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I'm thinking about current rapid developments in the world of (especially English Premier League) football.
The 'interfering chairman' feature has proved to be somewhat unpopular, yet it is realistic. Now we are getting a deluge of clubs being bought up by football-ignorant venture capitalists, and a new culture of suits in charge of transfer policy and youth development (hi Dirty Dennis). Managers are being reduced to that favourite refrain of Rafa.
If this realistic new scenario is incorporated into FM09 I fear that it would leave many players very frustrated - at the end of the day we love the game because we are control freaks.
My personal opinion is that at the end of the day FM is still just a game and should remain so. Yes it should strive for realism, but only when it doesn't massively take away from the overall enjoyment of the game.
With this in mind I think the current model for chairman interference is fine, i.e a very ambitious chairman may demand top class signings and if you fail to comply they can take the matters into their own hands and sign players for you. On the other side chairman will accept offers for players that they deem to good for the club to turn down. So I believe as it is it's spot on, all that is needed is more interaction with the chairman and fans to perhaps vent your frustration at him and that sort of thing.
In terms of realism, many things are around in the real footballing world that aren't and never should be in the game - fan violence, players missing drug tests or fighting with team mates behind the scenes, sudden player deaths etc. All of these are things that happen in real life but for me have no place in the game, the game does not suffer for them not being in there and I doubt it would suffer if the chairmen were not 100% realistic if that meant most of the gameplay being taken out if the managers (players) hands.
Personally I like the increase in realism. I like trotting along in my game for my star striker to suddenly be plucked out of my team, yes I get angry but it all adds to the addictiveness of the game etc.
I agree with chopper though that interaction is a must, as it may come to the point where I leave a club because of the chairman but can't say anything about it and the fans end up hating me.
The game can't be 100% realistic as it would drive you mad but surely the simple thing would be to introduce options in the preference section e.g. chairman interference can be switched off if you don't like it.
How about SI introducing more active suits like that fella off The Omen at Spurs and thugger Wise's role at The Toon? Do you think there should be a feature where a chairman decides to appoint some such over your head and has him take over some of the roles you consider your own?
Again IMO extra realism (to an extent) is brilliant, but there has to be the option to turn certain things off just like we can turn "club benefactor" off.
Something that sticks out in my mind is that way way back when Joao Pinto was in the game he was banned for assaulting the ref, the following version of the game you had a couple of players a season doing the same and getting banned. I think this also happened with the board takeovers in the last few FM's. I don't want things like Chairman interference becoming the flavour of the month and happening again and again in the game as this would become boring and wouldn't be realistic.
There are other examples of SI putting something in the game because it happened that season and then it happening way too often e.g. the virus Babbel had at Liverpool.
The realism only degrades when its implemented in an unrealistic way Eg the interfering Chairman.
SI must stop putting in paperthin features that can have major effects on our "hard work"- things like the Chairman interfering should be properly fleshed out- we should be able to try and veto the decision, negotiate a higher price, give reasons why the player is invaluable, maybe specify that the player must be replaced before he is sold etc.
Putting little things in like this was fine in CM3 but these days its not so impressive- SI seem to think that peppering the game with little features that are never properly realised or fully formed is good enough.
Well it isnt- it might be great to have a long feature list for each game but really for the game and the players sake SI would be better giving us fewer new features but fleshing them out more.
Originally posted by George Graham:
SI must stop putting in paperthin features that can have major effects on our "hard work"
I agree with this statement 100%. Interfering chairmen, morale, media, board confidence, etc.
These are all additions to the game that - however frustrating - would be accepted more by us if they were implemented better.
I'm not in favour of having these as options that can be switched off. This is for selfish reasons though, because if people were able to switch these things off, few people would use them, so few people would complain about them, and so little would be done about them.
I have little issue if SI introduce a poorly implemented feature providing it is then addressed in the following full version, but this is not the case for things like the media section which has been around for years (ok, maybe it just seems that way) and yet I just don't get it despite reading just about every post on the forums about it.
In a word to answer the original title qn... yes. Think about it, if things were to become too realistic, we would have a bunch of FM Rafa's!! Can you imagine if he is actually enjoying his job at the moment?
Could SI concentrate on getting the bad parts of FM08 right for 09 please? Like my chairman NOT accepting £4.1 million for my 30 goals a season 20 y.o. Championship striker?
Suggestion!: The board could meet with the manager on such occasions that they feel an offer is too good to turn down, so the manager can explain the player is a key part of the club's long term success.
Will Realism Degrade FM09? 
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