Daniel Evensen

Not sure if you know this already or not, @samba23, but the game crashes if you try to look at the rules page for any of the pre-season invitational tournaments. Not quite sure why...

Looks great! I'm very interested to see what comes of it.

Thanks, man!

Apologies for the double post. I've also noticed that it seems that the new players generated with this editor data file are incompatible with the NewGans manager. The RTF file the game generates seems to have a blank first nationality; I'm not sure if anybody else is encountering this or not.

Thanks, guys! Don't worry, I'll have something new coming soon.

Hey guys, This is a bit awkward, but it looks like this save has come to a sudden end. I've found that it is impossible to play past the 30 minute mark or so against Hebei FC. The game simply stops and exits. The funny thing is that I don't even get a crash dump message. I'm not sure what's going on, though I suspect that it's got something to do with the Chinese language editor data file I found on the Steam Workshop and have been using. I noticed a few weeks ago that my save file would become corrupted if I took a look at the Chinese national team roster. I didn't even have to click on any players. Just looking at the roster caused the corruption. And that corrupt save file also wouldn't display any error message or dump a crash log; it would just load about halfway, and then the game would exit. Anyway, it's looking like our story is going to come to a screeching halt here, as sad as it is to say. I was really getting into this storyline, too. I've got another save idea in my mind (I think all of us always have something in mind). It'll take a little while for me to get it going, though. I'm waiting for the final version of @DaveTheEditor's Around the Globe Megapack first, for example. That probably gives you an idea of what I'm thinking of. Thanks for the support, and apologies for the really awkward end! The moral of this story is that you shouldn't just use some random editor data file that you found lying around somewhere. The worst thing that could happen isn't a virus or some insidious hack or something like that. No — the nightmare scenario is that you get sucked in by a great save only to have it die early on you due to some sort of editor data error. I'll be back soon!

A question for you, @samba23: what are the rules around work permits? All I see on the rules screen is "Foreign Players: Players with good potential."

Poor Performance We just barely held on to beat Heilongjiang Ice City. Jeong Sang-Bin had 2 goals in the first 13 minutes. Suphanat Mueanta followed up with our third in the 33rd minute, and I thought that we might run them ragged. Unfortunately, our defense gave up two early second half goals. We barely held out for a victory in the end. This was probably the single worst match we’ve had this season, even worse than that loss to Wuhan. I understand losing when the other team parks the bus. We should have dominated this match, and were ahead on shots, possession, xG, and every stat you can imagine. There is no excuse for playing this poorly. Disaster Liu Shaoziyang celebrated giving up 2 goals to an inferior team by fracturing his ribs during weight training. He’s going to be out for 5 weeks. It’s a major blow. He’s almost certainly the best Chinese goalkeeper in the world. Li Changyi will take his place for the time being. He’s also a great young goalkeeper, but he’s not quite as good as Liu Shaoziyang. I’m worried that we might start dropping points — especially after how poorly our defense performed against Heilongjiang. Off to Germany? Meanwhile, there are rumors swirling around that Suphanat Mueanta will wind up going to Germany. Apparently FC Schalke 04 is interested in buying him, and is willing to offer 12 million RMB or so. Word has it that Augsburg are also after him. I’ve got some experience with Augsburg (and Ingolstadt, but they don’t know that). I should be able to talk Mueanta out of that move. Schalke, however, might be a bit more challenging. It’s not the end of the world if he departs. He’s not happy with me for some stupid reason, and he keeps asking for contracts with ridiculously low release clauses. Still, 12 million RMB for a player of his caliber is an insult. Hebei FC We’re up against Hebei FC this time around. Hebei are in 6th place. We should be able to trounce them, though we’ll see. Some in the squad are upset that Romeo Lavia hasn’t been starting every single match. I’m trying to placate them, but their frustration might cause us to slip a little.

Yep! The season runs from August to May (I believe). I think this is done in part to accommodate the UEFA Champions League schedule.

Sorry to take one phrase out of context, but I think the squad planner is actually worse than a simple spreadsheet. My spreadsheet doesn't automatically add in new players just because I scouted them, for example. The squad planner concept isn't bad, but I still have to use an external document to keep track of everybody. If SI wants me to use it and nothing else, it needs to prevent the computer from automatically screwing things up every few weeks. Also, I've got to chuckle about the tooltip for the offside trap coming up. I scored a goal in a match yesterday on the back of two passes that were blatantly offside, and yet there wasn't even a "close offside" replay. Just FM doing FM things.

Squeaking By I really thought we were going to lose this one. Shenzhen FC is an excellent club, and played quite well against us. Pietro Rovaglia scored two goals in the first 40 minutes, but Nathan Redmond came back with one for Shenzhen. We went to halftime with a precarious one goal lead. Redmond then scored in the 74th minute, tying the match and making me worry for our future in the competition. Thankfully, Jeong Sang-Bin scored as part of an excellent counterattack in the 83rd minute. I thought he was offside, but I didn’t say anything. We dominated in terms of match stats, but we simply couldn’t put them away. Zhu Bin had a particularly poor game, and should probably spend a bit more time on the bench. Mueanta, who demanded more game time from me just a few days before this match, had one of the worst games of his career, and seemed to not even show up. Jeong Sang-Bin came on to substitute for him. A win is a win, but sometimes even a win gets you worried. Month In Review It’s hard to believe, but we’re in December already. Our finances are looking okay. We haven’t had any more sudden injections of cash from Chairman Guo, sadly. I did ask the board for more money in the transfer budget, but am not convinced that we will get it. Our performance analysts reported that we’ve got the best attacking record in the First Division, which isn’t a huge surprise. The only real problem we have is our shots on target ratio, which is only 38.37%. I think this is mostly due to my policy of using young and inexperienced players who have a hard time aiming. Our 84% pass completion ratio is also a bit low. Everything else is extremely high. I also won Manager of the Month after going undefeated in November. We’re doing well, but we also shouldn’t get complacent. The good teams in this division are just as good as we are, and I still feel that we’ve got a bit more work to do before we can really compete with the Chinese Super League sides. Instead of giving us a cash injection, Chairman Guo gave me a report card. He seems indifferent about our match performance and transfers, and is still upset that we were eliminated from the Conference League. However, he thinks things are going well in general, and is particularly happy with our Chinese FA Cup success. The supporters are still upset about my transfers. They’ll ahve to get used to it. Dynamics in the squad are still looking good. Rovaglia, Wade, Pak Myong-Song, and Cashin are our most influential players. I think Pak Myong-Song and Cashin will likely be classified as team leaders before too long. Rovaglia will probably reach those heights as well if he keeps scoring goals for fun. Heilongjiang Ice City If there’s any part of China colder than Yanbian, it’s Heilongjiang Province. We’re favorites to win this away match, though we’ll need to put out a good performance to see them off. The media is excited because Chen Wei, another former goaltender signing who didn’t play a game for us, is starting in goal for Heilongjiang. Chen Wei is 25 years old and really isn’t an awful keeper. I think he was our third choice keeper on the first team for some time last year. We couldn’t give him game time, though — certainly not with the far superior Liu Shaoziyang and Li Changyi on the team. My transfer record thus far has been pretty spotty, and this is a good example of why. We bought Chen Wei for 4 million RMB from Shanghai Port, and then proceeded to lose him to Heilongjiang on a free transfer a few months later. I probably could have handled that one better. If it’s any consolation, though, our scouts think that he would be an awful signing. He is consistent and likes big matches, but he doesn’t have the ability needed to be part of our team. Anyway, I think we’ll win this one.

Thank you for this! I'll give this one a whirl when I go for my upcoming Around The World project - though I have to finish my current save first.

Snowblind It was kind of hard to see what happened in our home match against Xinjiang. The yellow ball didn’t make a very good contrast to the white pitch. Our players slipped and slid around, and were barely able to pull off an unconvincing 2-0 win in the end. It really wasn’t much of a match. Lee Jin-Yong wound up being our Man of the Match in the end, though I personally didn’t think he was impressive. Jeong Sang-Bin scored again, but also had two goals ruled out for being offside — and he was clearly offside for both attempts. We were fortunate that Xinjiang’s offense never really was much of a threat in this match. We’re really going to need to play better than this if we expect to continue to win. Shenzhen We’re going down south for a Chinese FA Cup match against yet another Chinese Super League side. This time we’re playing in Shenzhen. The media think we’re going to lose, but the odds are apparently pretty close. They say that we shouldn’t expect much of a crowd. Shenzhen’s home stadium can seat 60,000, but we’re only expecting 3,000 people to show up. That might wind up working out in our favor.

Our Taiwanese-Swedish Superstar Okay, I’ll admit it. Signing Miguel Sandberg was mostly a meme. He’s a Swedish-born player who just so happens to be the only star player on Taiwan’s international squad. When I discovered him, I simply had to have him on my squad. And, boy, did he ever reward me in this one. Sandberg scored a hat trick in a rare start, lifting us over Beijing Sports University. We won by a 5-2 scoreline, though the game wasn’t really that close. We dominated everything. We had 61% of the possession, 32 shots, and an xG of 4.16. The two goals we gave up were mostly fluke goals. I blame them on Liu Shaoziyang’s lack of attention in this match. Sandberg added on 2 assists to go with his hat trick, helping both Patrik Gustavsson and Jacob Dicko Eng appear on the scoreboard. Our backup team is so good that we can rest our stars without any worries about dropping a match we should have won. It really is a good place to be. Xinjiang Tianshan Leopard We’re up at home against another pitiful team. It’s another match that we really should be winning without much of problem. We do need to worry about squad rotation again, though. We play on the road against Shenzhen in the next round of the Chinese FA Cup a week after this one is complete. Hopefully we’ll get another good performance from our rotated side.

The Big Stage Tianjin isn’t the prettiest city in the world, but the team certainly does have a large stadium. We weren’t intimidated, however. We didn’t just beat Tianjin. We dominated them. We let Tianjin have possession for most of the match, and still won, 4-0. We won in convincing fashion, too, allowing only 2 shots, shooting 24 of our own, and raking up an xG of 3.60 against their measley 0.10. I thought we played well. Mueanta had 2 goals, Rovaglia had an early one, and Delfi added to his total. We simply let Tianjin hold onto the ball, waited for them to stop kicking it around in their own half, and then counterattacked as soon as we could get the ball off of them. Now, the board and our supporters were less than impressed. I suppose we’re supposed to be focusing on playing a possession-based game, rather than just soaking up the attack and letting loose when they least expect it. But what do they want me to do — give the win back? The Torres Saga Juan David Torres has apparently been feeling left out lately. We’ve only played him twice this season. We started him once, and let him come in as a substitute in another game. And he wasn’t impressive in either one. It’s not that Torres is an awful player. It’s his morale that hurts. He was upset about being left off the Conference League squad. I feel bad for him, but the truth is that he’s simply not good enough to be considered a starting centerback for this club anymore. Anyway, we’re going to wind up having to sell him. He doesn’t have much potential at age 23, and there aren’t many teams interested in taking him off our hands. I’m starting to regret paying 4 million RMB for him back in the beginning. I guess you can’t win them all. Beijing Sport University We’re up against Beijing Sport University, and we should win this one easily. This is a good chance for our younger, less experienced players to shine. Let’s see if they can put on a show! We’ve got an international break after this, which can help us catch our breath before the next big surge of matches comes in December.

Smashing Suzhou I really love the city of Suzhou. It’s absolutely beautiful, with the great waterways and parks. I really recommend visiting. I particularly recommend visiting with a good football club. We had a great time smashing them. Cheng Binbin is back from injury. He scored a strong hat trick in less than an hour, showing us the form that convinced me to buy him in the first place. This has been his first really good performance for Yanbian, and makes me wonder if he isn’t actually in the same class as Mueanta, Rovaglia, and Delfi. Jacob Dicko Eng provided one of his rare goals, and our 17-year-old striker Li Qiang scored again in only his second first team match. We won, 5-0, allowing only 2 shots in the process. We dominated possession, holding the ball 60% of the time. It wasn’t close at all. Suzhou would try to lob the ball over the heads of our defenders, but had no success doing so. We simply held onto the ball and attacked time and time again. And this was our B team! Another Big One Not much time for chit-chat here. We’ve got to get ready for our next really big match. We’re off to Tianjin, where we face another Chinese Super League side in the Chinese FA Cup. Tianjin is a lot grittier and darker than Suzhou. The football is better, though, and that’s my biggest concern. Hopefully we’ll survive to see another day.

Man, this is absolutely awesome! I'm going to play with this for one of my future projects. Very well done!

Yeah, it's not bad - though you do get some tall people from northeast China. Li Changyi, our backup goalkeeper, is something like 190, if I remember right...

The Kids Are Alright Yeah, we beat Guangxi. They didn’t put up much of a fight. Just as I was hoping, we had a few goals from unexpected players. Patrik Gustavsson, the Thai international of Swedish heritage, scored a goal in the 24th minute, and added on two assists. There’s a good argument for him to be our starting right attacking winger. The only reason I can think of starting anybody else at the moment is if we want to get Mueanta or Delfi in with two big strikers. Miguel Sandberg, our Taiwanese international who is also of Swedish heritage, contributed a goal of his own in the 5th minute. And Yan Dawei, a very young Chinese right back who is probably the long-term replacement for Pak Myong-Song, chimed in with a goal of his own in the 57th minute. Jeong Sang-Bin scored one in the 53rd minute as well. He’s back from spending about 5 weeks on the injured list. We’re doing well, and we didn’t even have to start any of our really big names in this one. New Faces There are two more new Chinese kids to introduce you to, both of whom made their first team debuts for us against Guangxi. Once they are done, you’ve effectively met the entire first team squad, except for our 15-year-old emergency backup goaltender. Shi Xu is a 16 year old defensive midfielder who hails from Shanghai. We picked Shi Xu up over the summer from Shanghai Shenxin, who are firmly planted in the Second Division South. He cost us a cool 1.35 million RMB, which is an indication of his raw talent. Shi Xu has trained extremely well lately, has an excellent personality, and is quite versatile. He’s not necessarily a great offensive player at this point, but he is quite brave, which means he’ll show up when other players will shy away. Our other new face is Chen Jun, a 17-year-old centerback from Beijing. We picked Chen Jun up for free from Beijing University over the summer. Free is a pretty good price no matter how he does. He can jump well and has good talent in the air, even though he’s not exactly the tallest at 185 centimeters. He does need to speed up a bit to play effectively at this level, though I’d argue that having a slow centerback isn’t really the end of the world. Suzhou Dongwu It’s time for more rotation. We’re heading to Suzhou, the Venice of the East, and one of my favorite cities in all of China. We’re going to win this match pretty much no matter what. I know I’m not supposed to look too far ahead, but my eyes are firmly fixed on our Chinese FA Cup match against Tianjin, which will come 4 days after this one. We need to keep our big stars fresh for that.

Great work! And I'm happy to see the Iron Curtain legacy live on.

The Battle for First Place! I really felt the pressure in this one. We went way out to Shaanxi in the west to face Shaanxi Changan, who happen to be the only team ahead of us in the standings. And we completely demolished them. We scored 3 goals in quick succession in the first half, and let Shaanxi try to play catch up. They didn’t do very well, even though they won the possession battle. We had 23 shots to their 6. They wound up passing the ball aimlessly around for long stretches of the match, whereas we initiated strong and quick attacks every single time we had the ball. Suphanat Muenata chimed in with two goals, the second coming in the 92nd minute to make it a 4-0 route. The biggest question for us now is not whether we can win this league or not. Rather, the question is whether Mueanta, Rovaglia, or Delfi should be thought of as our best offensive player. All three are simply incredible, and I feel very blessed to have them all on the same team at the same time. Rovaglia won the Player of the Month award for October, so I guess he gets the nod for the time being. Both Mueanta and Delfi have scored more goals this season, however. Oh - and I just so happened to win Manager of the Month. Not too bad! Chairman Guo’s Cash Well, we’re not doing all that well financially. That tax bill in the transfer window really hurt us. I mean, it hurt us really badly. Losing out early on in the Conference League didn’t help things much, either. Thankfully, though, we’ve got Uncle Moneybags on our side. Chairman Guo didn’t say much to me, as usual. He blew a bit of cigar smoke in my face as I sat in his office, gave a cackle of a laugh, and told me that he’d take care of our financial problems. And, just like that, we wound up with 182 million RMB more in the bank. It’s not going to last long, unfortunately. At least I know we won’t have to sell players to balance the books. Chairman Guo did take the time to tell me that the board have been happy with our performances so far. They are a bit worried about some of the less expensive loan deals we’ve made for our unused players, though I think that will improve in future years. They’re also delighted that we beat Shandong in the first round of the Chinese FA Cup. The fans are also happy, though they think my transfers stink. But they don’t know anything. We’re building up for the future, not just trying to sign expensive players today. Meanwhile, our squad’s cohesion is slowly improving. More of our players are becoming influential, and more of the “others” are joining our core social group. I think the only weakness in this team is in defense, and I’ve got a feeling that we’ve got some good youngsters who need more game time to prove themselves. Life is going quite well. Guangxi Pingguo Hailiao We’re back at home for this one, taking on Guangxi Pingguo Hailiao. They’re a poor side, and we’re on a big winning streak. We should be able to win this one without any problems, even if we do start a few untried youngsters.

I love this idea, by the way. This is very creative!

Business As Usual It was a win, but it was a quiet win. The highlight was Pietro Rovaglia scoring two goals. He had a good performance. The rest of the team was relatively mediocre in this one. We beat Shanghai Jiading Huilong 3-0, but we didn’t look all that convincing in our victory. Even our fans didn’t seem to think much of it. We only had about 16,000 bother to show up, which isn’t a great sign. I want to see us attracting around 22,000 or more each game. It was cold, I’ll give you that. It was -4 celsius, which is a bit on the cold side for mid-October — even in Yanji. Huge Match I’m sure our fans will care about this next one. We’ve been in second place due to our loss to Wuhan Changjiang. And now we get to face the team that lies in first place. We’re going west to Shaanxi to face Shaanxi Chang’an. The oddsmakers think that we’re slight favorites to win this one. I’m worried about another loss, unless we can get more offense than we had in our last match. We’ll see how this goes.

Jinan Xingzhou We were extremely good in this match. Rovaglia got 2 goals and 2 assists, and Mueanta complemented him with a hat trick. We wound up winning 6-1. Jinan’s only goal came on a penalty in the 93rd minute — and Liu Shaoziyang came within inches of saving it. It looks like we’re unstoppable. No matter how many players are injured, no matter what happens to morale, we always seem to win. I actually think we’re better this year than we were last year. Shanghai Jiading Huilong You know we’re playing an obscure club next. You can tell by how long its name is. This Shanghai team is nestled in 19th place, and are expected to be relegated. I’m guessing that we’ll steamroll right over them.

I've got to offer my sympathies to you, @tajj7. The world of Football Manager reputation and value discrepancies based on country is really frustrating. If there's any silver lining to offer, it's the fact that you can take advantage of the AI's stubborn reliance on reputation to enrich yourself. I created a short guide to making money on player loans, for example. It works pretty well in FM23, and, if you are persistent, can help your club make millions without having to actually develop the players in question. However, you're correct that the morale system seems a bit heavy-handed, especially when the same problems come up time and time again. I'd like to see the morale system toned down a bit, and player interactions expanded and made more meaningful.