This is just a post to review the international management which is one of the features updated from the FM Handheld original.
I have a few points to make.
1. in the UK (in real life) when there is an international at the weekend, the players who will be playing in the international play the weekend before. In FMH the player is unavailable the weekend before an international weekend. As if that isn't annoying enough, they are unavailable the weekend before that too!
example: i am managing betis
13th march (sat) - squad announced
14th march (sun) - League match missed
21st march (sun) - League match missed
24th march (wed) - League match missed
27th march (sat) - Actual international match
in this example the players miss 3 league matches when they should only really be unavailable for the midweek match before the international.
2. I have players from all over the world and they all get called up to international squads. However, only the ones playing for european international teams miss league matches. The brazilians and argentinians, although they are supposedly playing internationals too are available to play. This usually means that the team in the division with the most southern americans wins the league purely because they have the most decent players available to them.
3. International breaks shouldn't have league games occuring on them anyway. Sometimes i can not even get a team together. Because internationals miss so many league games per year i have to have a squad within a squad, players who aren't internationals just to fill the team with when all my players go on international duty. the trouble is, if you buy players who are good enough then they will become internationals too! So yeah, no games when there are internationals. especially not the champions league final which i have to play with my reserves because it occurs on an international date EVERY YEAR.
4. Actual international management is okay. you pick a squad and go through qualifying tournaments etc. The squad selector could do with being improved as it doesn't seem to have every eligible player on it especially if they play in another country.
my biggest gripe with the international management is that over the course of a world cup tournament the players fitness just deteriorates. I am guessing that this is because the tournament takes place in the summer and players don't maintain their fitness over the summer break. surely if they are playing in the world cup then they would train! as an international manager you can't train the players so you end up playing a world cup final with players who are 60% fit.
I wonder whether anyone from SI will read this and please take my points into consideration when making their next upgrade to the game which i will surely purchase!