1st Entry- Random Dribblings about my Neeewww Game

Well, this year I have been going through a change in life. I have become more adult, so to speak. Apart from getting a lot more facial hair, football has been involved in a massive change in my life. I dunno what it is but this season I just cannot get into football. I sort of lost interest at about the same rate as Sunderland were losing games last term. My main interest in life these days is music. Muse to be specific. It seems a lot more exhilarating for me than watching some baby faced, over paid jerks playing footy. To be frank if it weren’t for my not so exciting schedule for Saturday nights and Match of The Day I wouldn’t be able to tell you who was at the top of the pile. The last time I was really interested in footy was about this time last year. I was a season ticket holder at Sunderland and played fm day and night. It ws part of my routine. Yet over the past half year I have become bored with it. I cant explain, just me I suppose.

But since I have grew up with footy so far in my life its hard to just drop something so precious to me. I watch Sky Sports News now and then and when I bought fm on its release date on oooh, was it October 20th? I started to take more an interest in the game. Unfortunately I scratched fm only days after buying it and didn’t play again until yesterday when Santa Clause put another under my tree. With my not so large football brain I went on and set up a game with my beloved Sunderland. Looked round at the new squad. Oooh Dwight(shite) Yorke. Maybe hes not so bad in fm as he is in real life these days. Ill put him in the team for my first friendly against **insert name here**. I then went and logged onto ti and had a quick look round the tactics forum. Nothing took my fancy. I messed around with the settings and had myself a nice 451 system going. This worked for me on fm06 and s generally my tactic of choice. Anyway my mum came in and told me to get in the shower and get ready because we had to be at my nanas for 11. So I turned off fm and closed my new laptop dissatisfied with my first proper taste of football this season.

I rolled back into the house 3 hours and a Christmas dinner later, slouched on the couch(hey that rhymes) and turned on fm again. I couldn’t see my Sunderland game going anywhere so I had a browse through the stories on ti. See if I could find inspiration for my game. But again, nout really suited me. I remembered an a coulomb Dutton wrote the other day about Peruvian leagues and there season starting in February or some other carry on. I gave it another read over. That was it, I decided, Im gonna spend my xmas evening not with the family, not round my mates looking at their prezzies, but on fm. Yes, that sounds like a plan to me. So I opened up fm and Selected on New Game and chose The Brazilian Leagues and The English Leagues. Added a new manager and looked at the teams round the premiership. Arsenal top in December, closely followed by Chelsea. I clicked back onto the screen bit where you add a game, chose Arsenal and went and had a look at the team. Hmm, Henry has reached his yellow card limit for the next game against Sheffield United, Ljungberg is Injured and Lehmann is unfit.

Suppose the team is feeling the pressure of the heavy festive fixture list. So I got my assistant Pat to pick the team for tonight’s match at the Emirates. Answered a few questions from the media about how I’m feeling the pressure or some other tosh and proceeded to the match. First 10 minutes goes without major event. Then on about 11/12 minutes Van Persie is played in on the edge of the area by Cesc Fabregas and proceeds to put it past the keeper in a neat fashion. More none interesting crap went on for the most of the game till the 86th minute when Lauren put away a penalty to seal an easy victory. A poor performance on both parts. What’s Lauren doing taking penalties anyway?

Anyway, transfers are round the corner and my team is lacking in depth. Without Henry my attack is impotent and against Sheffield I only had 4 strikes on target. Also my defence isn’t much. With our Ashley fucked off to Chelsea the left back position is empty. So I foolishly have a look at some left backs in the premiership. Christ I have no chance. Looking at £10M for a decent one. So I turned my search to my scouts. Since with my small mind for football all my first thoughts went out the window. The thought crossed my mind that fm is no game for n00bs. Its realistic to the point where its no longer a game, but a simulation. I liked it when it was a game, back when you could buy anyone you fancied and stick them in your team and you would kick ass and be top of the league. This new fm is crap. You have to use your brain and think. I know there is no point in winning every time without fail, it get boring after a couple of months. But so what. Its fun.

Maybe I have just lost touch with football but fm isn’t what it used to be. It doesn’t have that nicotine factor about it that wants you coming back for more. Its drab and professional and all crap. I don’t want to think like a manager. I want to think like winning the league. After all I buy a game to play on, play being the key word. Not simulate. So anyway, my Arsenal game. I send a few scouts out and wait for the news to arrive. Aaannnddd its boxing day. Arsenal vs Chelsea. Chelsea are 8 points behind me and could do with the points. So I send the press a lovely message about me being unsure of Jose Mourinho to knock his moral and make me look big in front of my players for the game. The news lands in my pigeon hole that I’m favourite for the title clash at odds of 2/1. I clicked continue and picked my side then proceeded to the match at Stamford Bridge. To cut a not so long but longer than I can be bothered to tell story short the match ended with 19 players on the field and a 0-0 draw.

Just what you would expect, a game like that in real life will have been hyped up for ages on Sky and match of the season. Instead it was a bit naff. And put me right in the mood for some Christmas pudding. So off went fm and away I toddled to the kitchen and helped myself to a piece of pudding. So my point of the Article then? Well nout really, this was a diary entry that I thought would make decent reading for someone and let me put my point across about how fm isn’t a game anymore.

I heard a while ago that a manager in the premiership refers to fm for players. Well this just proves how much the game has changed from its former glory. I want to win every game, I’m crap at fm and I’m sure there are people out there like me, maybe not on the scene but some random kid called Conor who lives in Coventry and likes footy and was given fm as a Christmas present. That kid will be disappointed I guess. I think Ill stick to Pro evo in future. I probably think this fm will be my last unless I can rekindle my love. I probably will be able to...