The FM Library

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Creator name & what made you choose it?

Shrewnaldo. It comes from an IRL nickname that I had in my early 20s and, like most nicknames, it wasn’t me that chose that.

Real name?

Yes, I surely have one of those.

Favourite football team?

Aberdeen is my local team and I had a season ticket for quite a few years. I can’t say I’ve ever been a hardcore fan though – I just like watching football. Through FM, I’ve developed soft spots for a number of teams that I’ll keep an eye out for and watch their games if I get the chance

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

I’ve been playing CM/FM since the very beginning with the original game back in 1992 – indeed, I remember playing some management sim on the Spectrum ZX before this which might have been the Kevin Toms game but I really can’t recall.

I remember a school friend showing me the game and then giving me a copy on floppy disc (pirating not condoned). I was immediately hooked. I’ve never really had the fine motor skills to make a good sports sim or first-person shooter player. I was always much more into strategy and to discover that I could combine this with my love for football was a joy.

And from there, other than a few years travelling after uni when I had no access to a computer, I haven’t stopped.

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

I’ve never been one for multi-player gaming. People who know me will know that I’m massively anti-social and a huge introvert. I really like the experience of solo gaming as a way to relax and recharge. But I’d been reading the FM forums in the mid 2000s – primarily looking for tactical tips I think – and found The Dugout. Reading through some of the save stories and tactical threads on there was great and slowly I became less of a lurker and more of a poster.

None of my IRL friends played FM (at least not like I do) and so the online space gave me a different way to enjoy the game. Reading others’ games also gave me access to all sorts of ideas to make my own game more interesting, or just make me better at the game.

From there, I started my own save threads and I remember some great saves which got me into more longer-format writing about FM. When forums started tailing off, I followed the example of a few others, primarily Lee Scott / FM Analysis at that point, by just heading to a combination of twitter and a standalone blog – FM Veteran.

People really seemed to like the blogs and I remember having some great saves with Toulouse, Rapid Wien and Feralpisalò which were really popular. The interaction was never quite the same as on forums but I just enjoy the writing process. I like the creative outlet, to be honest, and I often find writing about my FM saves a cathartic process – both enjoyable and a means of organising my thoughts about the save, providing more structure and helping me immerse myself in more of a narrative.

As an aside, I’ve always hated the term ‘creator’. I know it’s de rigueur but it always sounds pompous to me. I just chat about a video game.

Recently, I’ve started the infrequent Coffee Pod FM with my good friend Ed Wilson (CoffeePodFM — CoffeehouseFM – Football Manager Blogs), This has been great, even though we struggle to find mutually acceptable times. It’s always fun chatting FM with Ed, so we figured we may as well record it – it’s supposed to be less time-consuming than the writing now that we’re busy, important middle-aged men. 

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.

I tend to get into the minutiae of my saves. I don’t like to delegate anything except the media stuff (yawn) and am a bit of a control freak, really. I’d say a typical save for me is 6-8 seasons taking a second tier or small top-tier side and developing them ‘against the odds’

In times past, I was all about the tactics but my interest in this has waned over the years – not least because I find the game itself to be tactically restrictive and leaning into more automation for the casual player. So I’m more about the recruitment and squad-building side of it now.

I’m trying to use statistics these days more than attributes, and hope that the change to Unity in FM25 will allow FM to catch up with the real world development of analytics and data.

Lastly, I try to play the game as ‘realistically’ as I can these days – sort of in the Llama style I guess with no searching the Player Search screen by attributes, only hiring staff through job adverts, self-managing what I think are realistic job offers. What is ‘realistic’ isl, of course, entirely subjective.

Oddly enough, I tend to get bored right at the point when my teams are becoming successful and I can see the path to winning trophies. So I tend to stop at that point, or maybe after one or two titles. Once it gets easy, I get bored.

Favourite version/save? Any particular bittersweet/comic/down right depressing memories?

A few stand out. Some time in the early 2000s I had an amazing save with East Sterlingshire, now relegated out of the senior Scottish pyramid. In particular, I remember signing Dani Guiza and his scoring an obscene amount of goals.

I also have fond memories of an FSV Frankfurt game in maybe FM10, a Toulouse save in FM12 that was the first I blogged about, recent saves with Académico de Viseu in Portugal, Bristol City and Telstar…

…but I think the two best saves I’ve ever had were a Rapid Wien and Austria club and country save in FM11 and my Feralpisalò save in FM13. It’s funny how many people mention to me even now that they remember me playing those saves and enjoyed the forums posts / blogs. It’s hard to say why those games stand out – I guess they just hit the spot.

Which bloggers do you always make sure that you read? 

I always enjoy reading Rensie, FM Grasshopper and Ed Wilson’s stuff – all over at the Coffee House FM.

But these days, I’ve been really enjoying forum posts again, back on the official SI forums. The obvious real stand out poster is _Ben_ who writes really well and gets really in-depth into all aspects of his save. If you’re not reading Ben’s stuff, then you’re in for a treat.

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? 

I’ve already mentioned the bloggers so I’ll go down a different tack. I’m not really one for visual FM content – I think most youtube ‘content’ is aimed at a different audience to me (which is totally fine obviously). I do really like FM Llama’s and Mustermann’s youtube series though – but the one that stands out for me as ‘something different’ is Evidence Based Football Manager (Evidence Based Football Manager – YouTube). 

It’s very different to most FM ‘content’ – no Edvard Munch dropping the sickest FM24 tactic thumbnails here. Max does FM experiments – but not nonsense stuff like giving non-league teams a billion pounds and you’ll never guess what happens next. Instead, he uses controlled tests to investigate the game mechanics in-depth and then presents the findings  in easily digestible and understandable videos. It’s great stuff.

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

I’ve mentioned a few things already like ‘banter’ experiments that just don’t do it for me. In fact, ‘banter’ in general – I’m kind of a misanthrope.

Just lists of results is also really off-putting – I’m interested in the story, the problem solving and the narrative so I like it when people work through the why more than the what.

And these days, I find funky asymmetrical tactics really off-putting. Which is a little hypocritical seeing as one of my favourite ever saves (Rapid Wien / Austria) utilised an asymmetrical 4-3-3 hybrid.

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 none of us is as smart as all of us – so maybe you can help with some of the problem solving stuff I write about.

But I write for me, because I enjoy it and I find it cathartic. If people read it and enjoy it, then great but it’s not what it’s about for me.

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I’ve had this sitting on the back burner for a wee while now as there has been so much stuff going on at home but we are back and should go back to being weekly or fortnightly with these starting with this one from @Shrewnaldo.

Make sure to give him a follow on Twitter and check his content on the Si Forums where you will find career updates from him and many others.

If you would like to see any of your favourite bloggers or authors of your favourite forum career threads featured then please let us know who and we will try our utmost to make it happen.

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