Now that's something else!
Mine has longevity, but how have you done that with Swindon?! What's the ground capacity? I've moved from Stamford Bridge to the 60,000 'Zola Stadium' but for the last 10 years any expansion or move to a new ground has been blocked. Also about once every ten years I don't win the Prem and have about a 70% success rate in the Champs League.
I built the strongest winning team I could to begin with, now I'm generally trying to put out the best and youngest XI and squad that I can. So when a player hits 28, I start to think about selling or giving contracts of restricted length. If anyone can play in my starting eleven into their thirties, they really are a legend. Aaah, Zoltan Kovacs.........
Ok, sit tight. I’ll write a pretty comprehensive list of things I’ve done, many of which I hope are applicable even in latter versions of fm. And I’ve never wrote so much about it all before, so it’d be nice to spew it out.
Well for a start 2006 was easier for the lack of realism, so certain things are a piece of piss. I imagine generating money is just as easy though, but I’m just guessing.
What you’ve done, is clearly more admirable though, I won’t sugar coat it, although my previous post tried to, but there’s an element of cheating there, not so much now, but years ago there was. I don’t lose, because for long periods, a long time ago, I’d continually play the same team until I beat them and learnt how. I do still rage quit and I do go on holiday for a day when playing teams I know are a challenge - and my assistant manager always wins - with 442.
The CG is 60k currently and pretty much always at capacity. Every season I get a 3500 expansion, so I want it to be the biggest and have the highest average in time.
The A.I. would appear to stop you winning so comprehensively in more modern versions, but even in mine you can feel it happening. It’s why I used to cheat. I’d be on an immense streak and I’d be losing to some shit cunt outfit without so much as a whimper, so I started replaying those same games in real time and adjusting settings around my one and only formation until I work out how they tear me a new one. Now, because of that, I can generally get most teams cracked pretty early and can overcome an opposition lead fairly easily if I really have to.
What I do is similar in a way to you. Although I like to sell by 25 if I can. If not I may just hang onto them until they’re of no use and rotate them in and around the team.
The way I did it, was focus on money, getting it in that is. In January, every season, I search for players out of contract at the end of the season and under 25, any that have reasonable worth, or might be worth something at the end of the following season, I offer a contract to simply sell on asap. It’s free money and most will never even kick a ball for me, although might provide good backup. Sometimes they're ok, but mostly if they have no compensation, it's easy to sell them for a few million in the Jan window or next season.
Then I almost exclusively buy youths - and I can’t see any stats for these youths, but there’s a trick in finding out how god they are. I sign youths in 3 ways. Firstly the second we get a new batch of youths I go into EVERY SINGLE TEAM in the PL and champ U18s and offer contracts to all those that have value (and my assistant says are varying degrees of good - more on this shortly) or set reminders for 17th birthdays (more on this in a moment).
They only show a value for about a day, so it's easy to see the gems - this is also true for all other leagues. You have to go into each team, as player search only shows a fraction of the players in the game.
I secondly spend hours going through most teams youths on the continent and offer contracts to the best.
The way I judge quality is I offered a contract to the best scout in the game as my assistant manager, then when I offer a contract to a youth if it says "not worth while" they'll probably be shite, but if they look ok (after I request a scout report) and the compo figure seems high, I'll get them anyway as I might flip them for £1m or more in a few seasons to a championship side at worst.
If my assistant manager says "is a talented youngster” when I offer the contact, I’ll push the boat out. If I see the words “has considerable talent" I have kittens as they'll likely be world class. If he says, “needs work before ready for first team football” they’ll be good to great and I’ll be able to flog them in 3-4 years for good money or use them in my team.
Many players won’t be interested. This is not because they love their club, it’s because they've only just moved to the respective clubs and need a season to settle, or to become 17.
So the good ones I set a reminder for the day of their 17th birthday and/or the end of the following summer window and offer them double to triple what they request. Maybe it’s a bug, but I don’t think it is, but the club’s who own these kids, only offer them pro terms on their 17th birthday and therefore you can too, and they’re open to a move, unlike when they were 16.
Then whenever there's any youth internationals I go into every team’s under 21/20/18 and try to sign any new sub 17 year old players, see what my assistant manager says (obviously for all youths so far mentioned I can’t see their stats) and set reminders for their 17th birthdays if they can't or won't sign.
Essentially I have 100+ players in my team and bring in about £100-£200mm in fees every season. I have a £2b budget. The only players I sign who aren’t youngsters are exceptional players I’ve missed (and aren’t yet ridiculous money) or Brazilians as they can’t be signed until they’re 18 - obviously.
I buy fuck all at a high price, it's all youths growing up. I might some times be forced to buy if I can shift a key player at a great price, then I might be forced to spend £10m-£20m bridging a gap - although this is rare, I generally have a youth or 2 ready to step up immediately.
I try to shift most players by 24-25 as I normally have loads waiting in the wings that already play in most cups and are likely to be future world class players or thereabouts.
Pretty much every team in the PL (and most European leagues) is riddled with my players. This season I've signed 51 players (for £44m total) and sold 59 for £177m.
I do want to try a newer version, but I hate losing with a passion now and can’t deal with the non-wins! Plus, it’s just a bit of occasional fun now, I only play it for a few hours each month and I could imagine a new one being a blackhole for my time, as this once was.
tl;dr cheaters prosper.