 wins out of 7.

Player of the Month: Stoichkov just edges it this month, his goal against Sociedad was crucial in getting us off to a winning start and he added a couple more as the month went on.

Next month has some juicy fixtures, the Catalan derby is quickly followed by my first El Clasico, we will be going to the Bernabeu and facing the likes of this man.

[Standard liege!]

Thanks for the screenie of Romario. A good start to your career.

[AcidBurn]

Great start, Koeman looks awesome. Zidane yet to score lol.

[Suggy33]

That Enzo Francescoli is the most capped outfield player for Uruguay ever.

And your Schiaffino fella played for both Uruguay AND Italy, didnt know he could do that.

[edgar555]

Thanks for all the comments.

Acid: Koeman is indeed a monster.

Suggy: If you think that was impressive you should see this page about Di Stefano.

[edgar555]

Sad news

My laptop fried itself last night. As its a work one it is sitting with IT to see if it can be fixed, however for some unknown reason rescuing my FM saves is not on their priority list

This one will obviously be on hold for now while I am in laptop limbo. Sorry and apologies to anyone who was interested, I've always told my boss that just cos Dell is cheap doesn't make them the best option.

[RichG]

at least it happened early and not after 10 seasons

Should be easy to get going again

[edgar555]

at least it happened early and not after 10 seasons

Should be easy to get going again

Yes indeed, will just take me a while this weekend to install FM and redownload everything to my temporary laptop. I hope to have a new save up and running soon enough. Cheers.