maevans60

{Deleted due to player naming] (LFC)

LFCfan

I really couldn't be bothered to read it once I saw player naming. You know you've broken the LLM rules. Don't do it again

gil

Nice article, except the player naming

Church

Apart from a small (by small I mean fecking enormous) quibble about player naming, (Do Not do it) I agree with you post. :thup:

gil

Good thing I read it before Pete edited it

It was actually nicely written...

maevans60

Apologies, I'll edit it out, would you forgive my mistake just this once?

Church

Yes.

Emmenaar

2nd post rule...

gil

Ouch, Pete's in a bad mood today

maevans60

Why indeed. Considering a single FM season can run into days, not including the fact that the majority of us have jobs or school and you wonder why with serious intent. The lowest league of football is not a kind place. It is a place of part time footballers whose hobbies include getting heavily drunk and kicking people. These are journeymen in their Mecca; plumbers, policemen etc all coming together to play the game they love for a pittance in the vain hope of achieving some kind of glory at the end. People like *young gun* *no fun* and *big bum* will never play at this level; they will never experience the purity of normal people going for a kick about because these boys have never been normal. And in the same way I feel that in order to appreciate the purity of Football Manager you have to learn to obey its rules, learn it the right way and ultimately learn to be a decent manager. Sure we can all take Chelsea to the top, we can all take Wigan to the top, and we can all take Darlington to the top, even Cambridge United. But can you do it under the strict rules with which LLMers abide to as if they were the two stone slabs placed in your hands by God himself? Short answer: no. “Why?” you protest, confused at how you, the man who bathed in the glory of the Swansea fans, celebrating your fourth consecutive Champions League© title in a row, could ever be dismissed as a poor manager. Well for starters every single player you used was either signed via looking through a list of filtered players, tailored to meet your needs, or God forbid acquired using cheat devices. Then there’s to take into account the resetting after losses, and don’t give me the I didn’t do that crap, no one wins four back to back Champions League© titles in a row unless they cheat, period.

You see the ultimate satisfaction when playing the LLM way is the sense of self achievement, the sense that you are part of an elite club who can genuinely say they understand how to be a good manager. LLM is about the details, it is about trial and improvement and most of all it is about a journey. Because that’s what it will be. Don’t even be so narcissistic as to believe it will be six seasons between bottom tier and top tier glory. In most cases it will be anything from 10 seasons (if you’re blessed with the luck of the Irish) to never ( the luck of the Scottish). I know it sounds daunting, and it is, but surely yet another round of “quest for glory” with a team you know all about, with all the player knowledge you have and other general prior knowledge, surely that gets boring. I know people love to win, but I’d say you’re continually cheating yourself and quite a sad person if you repeatedly play as Chelsea or other teams when you know that in five seasons you’ll be bored and start again, or not play anymore. Personally I like to challenge myself, I like the sense of achievement I get from completing a strenuous task. The age old adage that you have to experience the lows in order to fully appreciate the highs is nothing short of apt in the world of LLM.

I suppose it comes down to how determined you are to go the distance. I’m not going to lie, at times it will become nothing more than a tiresome task, trying to escape divisions and stave off the hungry administrators, but you have to look beyond those moments of despair never give up. You could treat it as a project, whereby you set aside a certain amount each day to Just Do It©. It does get easier as time goes on, but only if you dedicate yourself. For me the best part of an LLM career is looking at your snapshot screen after twenty seasons and just admiring how colourful your career has been. Famous cup runs, goals scored, best players (nostalgia is never better in LLM) these things you never really appreciate in normal play because you know they’ll happen. LLM is about dealing with the scum of football and working your way towards the rarefied level of success every person in football longs to be involved with. You may never get there, you may find that in actual fact you really aren’t good enough, I hate to say it but LLM isn’t about lying, in fact if you had to describe LLM in one word, other than “hard”, you’d probably agree if I said “honest”.

So I implore you, perturbed reader, at the very least give it a go. As you can imagine, it is not for everyone, but it opens up a whole new world that increases the longevity of your experience and gives you more to talk about, experience and achieve. The camaraderie, the passion and the wealth of learning you do will undoubtedly fill you with a sense of satisfaction that one can only achieve by playing the game “The Right Way© (me 2006). Good luck, because if anything, you most certainly will need it.