I Could Do That Where it all beginsPicture the scene - a crowdof lads in the pub, beers in hand, loudly discussingSaturday's full-time football scores.One of them bemoans the recent misfortunes of his lifelongsupported team. During his scathing analysis he mentions how it'sreally not any of the player's fault, but it's all down to themanager. He should be asking the board for more money for players.He should be playing such and such on the wing, not in the centre.He should be sacked.Chances are that the next week, the team wins, and all of a suddensaid manager is absolutely terrific, the best the team has everhad! Sound familiar?It's always easy to shout from afar, but would you do a better job?Unless you are tied into the game from an early age, the odds ofyou finding out for real are pretty minimal.Or are they? I present to you Championship Manager 99/00 edition.This is your chance to see just how good your managerial skillswould be in the real world.Team Selection Hey, at least we're not bottom!!After a painlessinstallation, the first thing you need to do is give yourmanager a name, and choose the team you are either going tomake, or break!This is your first taste of just how massive the database is inCM99/00. You can choose any team from Arsenal in the Englishpremier league, through to Yeovil in the Conference.It doesn't stop there either.
You can also choose to be invirtually any league you can think of. Fancy taking control of themighty Juventus of Italy?
How about taking control ofTampa Bay in the American MLS? Of course for the latter, you'd needto explain that it's football, not soccer. Grin!Once this is done, the program will then set up the new seasonahead.
Depending on your processor power, this may take a fairwhile to process. Those of you thinking that any sort of delay isquite unacceptable, think again. CM99/00 runs 16 concurrentleagues, with about 40,000 players encompassed within.Not only this, but there is each player's own attributes, teamhistories, top scorer tables, league tables, cup competitions, thetransfer market, international tournaments, and for each club thereis a reserve team complete with all its own relevant attributes.That is an obscene amount of data! So you can forgive it for takinga couple of minutes to set itself up each season now, can't you?Once you have selected your team, it's time to check out whatlow-lifes you have just taken charge of. The squad select screenshows you every member of your team and their preferred position toplay in.
It will also show you whether the player is injured,unhappy, on loan, out of contract and other attributes.Get used to this screen and how it works, you'll be seeing it awhole lot during your reign.Ain't No Picasso The Conference results in fullIf you areexpecting lavish graphics and FIFA 2000 graphical style gamecoverage, you are going to be very disappointed. Similarly, ifyou are expecting a ripping soundtrack and groovy in-gameeffects, you will not find them here.Graphics wise, everything is text and menu driven. The menusthemselves are extremely easy to get to grips with and navigate.For each different page, you also get a good quality backgroundphotograph of various footballing heroes.With CM3 99/00 edition you can play either in a window or fullscreen. This is an absolute necessity, as there are times where youwant to let the program deal with its data crunching, and go dosomething else in the meantime!So how does a simple text driven game work over something moreappealing to the eye? It is down to the quality ofsimulation.
Sure thing, it would be an excellent idea to have agame where you can play each match in FIFA2000 style, and also dothe management bit.Where this idea would fall foul though is in exploitable gameplayflaws, not to mention someone just becoming too good for even themost adept of computer controlled teams. The way CM99/00 works isperfect. It means you simply cannot guarantee your success, it hasto be earned.I Want 200% Guys Ahh 10/7, I'll cherish this day.The way I seeit, you will be one of two breeds of manager. Either A) youwill dip straight into the transfer market and bleed the boarddry, or like me B) go with the players you have got and seehow it goes.This is where the game takes control of you, and will not let go.You see a player, he's not a happy chappy, the temptation is tojust simply ignore this. Sometimes this works, and said player willbegin to warm to your leadership, but other times he will juststick in a request for a transfer.This is where you have to start making tough decisions. Do youincrease his wages if indeed that is his problem, or do you justshove him on the transfer list, and let him rot in the reserves.It's all down to you.Okay, you have selected your starting 11, with 5 substitutes, andyou are ready for your first game in charge. Unless you scrutiniseeach player's statistics before hand, you won't really know whattype of display they are going to show.My advice is to select the team based entirely on each player beingin their preferred position.
You can worry about fine-tuning forthe next match.You will usually find that the first match weeds out the whinersstraight away, with maybe one player who is used to first teamaction not even on the subs bench. It is the chance you have got totake. You have the flip side to this - maybe you select someone whowasn't even given a chance by the previous manager, and for you heshines like a new penny.A Game of Two Halves In game commentary, text only, but informative nonethelessKick off! The current game is shown to you via a simplepossession bar, score, scorers and time left.
You can 'view'the game in real-time, or you can choose an accelerated mode.Even on the fastest option, each game takes around 2 minutes tocomplete. Commentary comes to you in text form, and is surprisinglyentertaining to keep track of. Crowd noise also runs alongside thecommentary, cheering gleefully if a team scores, and a bigcollective gasp of disbelief at a near miss.This works well too, but it soon gets annoying, and you'll beswitching to the accelerated match option before long.Prior to kick off, during the match, and at half-time you canchange what formation the team is playing in, and whether thisformation is to be attacking or defensive style. You can also makesubstitutions at any time.Players are assessed on their performance from 1 to 10. If all yourplayers are performing above 5 then you don't really need to makeany changes.
Championship Manager 99/00 Manual
Below 5 and it might be worth chucking on a fresh pairof legs.If any players get yellow carded, and you can see they are stillgetting involved in scrapes, you are best advised to sub them too.If a player gets injured, you are automatically taken to the gamesquad list to name a replacement.Depending on your team, and more than likely your luck, you willfind injuries and suspensions to be common place. If your team isparticularly prone to this, you are going to need a much biggersquad to accommodate such absentees.So did you lose your first match 6:0? Maybe you won it 1:0, butpossession was always in the opposing team's favour.
Either way,you have got to look at the problem areas in the side, and act uponthem. If you won it 4:0, don't think this guarantees you successeither, you just probably played a team with more problems thanyour own!New Features Errm! Actually Chelmsford haven't got a stadium at the moment!CM99/00 sports some brand new features over the original CM3release. One of the most interesting, and certainly the most evil,is the ability to fine players. That player who has had umpteenwage rises is still not happy? Hell, fine him!You have far more interaction with the board of directors too,rather than them telling you how dissatisfied they are all thetime.
You can insist they increase the wage structure of the clubto avoid player discontent, or recommend ground improvements toaccommodate more crowd volumes.One of the really neat new features though is the ability to assignscouts to individual players, or to an entire team. These scoutswill give you regular feedback as to who's hot and who's not. Theycan also be used to search the youth circuits for young talent.ConclusionLet's get this straight. This is a true footballsimulation for true football fans. If you are expecting totake hold of Kidderminster and within 5 seasons reach the topflight, with no opposition on the way, then you are in for asurprise. You have got to work for success.It sounds totally stupid, but you need to build a kind ofrelationship with your players. By this I mean, you have to knowthem inside out.
Who's temperamental? Who's reliable?
You also haveto have a keen eye for the transfer market, picking out bargains,or maybe getting that extra £20,000 out of a sale of one ofyour players.The sheer complexity and accuracy of the database is veryimpressive, and you will be hard pushed to find many holes in it.Believe me, I've tried. The game can be a little on the slow sidein-between games while it crunches the data from other games, butthis is only a minor niggle.I have the game windowed at the moment. Stevenage Boro have justnotched up their first away win of the season! Pleaseexcuse me now, I need to talk to the board about groundimprovements.Ah yes, jumpers for goal posts.
Isn't it?Eye Candy9/10.
. Extra MoneyGo Arsenal, buy Robert Pires for £17.5M. After getting him, go to find player, type 'Pires', and Robert Pires with a different club and only worth £75,000 will appear. Buy him and Man Utd will place a bid for the more expensive Robert Pires at a price of £23M. Accept and Pires will go to Man Utd, but leave you with a profit and the other Pires.Go a rich club such as Manchester United or Barcelona. Buy players from the club you want to make richer.