Football Manager 2019 (inc. bsmaff's graphics)

Also - for God's sake make sure your lot beat Forest Green at the weekend and get yourself that last play-off place!

Unfortunately defeats to Crawley and Macclesfield earlier in the month messed up our season.
If we won those two games, which we should of done then we should be going in to the final game 1 point of Autos, instead it now looks like we are going to miss out.

It's a tough ask to beat Forest Green final day and hope Newport slip up against Morecombe.

But we will have another season now in League 2 and next season we should have a slightly increased budget and a couple of our youth players are now 18/19 and will be adding to the squad next season, one thing we have is a top academy.

It does appear you will be playing Forest Green in the Play offs on the Friday night.

The best game though is the Automatic shoot out between MK Dons and Mansfield, which I suspect MK Dons to win.
 
It does appear you will be playing Forest Green in the Play offs on the Friday night.
The Tranmere players are already giving it the big I-am. Scott Davies (our goalkeeper) is on Twitter saying "we owe them" and "they won't look forward to playing us", it gives the game away immediately (that you're panicking).

If you're a betting man, check this out - it's how I knew we wouldn't beat Bury last night.

 
Congrats on getting to the Play Off Final..

Newport are the in-form team at the moment, but you must fancy your chances against them..

P.S. It should of been us against you...
 
Congrats on getting to the Play Off Final..

Newport are the in-form team at the moment, but you must fancy your chances against them..

P.S. It should of been us against you...
If it had been against you, we wouldn't be in the final, so no complaints here... ;)

Can't quite believe we've made it - they had a guy sent off in the first leg after 15 minutes (which was deserved) and then a guy sent off in the second leg after half-time (which wasn't)... We played well, but luck was definitely on our side (Norwood missed about 100 chances in the first leg, but then scored the one that counted in the second leg)...

I realised last night that I'll be on a plane to Italy when the final takes place (my first trip abroad in ten years and my first actual holiday abroad) - so I'm just hoping there's good news by the time I land...

I'd say we're favourites, but - we were "underdogs" against Forest Green (twice) and Newport were "underdogs" against Mansfield (twice), and look what happened. The teams through to the final are the two lowest-placing play-off teams, too.

It could easily go either way - but here's hoping it goes our way! If it does, I expect there'll be a Micky Mellon statue outside the ground within the next few years - and I also expect he'll be poached by a much bigger team.

The three most important people at the club are the chairman (who's been absolutely brilliant), the manager, and James Norwood (a purchase under the first manager that the chairman hired).

I'd argue that the fourth most important person is Andy Cook, who was bought by the same manager, and who almost single-handedly got us our first promotion. He left for Walsall (in League One), averaged a goal every third game for them, and they've just been relegated.

I wonder if we could get him back, if we're the team that replaces them...
 
Mansfield were one of the best teams I saw this year, and TBH very surprised they are not in the final and getting promoted.

They were the only side who really impressed and beat us 4-1 at St. James' Park.
Your side also impressed though, beating us twice although very fortunate at our place.
Your right back was incredible that day and was all other the place all game.

Wish you the best for the final and at the moment would say your slight favourites to get promoted, although Newport done well in the cup and seem to be good in one off games that matter.

EDIT:-
Literally as I typed this Mansfield have sacked their manager???
Mansfield Town have sacked manager David Flitcroft following their defeat in the League Two play-off semi-finals.

Chairman John Radford said the decision was made with a "heavy heart".
"The decision has been made with the best interests of Mansfield Town Football Club in mind," he added.

So Mansfield although one of the biggest budgets in League 2, finish 4th in the League and they sack their manager for underachieving.
 
I decided to get 19 a few weeks ago as a friend wanted to play a network game...

It seems loans are very overpowered - in the Dutch league I've managed to win the league each of the 3 seasons so far having 7+ out of my 11 being loans. In 2021 I have Rashford, Lemar and Shaqiri and only have to pay 10-40% of the wages...

Still quite a few silly bugs that haven't been fixed (mostly with the "promises" mechanic) and overall seems almost completely identical to FM17 except for the little differences in the tactics the match engine rewards and extra tutorials for new players.

VAR is new but it's more annoying than anything - usually you get the same old "throw in, push in the back, ref checks VAR, outside the box FK" routine twice a match. Goal line technology has never resulted in a goal for or against me in 3 seasons yet you get the replay of it any time a FK is saved (as the keepers always stop them on/near the line)...

Overall I'd say that if you only play single-player then you may as well stick to an older version if you already own one.
 
Is anyone playing FM 19 Touch on ipad? I only recently bought it and i am enjoying it but the injuries are insane. I have played 2 Premier League games so far and this is the injury list...

Janssen - 4-5 mths
Son - 5 wks-2 mths
Foyth - 3-6 wks
Lloris - 2-5 wks
Lamela - 2-5 wks
Sissoko - 2-4 wks
Sanchez - 3-7 days
Wanyama - 1 day

Alli had just returned from injury but now he has a fractured jaw and out for 4-5 weeks.

I read that they had fixed the injury bug but this could be a game breaker for me.

PS. I just moved forward a few days and now it says Samuel Shashoua (who is on loan) is out for 4 months. This is stupid.
 
Graphics have now been update for July.

New updated Kits - Although there was only 3 updates - So wouldn't download if already have them
Google Stadium Backgrounds - This is new update, so could potentially be worth an update.
*New data update and includes Lampard back at Chelsea*

Download is available on OneDrive only - Website will be updated when I can be arsed #NEVER
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtsC_3_xeYYCge5l4GxONk0hw4bYnA?e=A3uuNx
 
Uploaded a new Data Update - As Greizmann joined Barcelona, but more importantly Exeter signed Nicky Ajose
Will do a new one Friday - Although you may not want this update as De Ligt will be at Juve and will no longer be an easy snap up.
 
Data update now uploaded.
Instead of posting in the forum every time I update.

Until the transfer deadline on 8th August I will upload a new update every morning at 9AM.
After the English transfer deadline, I will continue to update the Data Monday and Friday.

The update is available at the following address:-
https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtsC_3_xeYYCge5lVYb_TcHdJrSs1w

The website will no longer be update until FM 2020, as this is much more of a pain to update than the simple drag and drop of OneDrive.

As for graphics, I will not update these until 2019/2020 kits start being released.
And I will no longer update the logos and faces until FM 2020 is released sometime in November.
 
Just checked and there are a few 2019/20 kits available online so now in the kits section of Onedrive you will be able to download the new kits.

However no major leagues have been released yet, so I would not recommend the download.
Although someone might be desperate to play the Tajikistan - Takjiik League with the 2020 kits.
Now how many years will it take FIFA to have that league?
 
@Chris Davies

No one uses this forum anymore so thought I would post something you might find interesting being an EFL fan like myself.

For those of you who do not read it below is a long article from today's Times. Pleasing to see that City do NOT get a mention.

Notts County were among the League’s founding clubs but this season will be their first in non-League football

A week before the EFL season gets under way, Bury have four registered first-team players. For a recent pre-season friendly against Nantwich Town, the Shakers submitted a team sheet with 22 players named “Trialist”. Ryan Lowe, their former manager who led a buccaneering team to automatic promotion from League Two last season, departed for Plymouth Argyle this summer. So far five players, among a host who have cancelled their contracts because they have not been paid in months, have followed Lowe south to Home Park.

Believe it or not, Bury have bigger worries. On Thursday, the EFL threatened the club with expulsion in 14 days if Steve Dale, their owner, fails to provide evidence of how he intends to pay creditors under the terms of their company voluntary arrangement.

Seven days before Notts County’s first season in non-League football gets under way, the club still do not have any strips. It appears, at the time of writing, that their interminable takeover saga is reaching a conclusion, so the famous black and white strips will hopefully now be paid for and delivered from the supplier’s warehouse. Lilian Greenwood, the local MP, had approached Juventus, whom the Magpies furnished with a kit in 1903, to ask if they would return the favour. How times change. At least a fourth visit to the High Court on Wednesday over an unpaid £250,000 tax bill, and the very real prospect of liquidation, should now be averted.

Bolton Wanderers, like Bury, will begin life in League One with a 12-point deduction, the result of becoming the first professional club to enter administration since Aldershot Town in 2013. Bolton’s fall from grace has been lengthy and well documented. They, too, have a shell of a team. Players have not been paid in more than 20 weeks. A series of pre-season friendlies have been cancelled. Meanwhile, the sale of the club to the Football Ventures consortium, their prospective new owners, has been “imminent” for too long and faith in their levels of funding, and the club’s administrator, is gradually eroding.

Faith in the game’s governing bodies has been eroding for some time now too. Catastrophic mismanagement by owners with dubious motives and business histories, unsustainable levels of debt and a regulatory framework that looks increasingly unfit for purpose does not paint a pretty picture.

To travel around the country last season left no doubt about the scale of unease. Oldham Athletic, Morecambe and Macclesfield Town’s players were all paid late last season. The same is true of players of Oxford United, Reading and Southend United. Add to that the long-running disputes between maligned owners and embattled supporters of Charlton Athletic, Port Vale, Hull City, Blackpool and Coventry City, who must watch their team play their home games in Birmingham next season, and the picture is even bleaker.

Financial distress? Dodgy owners? Nothing new there, of course. More than 40 professional football clubs have faced administration in the past 25 years, some on more than one occasion. Insolvencies spiked at the turn of the century, catalysed by the collapse of ITV Digital in 2002-03 — around which time ten clubs entered administration, but since then the number in professional football has largely been in decline. Yet players, staff and bills are being paid late more regularly than ever before, winding-up petitions are being issued with increasing regularity, in part as a result of a more aggressive approach to collecting tax from HMRC. Seventeen clubs were issued with winding-up petitions in the five seasons between 2012-13 and 2016-17, eight were issued with winding-up petitions last season alone.

In the Championship, an increasingly cosmopolitan race for the riches of the Premier League meant all but five of 24 clubs ended 2017-18 in the red (in League One six clubs were in profit and in League Two eight). According to Kieran Maguire, a football finance lecturer at the University of Liverpool, in the five seasons up to 2017-18, while Championship clubs’ income and wage spend increased by more than 50 per cent, operating losses more than doubled and net losses totalled more than £1.1 billion.

A “new breed’ of owners, Maguire says, who are “prepared to underwrite losses in the short term to reach the Premier League”, and for whom “losing £50 million a year is not an issue”, has led to “creative accountants circumnavigating FFP [financial fair play] rules” — as we have seen with Aston Villa, Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday selling their stadiums and leasing them back from the club’s owners.

The nine-point deduction for Birmingham City in March for exceeding permitted profitability and sustainability losses of £39 million over three seasons may convince some Championship clubs to rein in spending. With less than two weeks of the transfer window remaining, the division’s 24 clubs have parted with about a third of the £200 million that they spent last summer. After the success of Sheffield United and Norwich City last season, who prospered through intelligent recruitment, coaching and leadership, there are hopes that more clubs may adopt a more long-term ethos.

Luton Town’s unprecedented 30-point deduction for failing to adhere to insolvency rules led to them plummeting from the Championship to the Conference a decade ago. David Wilkinson, the Luton chairman and an original member of the 2020 consortium that bought Luton from administrators, has seen first-hand the “trickle-down” effect of inflated spending as clubs stretch themselves to compete. After securing back-to-back promotions, Luton are preparing for a return to a very different second tier, where the average wage bill now stands at £28 million.

“We can’t compete with big transfer fees and we can’t compete with big salaries — if we do, we’ll end up where we did as a club before,” Wilkinson says. “We’d rather be relegated than go back to that. The club is more important than the league we’re in. So what we’ve done, at least for now, is spend a lot more on scouting and coaching, because we think that’s the only way we can compete — to be better, sign cheaper.”

In 2017-18 player sales meant that the club turned a small profit for the first time and this summer the full backs Jack Stacey and James Justin have been sold to Bournemouth and Leicester City for a combined sum of about £14 million.

In a bid to improve regulation, supporters’ groups’ have proposed a new owners’ and directors’ test that would include assessment of a business plan, relevant skills and capabilities. A code of practice on stewardship, the adherence to which would be monitored, has also been mooted. Tightened restrictions surrounding the way in which the purchase of football clubs is funded, greater protection of their assets and a bond delivery from proposed owners, which would be forfeited in the event of any default in payment of wages or taxes, have been consulted upon too. The most ambitious proposal, championed by Andy Holt, the Accrington Stanley owner, and supporters groups, is the introduction of an independent regulator, which some believe should come under the auspices of the FA, which would almost certainly require government legislation. But it is easy to be persuaded by such an idea when, as things stand, the EFL (and Premier League and National League) — which are members’ clubs, with hugely varying priorities, ambitions and agendas — are in effect self-regulatory.

Holt, Wilkinson and others admit, in private discussions with their fellow EFL owners and directors, that there is an acknowledgment that the status quo is unsustainable.

“Turkeys won’t vote for Christmas,” Holt says. “They won’t vote for something that might restrict them from having a gamble, or getting their money back. They’re of a mindset: it’s their money, they’ll do what they want. But in doing what they want, they jack up costs for everybody, including Accrington. Players, wages, gradually pumping up the bubble.”

Clubs can never be completely safeguarded. But doesn’t the game owe it to Bury, Bolton, Notts County, and the next club, to try?

Clubs in trouble

Late wage payments
Bolton Wanderers, Reading, Bury, Oldham Athletic, Oxford United, Southend United, Macclesfield Town, Morecambe, Notts County

Winding-up petitions served
Oxford, Macclesfield, Bury, Bolton, Notts County, Southend, Ipswich Town, Morecambe

Fan protests/boycotts
(last season) Charlton Athletic, Hull City, Blackpool, Coventry City, Bolton, Port Vale
 
No one uses this forum anymore so thought I would post something you might find interesting being an EFL fan like myself.
I appreciate everything you do in this thread, mate. It's not a Football Manager forum so I know interest is limited here but I'd be lost without your work, it keeps me playing FM and hopefully you'll feel compelled to do what you do for a few years to come!

As for the article - it's been coming for a long time. People predicted years ago that we'd have no Football League by now and that it'd just be a Premier League and, at best, a Championship. Because that hasn't happened, a few might be fooled into thinking everything's "still okay".

The reality, as we know being lower-league fans, is different. Of course football teams will exist up and down the country forever - because people love football, and love to play football, so it will always exist beyond the elite athletes. It's like saying golf wouldn't exist any more if every non-PGA body collapsed. People will always play sport, and some will always be naturally gifted.

But as far as (working from top to bottom) FIFA, UEFA, the FA and the Premier League are concerned - lower leagues exist to feed the finest talent to the superclubs, and at a push, the national team. Every attempt at feigning real interest in "grass roots football" stinks from the second they fart it out of their PR machine's arsehole.

I've seen Tranmere go through miracles this past five years, and I've felt as much joy as any Liverpool fan watching Klopp lift old big ears in Madrid. It was as valid. It was as much of an achievement to be promoted once, let alone twice, with largely Conference-level players.

But even now the club are transparent about the issues they face. Season ticket prices went up from the day that the new chairman arrived, because of the aims he had for the club. Fans didn't like it - and didn't believe in it. "We're in the Conference, we shouldn't have to pay that." But we've got a Championship-level stadium and we were filling ~20% of it per game, we had a few "big-boots" players who'd come back to the club after a journey at the higher levels on higher wages than most, and we had no other income to rely on.

Actually, in the Conference, we got more TV money from BT (showing our games more than anybody else's, I think - now Salford City take that crown) than from Sky in League Two and (now) League One.

Before the new chairman came along, the old one almost sold us to an old Chester City owner, who wanted to demolish the ground, turn it into a supermarket and operate a ground-share with a club 20 miles away (with 30% the capacity - admittedly, more than we needed at the Conference level, but now, it's increasing).

It could have been so much worse. We're lucky. But we're fighting a losing battle - and so are we as lower-league fans. Clubs are playthings. Small clubs are nothings.

I love top-flight football too, but as with many other walks of life, there is nobody to look into the legitimacy of the whole "money trickles down" statement (which is very clearly bullshit), and I can only see it getting worse.

I work in marketing and I read about industry developments and studies on a daily basis. One such study I read a few months ago is that football supporting has completely changed. People (younger people) support players, now. They support the team they play for, and when they switch clubs, support a new team, and they feel great about that - they're excited to go "wow, I knew everything about Real Madrid but now Ronaldo's gone to Juventus I've got to learn about Serie A and everything, wow".

It was briefly talked about in a BT Sport documentary the other month...
This one, "State of Play".

They had an interview with the chairman of Accrington Stanley and it was fascinating. An old-school man trying to inject the local community with enough enthusiasm that they don't just go and support Man United (or, I don't know, Pogba?) instead.
 
I will have to look at the State of Play documentary.

At the moment I feel quite lucky supporting Exeter, as when we went into administration and dropped down to the conference the Trust bought the club and decided the best way to sustain our football club is not through gate receipts although we normally always average around 4000.
They decided along with Tisdale at the time to develop the youth players, we now have the only Category 2 academy outside the Championship and have invested heavily in bringing through the top talent the South West has to offer as most kids in the area choose to come to us.
Last few years we had Watkins, Ampadu, Storey, Grimes to name a few who have joined bigger teams for 7 figures.
The idea is the academy has to produce a million pound player every 2/3 seasons for the club to remain sustainable.

Like you mentioned we earnt more money in the conference, as because we were a 'big team' we were televised regularly on Setanda.

TBH I have not looked at Tranmere this season, but when we went conference to L1 we started getting scouted and lost a large number of first team players as when they see you move up a couple of divisions, your doing something right and must have a few decent players.
Norwood obviously is a top player, and can't believe Tisdale let him go because of bad attitude and not developing.. Or maybe Tisdale gave him the kick up the arse he needed.
Your right back was very impressive against us last season, and looked to be a step above.

But fundamentally something needs to be done about actually filtering down the money from Prem to the lower leagues.

I have not noticed kids though now support a player rather than a team - Although when watching Italian football when I was younger I always supported who Baggio played for.

But there is one silver lining for you this season, with Bolton and Bury having 12 point deductions, you will surely remain in L1 the following season.
 
OCTOBER GRAPHICS UPDATE:-

Kits have been updated to 19/20 season and now contain all the major leagues.
For this reason the 18/19 kits have been removed and are no longer available.

Google Stadiums have been updated and are available with just the stadiums and the full pack which contains player and staff backgrounds.

Metallic Logos have also been updated to the latest version.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AtsC_3_xeYYCge5l4GxONk0hw4bYnA?e=Rsom2f
 
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