First of all, playing "careerist" was always something a significant segment of the LLaMa community did even in the heyday of 01/02. Moving to a larger club or one you liked more was always part of the ethic--if you did it ethically. I will agree that it is more of a necessity in FM than it was in 01/02. But I'm not sure that's unrealistic.
The finances of FM are, IMHO more relaistic than they ever were in 01/02. Though to be fair, back then most of the world still operated under the illusion that there would be an ever-increasing pool of TV money to bid from. That's since been shattered, along with the idea of ever-increasing transfer fees to go with that TV money.
That's the flip side we don't talk about as much. No, the ability to get big transfer kitties isn't as frequent any longer. But the transfer fees aren't extortionate for mid-range players anymore either.
Also the game makes it harder for a team to go sucessive promotions. And although I'll admit I liked taking a team up to the top flight in 5 years as much as anyone, let's be clear, that was 'never' realistic. Why is Auxerre one of the mascot clubs for LLaMas? Because they are the most famous modern example of "bar league to top flight" today. But how long has Guy Roux been at Auxerre? And it took considerably longer than 5 years even when they were on the march through the Leagues. Even more to the point, why do we have to look at the French League for this example, instead of England?
Because unless someone bankrolls your team, it simply is not likely to happen in a single manager's stay. So is it "unrealistic" to model this in the game? I don't think so.
As the relegation master noted LLM was never about staying at a single club forever, amen. It was about how we approached the game. I have to say I had lots of fun in my current game trying to bail out poor struggler's Roye with no budget and no reputation to attract players. More fun than I did with the Chateouroux in promotion duels. That doesn't mean I regretted moving, it just means that the game is fun when it is most challenging (at least, realistically challenging). So from that aspect, I think the game is, in many ways, a better sim of the sport now than in 01/02.
Not that I think it is a better 'game' yet. I'm still not entirely pleased with the tactical aspects and some of the match engine glitches. It still seems sometimes that the engine arbitrarily decides I'm due for a losing streak and invokes it on me. But all-in-all, it's the most replayable game I have in my library right now. And the most replayable version of an SI game since 01/02. I'm willing to live with the occasional desire to gravity check my computer for that.
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