bennymc Posted March 30, 2020 Share Posted March 30, 2020 (edited) Hello, FM fans! I've been using my self-isolation productively and have re-created the Busby Babes. They replace 2020's Man Utd in-game and it's a fairly accurate recreation of the side at the end of 1956-57, the team's last full season before the Munich disaster. I'm really excited to share this because United's history is a big part of the myth around the club and creating this side makes me feel like I'm bringing them back to life in some small way. I've had to take some liberties along the way, but here's an idea of what I was going for... The club has a full compliment of staff, directors and players from the first team down to the U18's. There's no "W-M" in football now, so I've gone for a default 5-4-1 which sacrifices an AMC for the sake of an extra DC, but feel free to use whatever tactic you want. Some player positions don't really translate into the modern game, so for some I've opted to give them either more defensive or a more attacking set of attributes, and for others I've allowed them to have more positions on the pitch and versatility. Included some players/staff at the club who weren't strictly there on 1st July 1957 such as Harry Gregg and Jack Crompton, but it makes sense to add them in from the start for the sake of gameplay. Some staff roles are combined as clubs seemed to have been run by about 10 people back in the day, unlike now. Edited histories of competitions such as the English Premier League, Champions League, etc, in order to give the side more historical context. Players and staff have full histories as far as I know them from my research. Attributes etc are my own opinion. I'm a United fan, so I've probably romanticised a little, but when Bobby Charlton is telling you Duncan Edwards is the only player who made him feel inferior, then he's just got to be a God-tier player. Club records, affiliates, rivals and legends have been edited, although some of them don't register in the game. I'm not sure why, must be a quirk of the editor, but I'm afraid you'll have to suspend your disbelief for some of them. Download here! The Busby Babes.fmf If you don't know, put this file in your "editor data" folder located at "Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2020\editor data" Potential issues: The owner of the club tends to retire in the 1st season and it's a bit of pot luck as to who takes over. If you leave the AI to run United, Busby sometimes spends like a maniac. I've reduced United's budget to combat this as well as messing with his tendencies, but just so you know! Man Utd, I mean the real one. At first, I released all of the players/staff on frees, but it didn't have the right feel. Instead, they're a fake team with no division called "Man Red" with a 90 year transfer embargo. It wasn't perfect, but it works. I've defaulted "staff responsibilities" to roughly what they would've been back then, so you will likely want to alter these if you take over, depending on how you like to play FM. This database is best paired with 2 custom "edt" files that will allow the addition of real-life youth players to come through the club's youth intakes in the following 5-6 years, as well as a more realistic board takeover (although for the takeover, it's hit and miss as to whether it works). be_a_newgen.edt future_chairmen.edt Place these files into "Steam\steamapps\common\Football Manager 2020\data\database\db\2040\edt\permanent". If it asks you to over-write the existing files there, say yes. (you might want to back them up first) Enjoy! If you have any feedback, good or bad, please let me know below. Edit 31-Mar: Added 4 players; Ivan Beswick, Bobby Allen, Bryce Fulton and Peter Jones, and amended Jackie Hennessy's position following a chat with Tony Parks, also amended Albert Scanlon in line with a comment in this thread.1-Apr: Updated Duncan Edwards's leadership attribute, slightly altered his position and improved Jackie Blanchflower's ability as an AMR Edited April 1, 2020 by bennymc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted March 30, 2020 Author Share Posted March 30, 2020 (edited) Updated competition wins... Accurate (as much as poss) kits... Full compliment of staff... First Team players... Player attributes, PPM's, personality and positions all researched... Details of each player's history including debut, first goal and competition wins all included, where known... Second nationalities, place of birth, international details etc included where applicable... Previous injuries and/or injuries that may well have been suffered around July 1957 are also included... Edited March 31, 2020 by bennymc added more screenshots 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Willfor sure try it out. Of the screenshots I only saw a couple of things: Bill Foulkes should be able to play as a D C. Albert Scanlon was as far as I know Left footed and played at the left so maybe reduce his ability to use his right foot and play on the right side. It seems like a fantastic amount of work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Number seven said: Willfor sure try it out. Of the screenshots I only saw a couple of things: Bill Foulkes should be able to play as a D C. Albert Scanlon was as far as I know Left footed and played at the left so maybe reduce his ability to use his right foot and play on the right side. It seems like a fantastic amount of work. Thank you! I've worked really hard on this. Been wanting to put it together for a long time (first made a version of this team on a smaller scale back in 2010), and with the pandemic right now, it seemed like the perfect time to scratch this itch, so to speak. As you can see here, Foulkes is indeed capable of playing at DC, but because he wasn't moved there until around the 60's, I thought it would be better to reflect him as a natural right back first and foremost. I think I set his capability there to 14/20, so if you trained him there or played him there, he'd likely become a DRC very quickly. For Scanlon, actually I think you're right in that I've probably over-done his right footedness. I went by Tony Parks's "Sons of United" where he's described as "A naturally left-footed winger who could seemingly glide past defenders with exceptional acceleration and close ball control, his attribute of being able to adapt on the right-hand side of the pitch when required came in useful at various times." From that I gave him 15/20 for his right foot, but re-reading it now, I'll tone it down, set him as an AML only (with 14/20 for AMR) and re-upload the file. Thanks for spotting that. Edit: Updated the screenshot in the OP now as well. Edited March 31, 2020 by bennymc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Great! I will start trying it out tonight. Will be a cool experience. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 37 minutes ago, Number seven said: Great! I will start trying it out tonight. Will be a cool experience. Let me know how you get on, I'm curious to know how it actually plays. I tried to bear that in mind as I made it, but obviously didn't get a chance to really play test it other than through simming seasons. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Will do! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 I've started a game now, the file is more amazing than what I tought. Still at the first day though and looking forward to playing. I've a couple of suggestions: Stan Ackerley: could his nationality be set to Australia and England as second nationality as he ended up playing 27 or 30 caps for Australia. Duncan Edwards: his leadership is only seven, he was even though he was young considered a natural leader, maybe up it to 15 or even more? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 38 minutes ago, Number seven said: I've started a game now, the file is more amazing than what I tought. Still at the first day though and looking forward to playing. I've one suggestion though Stan Ackerley: could his nationality be set to Australia and England as second nationality as he ended up playing 27 or 30 caps for Australia. Thanks again! I read about Ackerley and as I understand it, he became an Australian citizen through residency, so I decided not to give him the nationality based on that. BUT... I did set it so he has a preference to play in Australia, so hopefully that's something. If you want to change it on your save though, feel free! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 Yeah I understand that choice, what about Edwards, it seems like you replied just before I edited the post? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted March 31, 2020 Author Share Posted March 31, 2020 4 minutes ago, Number seven said: Yeah I understand that choice, what about Edwards, it seems like you replied just before I edited the post? You're right, I missed that point! That's interesting, it's a 0 in the editor which means it generates randomly. Either I missed that when I created his profile, or I just couldn't think of a number. I never noticed because on my tests it never went below 10. Will update it and re-upload now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 Great! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 Found one more thing, John Giles. I read an interview with him a while ago, that one of the reasosn he left Manchester United for Leeds United other than a fight with Busby, was that he was played as a right winger rather than centrally in the field wich he preffered, and that he evolved into a central midfielder after moving to Leeds United. Maybe his position should be set to M/AM R and the ability play centrally to reflect his position in 1957 and with M C and AM C set to 14. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted April 1, 2020 Author Share Posted April 1, 2020 5 hours ago, Number seven said: Found one more thing, John Giles. I read an interview with him a while ago, that one of the reasosn he left Manchester United for Leeds United other than a fight with Busby, was that he was played as a right winger rather than centrally in the field wich he preffered, and that he evolved into a central midfielder after moving to Leeds United. Maybe his position should be set to M/AM R and the ability play centrally to reflect his position in 1957 and with M C and AM C set to 14. I know Giles played at "inside right" for the youth side, but I chose to interpret that as an AMC in the modern day. The W-M formation doesn't work in today's game, so I had to make a decision about what to do with those old roles. Any mention of inside right/left I turned into an AMC as a starting point. Some were more midfielders than attackers, so I gave them the option of CM as well, while the more attacking types got ST as well. Likewise, for "Half backs", I gave the more defensively minded ones DM / MC roles, while the more attack minded ones got M / AMC. I think, in this case, Giles was probably fed up of being put into that right channel away from the action when he wanted to be doing the job Edwards and Colman were doing in the middle of the pitch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 That sound like sensible judgement, maybe the intervju was badly translated, as there he refered to hin self being a winger. But you have done amazing work with this add on so I think you know more than me about this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 BTW are you planning to make facepacks for his file in that case I collected photos of the full first team squad were Im sure are around 1957, I also found most of the staff but the year they are taken are not always around the same year, I can upload those pictures if you want. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted April 3, 2020 Author Share Posted April 3, 2020 16 hours ago, Number seven said: BTW are you planning to make facepacks for his file in that case I collected photos of the full first team squad were Im sure are around 1957, I also found most of the staff but the year they are taken are not always around the same year, I can upload those pictures if you want. I wouldn't know where to begin when it came to creating that sort of stuff, if you want to give it a go then feel free! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EnigMattic1 Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 I will be totally honest, I'm not a Man Utd fan, but I genuinely want to try this. I can't imagine the amount of time, effort and research you have put in to this. Great job! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 2 hours ago, bennymc said: I wouldn't know where to begin when it came to creating that sort of stuff, if you want to give it a go then feel free! The pictures was downloaded to another project a few years ago thats why I have them, unfortunately I dont have the ability to create anything or FM my self. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted April 6, 2020 Author Share Posted April 6, 2020 On 03/04/2020 at 11:09, EnigMattic1 said: I will be totally honest, I'm not a Man Utd fan, but I genuinely want to try this. I can't imagine the amount of time, effort and research you have put in to this. Great job! Oh please do! I knew it would appeal to Man Utd fans mostly, but I'd try it if it was another team too, I really love the idea of having historical teams in FM! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted April 6, 2020 Author Share Posted April 6, 2020 On 03/04/2020 at 13:00, Number seven said: The pictures was downloaded to another project a few years ago thats why I have them, unfortunately I dont have the ability to create anything or FM my self. Ah fair enough, I'm clueless about the pics! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennymc Posted April 12, 2020 Author Share Posted April 12, 2020 Anyone else given this a go? Would love to know how you're getting on! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Number seven Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 Unfortunately I'm still on day one, have been doing some editing and haven't been playing. Will let you know when I start playing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now