Southend United have sold the naming rights for their West Stand to the local estate agents Gilbert & Rose.
I don't think they thought this one through...
(Thanks to
@prnapper
for the spot)
Retweet if you've just taken the Newcastle job on FM22 and realised that Joelinton has FOUR years left on his 80k contract and his highest technical attribute is 13.
We're running a new confessional feature on the FM Show and the calibre of submissions has been extremely high. But this might be the meanest thing that anyone has ever done in
@FootballManager
.
And the answer is, "Yes." Straight to hell. Do not pass go. Do not collect £200.
We'll also be announcing the return of a new look Football Manager Show next week, just in time for the new
@FootballManager
.
New game looks great, btw.
This is a bit unrealistic though. When is a Watford manager ever going to need to plan ahead for next season?
I know that people have real problems and I realise how lucky I am to play video games for a living but I have hit the woodwork FIVE times in the last 120 minutes of football and I am ready to punch a police horse.
Quite impressed at the eclectic range of pens that Graham Potter has managed to accumulate in just a matter of days. Biros, Sharpies, Whiteboard pens. A weirdly thick orange pencil. Usually takes months for that level of diversity to develop.
A request was made for Lionel Messi stories for this special
@TheAthleticFC
article.
I have a story about spending an afternoon alone in a hotel room with him. But it's possible that I'm overselling it...
Returning home from Dungeons & Dragons Club to find that FM22 has dropped is evidence that my life choices have been good choices. Also, my wife left me.
Very happy to confirm that the
@FootballManager
Show by
@TheAthleticUK
will be returning next month as part of our expanded gaming/esports content. Hence the new look.
Southend United lose again, sink into the relegation zone of the bleeding Conference and the owner's attempt to have a chat with the travelling fans goes really, really badly. And you think YOUR club is having a tough time of it.
Prepare to feel old: This week, TWENTY years ago, one of the best games ever was released. It's Championship Manager 2001/02 and wild horses couldn't have stopped me explaining why I loved it so much for
@TheAthleticUK
.
In Football Manager terms, Liverpool have switched to 'very attacking' and then stared in horror at the screen as the clock spins to full time without generating a single key highlight.
I actually find this pic quite inspiring. One man, his career devastated by injury, absolutely fired up just to be back on the pitch. Fuck the rest of them, fuck the noise, fuck having to Google the manager. He's back and he's up for a battle even if no-one else around him is.
If you play
@FootballManager
you'll recognise this moment as the moment when you wish you didn't play
@FootballManager
and had spent the afternoon on literally anything else.
@fmbase
I'd like to be able to turn off ALL attributes and play the game blind, using only data and my gut to assess players.
I would also like to design my own set pieces with brightly coloured lines to mark out runs and decoy runs.
This is not a cry for help. My marriage is fine.
Every year,
@MadScientistFM
takes
@FootballManager
and builds his own database. This year, he's done 92/93 which was also the first 'real player' database and a game I played for 1000hrs+ when I should have been revising for my GCSEs. This is my happy place.
Thank you so much for all the nice things that have been said about the Newcastle saga today. It's blown me away. I'm really going to miss the comments page, which is not a phrase I ever thought I'd type. It was possibly the only corner of the internet that never went toxic.
I've been playing a preview version of
@FootballManager
2022 for
@TheAthleticUK
and here's what I reckon: It's going to be controversial, people will complain, but ultimately it's going to better than FM21...
I couldn't walk away. Had a quiet weekend and ploughed on with Season Five. Apparently, winning the CL was a bit of a turning point. Lost Sesko and Bailey to min.release clauses. Bought Moriba, Moukoko and Zaniolo, and then Belotti went goal crazy...
"
@TheAthleticUK
also understands former United captain Steve Bruce, recently let go by Newcastle, would be very keen on the role, and believes he could help stabilise the dressing room."
The redemption story the world needs.
I'm a late Covid sub on the
@TifoFootball_
live stream tonight, which is why I'm sitting behind
@jj_bull
and trying to copy his notes. If you hear me say 'expected assists' you'll know that this plan worked.
Even by FIFA's standards, this is absolute madness. Do they have any idea of how much it costs and how long it takes to make a great, premium game? The fact that Infantino is gloating about keeping the name tells its own story. Again: Go and ask
@FootballManager
about that...
FIFA has vowed to make its own video game after EA Sports said that it would no longer make titles in partnership with world football’s governing body.
More from
@lukedbrown
I think James is right. Even last season, when Arsenal weren't quite 'good', you could see what they were doing, you could see the process.
But by thunder, I wouldn't want to be his mentions today.
Do yourself a favour, read the *whole* nuanced article on
@TheAthleticUK
.
#MUFC
look like a club in need of a hard reset.
Not so long ago, that was Arsenal - but thanks to a cultural reboot, smart recruitment strategy, & empowering a coach,
#AFC
have changed the narrative.
United could learn something.
@TheAthleticUK
🔴⚪️
You're dead to me, JWP.
I offered him £150,000 pw but he can stick his flawless set pieces up his arse and waste away on their bench.
Livid. We would have made magic together.
The
@FootballManager
Show by
@TheAthleticUK
will return NEXT WEEK with loads of new features, most notably the Community Challenge, for which you perverts overwhelmingly voted for us to manage Sunderland. So how does it work? (thread)
TWENTY years ago this week, Championship Manager 01/02 was released. I've put more hours into the game than any other. But why? What made it so good? And why did it, far from stealing my life, actually help put it back on track? This is on
@TheAthleticUK
If they find this cat-toy wielding prick, they should ban him from watching the game forever. UEFA should pay someone to live in his house and stand by his telly and switch it off whenever the football comes on.
@FootballManager
Slow tempo, shorten passing, defence/support roles for all, max time wasting, play for set pieces, play out from the back, work ball into box, switch to commentary only, hide under desk, close eyes, pray that it all works out.
@DanielGarb
@josephmdurso
@DanielSturridge
This is all far more admirable than my own stance of blithely asking for a short back and sides, praying it all works out and knowing, deep down, that even if they shave a swear in the back of my head, I'll still say 'lovely' when they do the bit with the mirror at the end.
Having read and adored 'The Immortals' by Arrigo Sacchi, it is my declared intention to turn Aberdeen into the AC Milan of the North. High pressing, compact lines and a chain-smoker with bad knees in midfield. It may take a few seasons to get it right...
🚨 FOOTBALL MANAGER 2022 GIVEAWAY 🚨
We've got 5 free
#FM22
codes to hand out! For a chance to win simply 👇
▫️ Follow
@TheAthleticUK
▫️ Follow
@iain_games
▫️ Quote tweet this with your first save on the new game
Ends 2pm 10-11-21. UK residents only. 1 entry per person.
Alarmingly, given that my Aberdeen save fell apart and my Everton save (I know) was a disaster, this Newcastle story is as successful as I've been on FM22.
I'm 11th.
Never mind Newcastle sacking me, I'm amazed that
@TheAthleticUK
haven't swung the axe.
Have you got any questions about data and xG in
@FootballManager
? We've got a special interview coming up this month, so fire away with questions like, "Who decided that a penalty was worth 0.8xG even if it's taken by an English player?"
IT'S ALL OVER.
The FM Newcastle Challenge is complete. But how did it end? In glory? In despair? In amongst some overwrought similes? Find out here on
@TheAthleticUK
Happy to relinquish our no.1 spot to Critical Role; one of the most extraordinary and innovative collectives in any genre of entertainment. But I'm not giving an inch to those bastards at the Royal Horticultural Society.
Can a football board game be as entertaining as a football video game?
@JM_Devine
and I opened a bottle of wine, popped a tube of Pringles and gave
@superclubgame
a roadtest.
*puts finger to ear*
And I can confirm....
@TheAthleticUK
will be live streaming Newcastle's League Cup Final clash with Liverpool on Tuesday, March 1 at 1700 GMT.
Unless Belotti gets injured in the meantime, in which case I'm chucking my laptop in the Thames.
More info soon.
The FM Show will be out on Wednesday evening this week and that's where it will stay during the second series that I honestly didn't think we'd get. Thanks for all your support. Series 2 starts on February 3. Bigger. Better. More Book Club.
What are your special moves when you finish a season on
@FootballManager
?
I always painstakingly scout every player in the Top 50 young player list to full knowledge but Producer
@Steve_Hankey
thinks this is unhinged behaviour.
Hello. I'm Iain Macintosh. And this is where you'll find all the latest on the
@FootballManager
Show by
@TheAthleticUK
. Listen for tips, guidance and counselling by the very people who make the game and who also work hard to stop me losing all the time.
Never mind the Oscars.
@hollyy_percival
won the
@TheFMShowdown
last night. She only started playing FM in late 2021 and now she's beaten the best streamers in the world in her first tournament. She is the undisputed FM superpower at
@TheAthleticUK
On last week's FM Show, I asked for your support so that we could rise up the Apple Leisure charts and, "give those bastards at the Royal Horticultural Society a good kicking."
What the hell did you do? Not only did we take down the RHS, we levelled Gardeners World too.
Currently writing a scene when Amanda takes Bouldy to the haunted basement and it's all got out of hand and this could be a very long chapter with very little actual football.
my husband has been playing the same strategy game called Stellaris most evenings since 2016 and today he looks up at me and he says "I finally won" like he has been LOSING continuously WITHOUT running out of patience for FIVE YEARS what the fuck
Jesus Henry Christ, Nicky Butt, what have you done?! Half a million quid compo for a scout with a 'judging potential' rating of nine?!
That's a sackable offence and a one man argument for micro-managing your FM save.
Absolutely gutted to see
@AFHStewart
leave. He is the finest of men and a good friend. He'll be successful in whatever he does next because he has a brain the size of a family car. He's quite annoying like that.
Still, frees up more time for link-up Civ/FM etc
Why are so many footballers so reluctant to move to the north-east? It's brilliant up there. I wrote this for
@TheAthleticUK
and managed to limit myself to just one mention of saveloy dips.
There's going to be a little hiatus on the FM Newcastle Challenge. It's ok. Neither
@TheAthleticUK
nor Newcastle have sacked me. Yet. Just got some Covid in the house, so taking a few days to focus on that. Episode 11 will be next week and I still really need a win.
On tomorrow's
@FootballManager
Show by
@TheAthleticUK
we're asking you:
Who are you going to manage first on FM22 and why?
I am giving serious thought to just launching into a no-badge, unemployed challenge on day one and never looking back.
The true cost of relegation from the Football League sank in this morning when I loaded up my review copy of FIFA 22 and couldn't select Southend as my favourite club. Panicked and selected Everton instead.
Why can't you play as Juventus on FIFA? What was that kerfuffle between Football Manager and Man Utd? Find out more about games, names and Ruud von Mistelroum here on
@TheAthleticUK
What's all this about Sunderland on
@FootballManager
? It's
@TheAthleticUK
's FM Community Challenge and all the details are here. Subscribe to The Football Manager Show by The Athletic through this magic link
Update downloaded. Eight nation database selected. Start unemployed. From now until the release of FM22, this is my personal save. Wherever the road takes me. No restarts. Please, FM Gods, do not offer me the Sunderland job...
Dodged it in December when my daughter had it, but the Covid finally caught up with me this weekend. No FM Show this week, but I'm confident that the Newcastle Challenge will continue because I can still get my arse handed to me even if I'm stuck in bed.
Worth remembering that Zlatan did this at a time when a surprising number of people thought he was 'a fraud' because he never seemed to perform against English clubs in the CL...
After a morning spent on Newcastle (Ep14 is out tmr) I have concluded that FM22 is much easier if you have players who are good at football. Which sounds glib, but it's basically what Pep thinks about real life, so I'm going with it.
71% of you spend between 60 - 180 minutes Doing Stuff on
@FootballManager
before pressing continue for the first time.
11% of you cannot and will not contain your excitement.
18% of you may not have realised that your partner left you some time ago.
With the FM Beta on the horizon, can we clear up one question?
How many hours should you spend Doing Stuff before you click continue for the first time?
We're looking for a brilliant young junior producer to join our UK Audio team here
@TheAthleticUK
. All details are in here, so get those applications in.
Has anyone found a more satisfying strategy for the first FM pre-season friendly of the campaign than, "Here's my first XI and at half time, you'll see my second XI?"
(with the third goalkeeper as Sub 12 for the feeling of completeness, obviously)
My dad routed the Vikings and united a broken England. My wife plotted to kill me but I wooed her back so emphatically that we accidentally made all the children. When I die, this island will descend into fratricidal civil war. Lunch breaks with
@CrusaderKings
are stressful.
Big day on the Games Dept of
@TheAthleticUK
. For the first time, you can now FOLLOW the gaming content as if it were a sports team. Then all the gaming stories will slip seamlessly into your timeline on the App.
The new
@Formula1game
is out today, I reviewed it for
@TheAthleticUK
and later this evening I will begin my career in F2 and spend 100+ hrs earning the right to drive my Williams into a wall on the first lap of every street circuit.
This is my Newcastle first team squad, as I see it. I've highlighted all the players I'd be happy to keep.
Those numbers, btw, are the years left on their contracts. Seriously. I'm very much afraid that this will necessarily be a case of evolution to revolution.