The FM Library

Now that this is set to become a regular feature, it is time to share another 11 Question Series with you all. This time coming from @FmZane.

• Creator name & what made you choose it?

Zane Pritchard FM. Simply put, the creative names I’d thought of were already taken

• Real name?

Zane Pritchard

• Favourite football team?

Birmingham City

• Talk me through your FM journey – where does it start?

I have a feeling it was Championship Manager 2000/2001. I was young at the time, only 9 or 10, and I’m sure I had the game via a box of Cheerios. I used to always play as Birmingham, but I was hopeless at the game. I used to think it was fixed as I could never ever win 😂 I’d love to go back and see my tactics. I was probably playing Danny Sonner in goal 😂

After that, I had an Xbox and was hooked on the LMA Manager games. As they phased out I got back into what would now be known as FM on and off, then from about 2014 I’ve been hooked for every year’s instalment.

• Ok, you’ve been playing the game, what made you jump from “player” to “creator” and how have you found the journey?

I wanted something to remember my saves by. On FM20 I had an unreal save going with Gremio and to this day it’s one of the most fun saves I’ve ever done. I felt like ploughing all these hours into the game and then just sort of discarding it when the new one came out was a little sad, so I decided to blog. It was only ever for me really, then I sent my first one to a friend and he encouraged me to send it to a few more people.

I’ve found the journey really enjoyable. The feedback from the community is always a great feeling and with each blog I write I just want to get better and improve.

• What’s your style of play? Within the library we have a couple of guys who plough through seasons letting the Assistant Manager do the vast majority of stuff, mainly getting into the late 2060s 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

Hmm, tough one to answer as I’m a little bit of both. I work hard on my tactics as I’m a little bit against downloading tactics. I’ve won leagues with downloaded tactics a long time ago and I just felt like it wasn’t me. I also take control of all individual training, however, team training is always left to the Assistant Manager. The further into a save I get the more the press sees my Ass Man. For my star players, I’ll always handle contract negotiations as I like to incentivise them with big bonuses and I’ve found this works for not only performance, but you can bring your star CB wage down by promising him £5million bonus for scoring 15 goals 👀😂

I always find and hire staff myself. I’m not too bothered about club legends coming on board, if they’re not good enough they won’t be at my club.

• Favourite version/save? Any particular bittersweet/comic/downright depressing memories?

My favourite save will have to be the aforementioned Gremio save. I had a newgen named Brenner who would just score goal after goal after goal. The sad thing is because we weren’t part of the European elite, clubs would only offer about £30m for him when he was easily worth £130m. We ended up winning the world cup which subsequently led to him winning the Ballon d’Or. I was so in love with him that I bought a Gremio shirt off DHGate with Brenner on the back. It was the first time I’d ever really ventured outside of Europe and I absolutely loved learning about different leagues and their format etc.

A depressing memory is on a journeyman save where I’d taken the reigns at Barca. We dominated, and went 3 whole seasons unbeaten but only won the Champions League once in my first season. The next two seasons we played Arsenal in the final and lost to an own goal in the 88th minute BOTH times. Same own goal, the same minute. I don’t think I played that save again after the second time.

• Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read?  

I really like MY FM Story’s work, and with us both being from Torquay I feel we have a mutual bond there. Carrilero FM, FM Stag, The Last Throw, Charoo FM and Madd FM are all bloggers I really enjoy and I’m a big fan of all their work! 

• Who within the community, seriously impresses you – produces the type of content that you just think “Wow, I couldn’t even contemplate producing stuff at that level?

Well of course there’s Zealand. He’s a bit like the Eminem of this whole thing. An American invading our waters and then it turns out he’s one of the best to do it. I absolutely love Loki Doki, he seems to be one of the only Youtubers getting serious numbers without doing Rebuild after Rebuild or Wonderkid videos etc. DP-FM is great and just a lovely bloke overall, it was actually him who put me out there a bit more and I’ll always appreciate that so a massive shout to DP-FM. Murph FM and FM Llama are both fantastic. If I need a new save I’m straight to an FM Llama video and both him and Murph are Bluenoses so they’ll always have my support. And finally, I love Stinger Neil. A very likeable bloke whose videos are nice and crisp and don’t go on for too long with a lovely pro wrestling merch backdrop

• What puts you off reading other creators’ blogs – what makes you click that “X” button in the top right of the page?

Bad spelling and an overall feeling of someone typing it out on their phone whilst not really paying too much attention.

• 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…

Because I like to take my readers on a journey with me and I like to think my personality comes out in my writing. Readers of my Gulls to Glory save will hopefully have picked up on the references such as Abdullah the Butcher, Post Malone and Papa Roach (just an example of the laughs we have here). I want you to care as much as I do about my wonderkids at my club and I feel my blogs provide enough visuals to make you feel like you’re there with me all the way.  

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I’d like to thank Zane for taking the time to answer our questions and wish him good luck with the blogging for the duration of Football Manager 2024. If you haven’t already then give him a follow on Twitter and make sure to subscribe to his blog to stay up to date on his FM adventures.

To anyone else who would like to get their name out there and do a wee bit of shameless self-promotion please feel free to message us on Twitter or sign up to our discord server.