Oh Get A Fucking Grip

Yes TI you! I don’t normally come out as an anti-ti sort of guy. It has been my home on the scene for several months now and I love the place to bits. The scene has a thing for ripping it to pieces though. Not more than a month ago someone *cough* Shadowalk *cough* took it upon themselves to make a blog on WP and post up there feelings about throw-in. To the tune of 40 replies from sceners. Maybe he was a bit too harsh, I won’t be here, but I will say exactly what I think of TI and the attitude towards the place.

So, its stupid o’clock  in the morning, about 7 members are online and someone decides, I am not going to bed. Lets go and have some fun on TI. So they make themselves a nice spam thread and the members still hanging on happily go off and post O RLY pictures and other shenanigans that you would come to expect from teenagers looking to enjoy themselves with an alternative to porn in the middle of the night. But no, its spammy. So it gets closed by Officer Internet.

But what exactly is spam? The general meaning of the word on the cyber community we call the Internet is where someone posts daft stuff to increase there credibility or post counts, it makes your dick bigger you see. OK proper spam is annoying and generally ‘prevents’ people from enjoying the full experience of visiting a real live forum- heh- and should be cracked down on by Mods. But harmless fun is just that, harmless. Members are obviously enjoying it, so why stop? Is it for the affiliation sake of the site? If it is, isnt that a tad hypo-critical? The site offers shite all. No main-site for months on end, staff outright refuse to make any content, because there is no point. Apparently. And the general feeling of the site since oh great one Footyslayer left has gone to shit.

Oh damn, I have rambled. But its OK, this paragraph is about the mini rant anyways. Where is the main-site? Its disappeared into thin air. Danny was making it, that took ages, Slayer left. Button was making it for a day or two, he left. Then Ash is in control and there is no sign of a site. That’s not to fantastic is it?  But we seem to have lost the concept as to what a main-site is for, as seen at scene newcomer In-The-Stand. Its not just an expansion pack to your forums. Its the opposite, init. Its used for ‘content’. Just content, not what sort of content. Not a ‘I hate the scene article’ or a couple of face-packs. just content, like its some sort of homework assignment.

Its an age old legend that the staff at throw-in are biggots that have nothing else better to do than warn people. And I must say its true. Why don’t they stop with the ‘Oh my school work is getting in the way, I am leaving. Oh OMGZ guys I am back’ then post a million times a second as a member. Then get re-apointed a day later, only to warn a few people and put there serious head on. Writing a guide or an article. Or making a graphics pack, doesn’t even come into it now. Come on ti. Sort it out.

Members come to throw-in to enjoy themselves. If all they get is a warning or a closed topic for having fun then whats the point. Likewise, where is the main-site? You strive for change and a better future on a daily basis, yet you can’t go forward on a forum and lousy moderating. Members rule the place not staff. Remember that throw-in.

Oh No, I Need Some Niquitin Patches

FM is gay. I have given up on it- at least for now. I had been on a bit of a dry patch recently with FM, I hadn’t touched it for about 2 weeks, until yesterday evening. I decided to go for an easy Real Madrid venture. And it goes without saying I was about as successful as Britney Spears’ new hair cut (LOLZERS BTW). So you know what I done?

Probably not. I went in my laptop case, raked around my games case and pulled out good ol’ CM 01/02. The legend itself. If you have been active on the scene for any amount of time you will know the amount of praise this edition of the series receives. Its widely acclaimed to be the best. And if best means addictiveness and ‘wow factor’ then it certainly is the best. I highly recommend a session on this game, if you don’t have it then you have AIDS and need to click here.

Its back to the old, yet favourite, debate of mine. Is this years FM overdone? Obviously sports interactive must update the game with new features on a yearly basis. And keep up with the latest in gaming technology, otherwise competitors will just take over. An element of realism has always been the case with the series.

FM07 gives you realism alright. Realism so much that if you tell your player he is absolute shite and needs to calm his over-sexed lifestyle down to concentrate on beating Man Utd, he cries and goes in the Paddy with you for a few weeks. This, clearly, is a bad part to the virtual management system. There are good parts, of which CM01/02 lacked. Things like Feeder Clubs, 2D pitches and, well that’s all I can think of.

CM was back to basics, pick the team, send them out, set your tactic, and wait for January. It was all so much easier. OK you didn’t have much to do, but picking up manager of the year award in 2 days time is so much more rewarding than slaving away for a month to reach the same point.

Playing CM last night really showed what I was missing. It is and still is my favourite game of all time, well apart from maybe Halo. It has the power to entice you for hours on end. Its the all crucial ‘wow factor’ I mentioned earlier. Playing 6 years 6 in the past shows you not only how far we have come with the game, but how far on the footballing world has moved on. Wayne Rooney, arguably one of the biggest players in the world, is nowhere to be seen. Ronaldinho is just starting to show his true colours at PSG. It is fascinating.

If you are like many of the scene, becoming bored of the game. Then give up on it for a few days. Get your duster out and clean up CM. It is worth the 30 minute installation, which may I add seems to take forever. I don’t think I will be playing FM any time soon, at least not the next week or so. I am hooked. It feels good being back on the cyber-fags.

Tactic Requests

The latest feature of FTSL is the tactic requests page, I am sure you will have noticed the link. All information can be found on the page.

“The tactic request page here at FTSL is a sort of tactic improvement centre. If you have been working and tweaking your tactic for a few days to no avail, then if you e-mail me I will use them in the game with a team you specify and tell you where to improve and how you are doing things wrong. It is much like Reubens project on throw-in a few months back. If you e-mail me your dodgy tactics I will take a look and report back on where you need to improve/ improve them myself depending if I have the time. They will then be able for download here.”

I hope you enjoy the new feature, this will also be available at FM-Fusion, a current project I will be part of. This is only a BETA and results will be slower than what they will be at FM-Fusion.

Regards, Spike

NEW SITE BY ME LOL

Hiya guys, I am here to inform you of my new football manager website that me and my mate Fish have made. It has opened this early because of some great coding by us, I wanted it to match the forums which you should proper go and visit cause its vibrant and bustling with interesting stuff like the above poster thread and stuff. I am looking for lots of staff that can help make this site a success. I have already got lots of articles from my pals on msn that you can read until I get my finger out my arse and make some ‘content’ at a later date. The design of the website is cracking and it took a lot of hard work, so give us a chance before you all start slagging us off. We will be good in every area especially the forum. Some what are you waiting for? Join up now! You could also be mod. You are all gay as fuck if you aren’t constructive, so be nice. Enjoy

For the quicker ones of you, you will realise it was a mock up of good old Marvellous’ new site ‘In-the-stand’. And the attitude he has adopted in advertising the site. Apparently this new site of his will be a chance for him to ‘put his mistakes right’. I assume he is talking about the astounding, yet not-so-marvellous MarvellousScene. On which he ranted and raved about Politics in the scene and other shenanigans. However on the site we find nothing, fuck all. Well at least nothing new. Instead we are presented with a few recycled articles and a forum. And when asked what the plan of the site is and what makes it unique, admin and former Goal-kick favourite ‘Cammack’, bluntly comes out with absolutely nothing. And that it will take time. How many times we heard this?

New sites that come from pillocks without a plan fail. I did it with fm-stand, hopefully I am a changed person since those cringe-worthy days of my ‘scene life’. These sites are started stereotypically for ‘fun’. Fun in doing what exactly? Modding a forum and telling some n00b you picked up off the street to finish that guide on team talks for the main-site? Because that’s all I got out of running fm-stand. This is oh so similar. The admin is more bothered about the design than the content that is displayed on the site. Another common placement of these sort of sites is the ‘friendly forum’. Fm-style anyone? People can go on myspaz if they want some banter about bollocks that has nothing to do with fm.

As Caleyjag has shown the scene has acres- in this case, pixels- of room for improvement and possible ideas to enhance the scene. I don’t see any reason why I should join this site, if I want a forum I got TI, articles, we got the blogs/ FGN, downloads, Susie/ FMD, etc etc. What I and anyone else does not need is another joke of a site that offers a friendly community and a chance to be mod. I can’t see this site succeeding, but please Willo/ Jackwilson/ Marvellous, prove me wrong.

Check out the site for yourself if you really want to.

Mountains and Molehills Come to Mind

Omgzzers ti dies for a day and the community falls apart[/slight exaggeration]. I would like to- well not really, but for the purposes of this article I will- link you to this article. I know its cack and all, what with all the splelnig mistakes and stuff, but its underlying issues are what I want you to focus on… Focus, read it carefully. Right you got the issues then? OK, balls to that, the cavalry, in-ter-net.
I mean does a friggin’ site owe its members anything? No does it shite, do I ‘owe’ you 3 readers a daily article? No. Its the Internet for Gods sake. We all seem to get caught up in this fact, like Marvellous. ‘Sorry, I just could not help myself’ is a perfect example of a problem with the community. Articles like that aren’t needed, its just causing unnecessary controversy. Give it a break man. We should be talking about our best strike partners or how to win the league with £100,000. In a way I disagree with myself by writing this article, because frankly no-one cares, but still.

Throw-in being back now, after a desperate 24 hours of hitting the refresh button, it all seems a bit, well sad that we were that bothered about a site being down/ closed. The rather small incident yesturday was blown out of all real proportion and if I am honest, poorly handled by the staff if it was actually the reason it closed.

Anyways, throw-in is back and all nice now, and would be dearly missed if it were to close.

30 Things About The Scene

1. Forums can be addicting, so take breaks every few days, or you wall fall in with the ‘in’ crowd

2. Lolling at everything everyone says, its not cool

3. Never ever ever ever post in the fm sections, its for n00bs only. Off topic ftw

4. You have to be up for a bit of cyber bum now and again

5. If you are a chav, just hit the red cross now, you have to be an indie freak to be anyone on the scene

6. Writing articles whilst not staff at a site is for gays

7. You must never, ever make a topic that is the slightest bit racist or sexual otherwise affiliates with SI will cry and smack your bottom with a warning.

8. Worship and use the O RLY owl and use it as much as possible

9. You must have respect for mods, just because they are mods, if you don’t they warn you

10. Speak the Queens English all the time

11. If you think forums>mainsite then you are a nasty rebel

12. Pwning n00bs makes your penis larger, try it

13. The titles of threads should be mysterious and simple, good ones are ‘…’ ‘\o/’ ‘lol’ ‘lmao’ ‘Erm…’ ‘Ouch’. This way people don’t know what’s going to be inside these threads and click it regardless. Informative titles are for gays

14. The Blog revolution>anything thats ever happened on the scene Internet, ever!

15. Threads that include people filling things in such as their favourite member, no

16. The above poster game should include the words and phrases ‘great’ ‘good poster’ ‘good guy’ ‘good friend’ ‘need to get to know better’

17. Caleyjags new sites are better than susie ever will be

18. Post counts come in two forms, the scene legends tend to have smaller counts, and post only in scene sections. Wannabees have massive post counts, this is the option for you

19. You have to have joined the scene at least 2 years ago to be even considered a legend

20. ‘lol’ ‘omg’ ‘ftw’ ‘imo’ bbq’ ‘rofl’ ‘lmao’ << use them

21. This sig is not cool, you know who you are

22. If I posted this on a certain forum on the scene I would be warned

23. Putzy is a nice lad, but hate him, its cool

24. Not using graphics is also very cool

25. You must spend 23 hours on the forum boasting about getting pissed and smoking you do in the 1 hour spare offline time

26. The scene is great, it really is, I just think its good to laugh at yourself at times

27. Don’t agree with anything to do with football if you are a Man Utd/ Newcastle fan. Just disagree and make your own silly opinion like Shearer being a good player

28. If you are from Scotland, lucky you, your a popular guy!

29. FM is to be seen, not heard, or in this case, played

30. Nobody cares

PS. If you are offended, sorry and that. I am just trying to make you laugh while I think of a proper fm article to write

Another Friday/Saturday FM Session

Oh that doesn’t half put me in the mood for a good weekend, a good old all nighter. Just turned off fm about half an hour ago to cap off a season of fortune for my sexy Arsenal team. Finishing second in the league only to Man Utd (Who beat me by fucking 4 points, 4 points for crying out loud!) who to be fair, I suppose were better in the premiership. But its not all second place as I get Arsenal to a 2nd Champions League final in as many years, to defeat Lyon. I also won the league cup against Bolton but that doesn’t count cause everyone is meant to side youth teams in that. So a rather splendid double to start my weekend off!

Staying up all night after a day at school then a 2 hour session of football and watching the ever declining quality of TV on a Friday night, playing fm, is a strenuous act. A one that no-one, but no-one, should attempt unless prepared. It is a dangerous world out there at 4am in the January transfers. Once your main target rejects your contract and fucks off to some European shit box to waste their careers turning off and going to sleep enters ones mind many times. But on’t give in! You have lost if you do this, get some Red Bull, crisps, chocolate and a comfy seat. Kick back and manage away.

Last night went canny well, managed to stay up all night and morning and here I am. At 12.11pm on Saturday Afternoon/ morning. Pity I couldn’t online it with my mate. But its all good. Not much else to say, I would give you my tactic and team but I kept default tactics all season and its the usual suspects you would expect to sign. nothing new really. Just thought I would share my thoughts with the Blog and the community.

Until next time, be safe, look both ways. And I am off to bed. Bye Bye.

Oi, The Portal Rocks!

Whoar, well I have just read Mr.Robs reply to this article here. And I can only agree with Rob. Its not like Frenzy at all to produce such shite about scene affairs but this time the need to express their views about it. If you seen my guide to the scene on the old domain I praised Frenzy about there ability to tap into there zone and forget about the scene, so to speak.  But they have changed my mind. Throwing a mild yet powerful ‘attack’ on the portal.

Basically all I am going to do here is repeat what Rob said. But so, I want to.

The FM Portal is a godsend. Rob, daily goes around the scene and check’s for updates, every single day. Not Weekly or when he can be arsed, but daily. Just to give something back to the community he obviously cares about. For fuck sake he was nearly falling a sleep at his desk(assuming he’s not on a laptop) on Friday, but he still plugged about 15 articles. I know he check’s every day because I didn’t update for about a week and there was always 1 IP consistent. That same IP commented to my latest article, Rob. His dedication to the portal should be commended!

OK the site looks jumbled up and like shit, but so fuck. It does its job and is far better than a monthly updated site that was designed from a pinstriped suited, overweight computer geek sitting in his office. Furthermore, this business of shit on blogs or whatever illiterate was put into my brain. What? This mini revolution us bloggers are starting is shit? Explain. Because its not paid for? Because we can and will disappear when we can’t be bothered anymore? So what. It didn’t hurt anyone now did it? In-fact some of the stuff on Blogs are fantastic. Especially at Team Talk and BlogFM. The portal plug’s content around the scene. if its on Blogs then great, it gives us little guys a chance on the scene. I can’t afford to go and pay £20 per month to post up a couple of articles, I can do that here. and thankfully I don’t need to buy hosting to get noticed. Because the Portal is here.

The Portal makes life a hell of a lot easier and I thank Rob for his effort and dedication. I feel this article you have written was unnecessary. Yes this article is directly to you, Mikedadude. If it wasn’t for the portal the scene would be that, a scene. It is a community because of the portal in my opinion. The portal is an amazing asset to the community, you cannot take that away from Rob. Sure it has its down sides, but they are far outweighed by the positives.

Thank God for the Portal!

P.S I haven’t edited this due to me not having time, I also can’t be bothered, so live with the spelling mistakes, theres bound to be some.

Who Are The Big Boys Part 2

In part one I had a very tiny, small glance at 2 fantastic talents in the shapes of C.Ronaldo and Nani of Portugal, and how they are the up and coming household names in football- theoretically. But I haven’t mentioned many players in my tomorrow’s heroes suggestion box.

In 3 years time at the 2010 South Africa World Cup most of our footballing icons who we see as the daddies of the game will have retired. This year we lost, possibly the best thing to come out of France since baguettes, to the golf course- Zinidene Zidane. And more will follow him. David Beckham, the most prolific footballer of the modern era is in his 30’s and has already signed his ‘footballing death wish’ at LA Galaxy. Ronaldo, multiple FIFA player of year winner put in a performance at the recent world cup that my grand mother would be shameful of- a shadow of his former self.

Anyways, I will do this in list form. 10 infact, 10 young starlets who I have managed on FM successfully that shoul if all goes to plan become household names like Beckham, Ronaldinho, Nedved, Kahn and Zidane etc.

In no particular order

1. Jo- Young goal scorer who you can pick up from CSKA Moscow for a fair price of £10M.

2. Theo Walcott- A few years into the game he picks up form and is a brilliant asset to any team, world class ability and picks up value of £30m+ after a few seasons.

3. Dani Alves- A Spanish right back who will fill the very big boots of people like Michael Salgado as the perfect full back. Great player.

4. Joe Cole- Played like a dream at times in Germany in the summer. Hopefully can fill out to become the missing piece of your jigsaw, he did for me. He turns out fantastic with the right tactic, I rate him highly as a future ‘name’.

5. Yohan Gourcuff- brilliant attacking minded player. AC Milan fits him well and I am sure he will only continue to prgress and become, well, great! I would recommend him, after several seasons he kicks ass.

6. Wayne Rooney- Yeah OK hes been around for a while but you have to remember his age. Becoming more and more renound throughout the world and in a few years he will be unstoppable.

7. Fernando Torres- Like Wayne he is also coming to peoples attention for his ability and class. On FM he is a goal machine, I seriously suggest him, although you will be looking at £30-£50M to capture his signature.

8. Richardlyson- Reminds of the likes of Roberto Carlos, a Brazilian, which automatically makes him excellent! A dream left back and so young, can be picked up for around £4M.

9. Boyan- This lad is something special, only 15 years of age. Scored 23 goals in his first season at Barcelona C. Is an amazing talent with 20 for finishing. Will be pricey in the future so its worth splashing the cash now rather than later. Also, 1 named players are always better!

10. David Villa- See Torres to be honest, great player and by next year he will be a household name.

I know I have said some people who are making it already as big names like Rooney, and you will have heard of these before no doubt, but they are tomorrows World Cup legends. I hope I have in some tiny way helped you with your cyber career on football manager.

Enjoy

So Who Are The Big Boys (Part 1 I guess)

Who are they then? It seems we have/ are coming to the end of an era in the fm/ footballing world. A generation, if you like, of players has passed us by. The generation where your mum could name a reasonably good dream team. The generation of France 98, now 9 years ago. It was the time of Ronaldo, Beckham, Raul, Van Nistelrooy, Roberto Carlos, Christian Vieri, Pavel Nedved, Pat Vieria and others- that looks a lot like Real Madrids teams of late, interesting.

Thats gone now. When you turn on footy manager and go to player search with no filters not a lot of those used-to-be household names appear up there. Of course they are still knocking about the top and they will still give you regular quality if you have the money to buy them. However they are a dying generation. A newer breed of 1 named heroes are coming to replace them. Nani is one off the top of my head. There is even a new shiny Ronaldo forming into a fine, illustrious player at our very own Man Utd. Two or Three years ago if I was to be asked to name an all-star team that on paper could kick the shit out of any over-paid, over-sexed, over-praised Chelsea team it would have consisted of a lot of those players I named in the introduction. But that’s in the past, and the game is a lot younger and dynamic these days. Arguably the most in-form player on the planet this season has been Christiano Ronaldo. Hes been firing on all cylinders this term and will definitely be one of the bigger names in the next couple of seasons. Ronaldinho is another name brandished about as the worlds finest pair of feet.

In the latest episode of SI’s football manager- FM07- the best players I have played with are all teens/ early 20s. Not a lot of the golden oldies are shining like they have done in previous versions. Although not a lot of them are having blinders in real life. Lets have some names then eh? Who have I experimented with on fm this time around.

Using my own example to start we will have a look at Sporting’s Nani. A 19 year old attacking midfielder breaking through the same ‘factory’ as Christiano Ronaldo at Sporting. Now I asked my mother if shes heard of him and she thought I was taking the piss so, there’s the first test to being a superstar. If your mums heard of them or not. Next ‘test’ so to speak is the performance. Now I signed him at Manchester United, a club hes linked to in real life, in the second season of the game for £13M. Ever since I signed him hes played to my beautiful tactic with harmony in attacking midfield alongside countryman Ronaldo. I would certainly tip him off as a great potential superstar.

Next up is C.Ronaldo. I have covered alot with him so far so I won’t go into a lot of detail. Basically hes been a worthy replacement of David Beckham at United. A fantastic attacking minded player. He brings flair to your team and if you aren’t Man Utd then i seriously suggest you buy him. And my mums heard of him!

So anyways I have given you 2 players to look at and about 5 minutes of your life has gone, ha. I have made a list of some crackers so I will finish this when I have time. Thanks.