The FM Library

This is a first for us in the FM Library today – someone who blogs about Championship Manager. We have always said that this site will push anyone who blogs about any Football Management simulation game, so it’s lovely to have someone who loves the classics as much as the current version.

Say hello to TheChampMan2 and his excellent blog which can be found here

• Creator Name & what made you choose it:TheChampMan2 and it was a hat tip to the game that got me into the series.
• Real Name:Karl
• Football Team:Ooo! I’ll have to leave some mystery to me, maybe I’ll reveal it down the line ha!
• Talk me through your CM journey – where does it start? When was the moment that you first clicked on that little icon – and when did you realise that you couldn’t stop! – CM2. I wasn’t very old but I remember my friend showing me it when I was over at his house. I can’t remember if it was the same or a couple of games later but seeing the U21s in the game just made me think wow! I was hooked instantly. My old man was always playing the old games, Kevin Tom’s, Kick Off etc. So, I was always playing managing games from a young age but CM was the first that I fell in love with.
• Ok, you’ve been playing the game, what made you jump from “player” to “creator” and how have you found the journey?I’ve always enjoyed writing and once upon a time I set out on the course to be a sports journalist. The desire never went away and whether it’s FM or CM, I’m always chewing my friends ears off telling them about my latest save. After reading a lot of Dave’s (@cm9798) blogs, in particular ‘The Retirement Home’, I decided that I’d like to share some of my games as well. Plus, I can’t afford the setup needed for streaming!
• What’s your style of play? Within the library we have a couple of guys who plough through seasons letting the Assistant Manager’s do the vast majority of stuff, mainly getting into the late 2060’s trying to complete bizarre and random challenges, but we also have guys who are very much into the finite detail and will manage every aspect and would consider a save done after 5 or 6 seasons. Where do you fit within the scale? There is of course, no incorrect answer.When I’m playing CM, I tend to mix it up, whether it’s through challenges or a proper career, it’s a fast game so it lends itself to being able to try different things. In FM, I’ll usually start each one with my favourite team in order to get to grips with it and then I choose teams based on inspiration. I tend to lose my way after about 10-15 seasons as a new inspiration comes along. I’m currently Torquay and for the first time I’ve set myself a proper challenge. It’s personal one of being the team with the smallest wage budget in the league. After finishing 2nd in the National League, we’ve somehow achieved 3 successive promotions and are sitting in 17th in the Championship!
• Favourite version/save? Any particular bittersweet/comic/down right depressing moments? There’s a few of each.For CM it’s 97/98 and 03/04, although I pretty much loved all of them. In the FM series, there was 05 and 11. Again, I really enjoy them all, however, the newest one does seem to have a few issues in the match engine (wingers shooting from impossible angles anyone?) but still enjoyable nonetheless. For moments I remember signing a young French regen (newgen but I’ll always refer to them as regens!) by the name of Frédéric Nakache. He broke all sorts of goal scoring records over 15 years and played until 40! I think this was FM11 and I ended up taking making him my assistant manager. Never loved a fake player so much. The other big moment was an older FM (terrible memory when it comes to remembering which FM these moments were on, apologies!) but I was managing Salzburg. Decent money but not many players wanted to go to Austria at that time so it was certainly a challenge in Europe. We drew Shekhar in the final qualifying round of the Champions League. We were heading out when a stoppage-time highlight pops up. We miss a great chance and the highlight continues for the corner but I think the chance is gone. The corner is cleared to the edge where our midfielder picks it up and smashes home to send us through on away goals! Depressing moments – There have been a few, such as losing the title on the last day, big players going for nothing etc. The one that sticks with me was an old FM and hadn’t spent much at the club I was managing. Eventually, I broke the bank for a marquee signing in Juan Carlos Valerie and thought he’d lead us to glory. He went on to average a 5.8 over 20 games before getting a bad injury and I ended up releasing him.
• Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read? Again, I tend to read most of the stuff posted on Dave’s blog, whether that’s directly from him or a contributor. I keep up to date with @FMCM_FC. You can find both CM and FM related blogs there. Apart from that, I keep my eye out on things that appear on my Twitter feed. I enjoy reading stories from both games so every now and then I’ll blast through a whole bunch. There are probably more that I can’t remember the Twitter tags to, so apologies if I missed anyone out. I’m looking forward to finding more through your community suggestions as well.
• Who within the community, seriously impresses you – produces the type of content that you just think “Wow, I couldn’t even contemplate producing stuff to at that level – for me it’s Laura/Chilled Moose and the face packs that she produces – some serious design talent there. This can be across any format of creation. This year I have been df11 face packs this year and have really been impressed by their monthly releases. I’ve very recently come across Chilled Moose’s face packs and they are mind blowing. SI should be in her ear already trying to pin her down for a job! Outside that, I’m a big fan of Nick Rowe’s (@nickrowe85) CM97/98 classic squad designs.
• What puts you off reading other creators blogs – what makes you click that “X” button in the top right of the page. For me it’s using the correct grammar for team names – I saw a blog about 18 months ago where the blogger named his opponent as oxford united and not Oxford United – I’m still angry about this… Ha! I’m the same. I’m a bit of a grammar freak (although I do make mistakes, especially if I’m using my phone to post replies etc.) and I can forgive quite a lot. Correct usage of names, as you mentioned, is massive for me as well. I also can’t stand lack of paragraphs. I’ve read blogs before that almost try to fit the entire blog into one sentence!
• Ok, final question. I have 5 minutes and I have a list of blogs in front of me – In 100 words, why should I click on your blog – I like to think that my blog is a 2 in 1. You can come and read through and enjoy it for all that it is supposed to be but it’s also very easy to just look at visually, meaning if you aren’t a big reader you can just scroll through and all the information is there in screenshots as well. I’m always keen for feedback and try to adapt my stories to appeal to the reader as much as possible. I used to provide huge match updates but condensed them to better suit the reader on the go!

A huge thanks to TheChampMan2 for answering our questions. Go check out his blog and enjoy.