CMS General Discussion Thread

Now that I am a year into my traditional Ajax career, it's time to think about a second... I would like it to be a lower tier team in one of the bigger countries.

I narrowed it down to four (places I have visited for work, study or leisure)

• Hertha Berlin (2. Bundesliga)
• Tenerife (La Liga 2)
• QPR (Championship)
• Bordeaux (Ligue 2)

I won't do Serie B, because that wouldn't be too original after the Samp-story. Alternative is a smaller league: that my Polish alter-ego Marzec returns to Poland to go and work for the arch rivals Cracovia (as my background lies with Wisla Kraków). That's where my mind is att right now.

Good ideas. I've always thought that a city of the size and importance as Berlin SHOULD have a top class football team. And I've never really thought that Hertha fit the part. In recent years we've seen Union Berlin push above their historic level, playing Champions League football and such. So I would certainly enjoy seeing Hertha in a duel with their rivals, however likeable Union actually are as a club. I remember Hertha played a few European games some years ago, playing Brøndby among others, so historically it could also make sense to take them that far.

Tenerife also played Brøndby in the UEFA Cup back in the 1990's, as I recall. However, I would probably find it hard to see them climb to the very top of Spanish football from their location in the Canaries, but you don't tend to continue your stories for that long anyway, so I don't suppose that's a worry in this case. QPR could be a good shout, plenty of London rivalries to dive into, but with the amount of English careers here, over the years (my own included), this idea probably speaks to me the least.

Bordeaux would be a really good shout. They had some really good players a decade ago or so; Gourcuff, Chamakh, Wendel, Plasil, Gouffran, Ciani etc... Reaching the Quarter Final of the Champions League, I really liked that team. But you might want to be fast with this one. With Lyon's current position, I'm really quite taken by the idea of relegating them and taking them back to the top (currently 18th in Ligue 1). So if my (so far) short-lived Sampdoria campaign has scared you away from Serie B, then you might want to start with Bordeaux, before I get too attached to the idea of starting with Lyon 😉 

Around the turn of the year, before the winter transfer window commences, I'll start a second one. That does NOT mean I'll stop with Ajax though, that one is still too much fun. I find that with EA's subtle tweaks and my own applied limitations, career mode can still be fun.

For now, Hertha and BDX are top of my list, as those two have either the history or the potential means to make it to the top spots of their country's top league. QPR is too modest even for London standards, while Tenerife is the lesser of two Canary Islands teams.

It's not that I cannot stick to a career, but my tendency to prefer detail over time progression usually means that I can play three seasons at best. My advantage is that the players of Ajax and the Eredivisie are relatively unknown to the outside world, so essentially I could throw detail and realism overboard and no one would notice, but I just can't help it - it's too much fun providing the bucket loads of info.

---

@CO88LER5 wrote:
@Danimal5981
On a "real life" matter, I was wondering whether you'd given any thought recently to the ongoing struggles of ten Hag at United. He's not managing to achieve the success he had at Ajax yet; in fact, it seems the team has regressed from last season and quite a few fans are now questioning the signings he's made.
I was also wondering what you thought about Antony, who seems to be getting the most criticism...

---

Antony first, when I heard Man U were willing to pay the € 100 mln, I was rolling on the floor laughing. At Ajax, he had his moments sure, but that's also due to the opponents Ajax face in the domestic league. He's a playful, creative player but I think he's in over his head: midtable Spanish team is where see him end up, or a top team in a smaller league.

About Ten Hag: it draws back to how we fill in the role of head coach in Holland. That somehow is incompatible with how they do things in England, which is why Erik ten Hag, Ronald Koeman, Louis van Gaal and Ruud Gullit have all fallen short. Guus Hiddink is the only one who was an actual 'manager' more than he was a 'head coach' but he only worked on temporary base at Chelsea. Ten Hag would do excellent in the German Bundesliga I believe and his approach would also work in La Liga in Span; but not in England - Dutch coaches don't do well as managers generally speaking.

Health & Happiness to all for 2024!

---

@Danimal5981 wrote:

Antony first, when I heard Man U were willing to pay the € 100 mln, I was rolling on the floor laughing. At Ajax, he had his moments sure, but that's also due to the opponents Ajax face in the domestic league. He's a playful, creative player but I think he's in over his head: midtable Spanish team is where see him end up, or a top team in a smaller league.

---

I think he actually has something that could be useful - but never from the right in a front three, he produces absolutely nothing from there. Except those 3 or 4 times, where he's cut in from the right to produce a decent shot to the far corner. It's still only 3 or 4 successes out of 1000 attempts.

But with his excellent work rate and actually being quite decent holding onto the ball, I could see him become a decent player on the left. Not in a front three, but as a left wing back in a back 5 (or LM in 3-4-3 or whatever name one would use for these formations). I don't know if it's a stretch, with him having never played that position before (I think), but that would be my only way out of just writing him off as a gigantic flop.

@CO88LER5  He was set on signing Daley Blind and Dusan Tadic; those are really his signings. Apart from that it was a three-man effort: Edwin van der Sar (CEO), Marc Overmars (Director of Football) and Erik ten Hag (Head coach) all had to agree, otherwise a transfer would not happen. Out of those three, Overmars was the most determining factor.

But, you do need to remember that when he moved to Ajax, we were halfway down a -then worst- season, so he had six risk-free months to make inventory of what was required. At Man United he essentially tried to introduce what he had built at Ajax (Lissandro Martinez, Donny van de Beek, Antony, Christian Eriksen is ex-Ajax Academy, Tyrell Malacia is a 'typical' left wing back from the Dutch school), except that he never had that half year to truly build.

But that's digging deeper into the fact that coaches from the Dutch school often overlook what is required in England: the role of a Dutch Head coach has more in common with a first team coach at an English side, (example) what Rene Meulensteen was to Alex Ferguson, or what Pepijn Lijnders is to Jurgen Klopp - and in those roles Dutch coaches can excel.

---

@CO88LER5 wrote:
I don't think Antony will be useful at all. I'd love to be proven wrong, though.
I don't think he has the pace for the Premier League. He was found out very quickly, that he had only one useful leg, and that was so apparent especially in the match against Nottingham Forest. Esperito Santo had him fully worked out and his team completely nullified him. We only offered anything, really, down that side, after he went off and Diallo was sent on.
Pound for pound spent, he's amongst the worst signings that United have ever made. Not THE worst, but when weighed up against the amount he cost. The problem I see with him on the left is that you need pace to get past the full back, like Giggs had, and I don't see it.

---

Well, comparing him to Giggs, an all-out winger in his prime, may also be a bit off what I was suggesting. I wouldn't play him up there, making him beat defenders like that, 'cause he can't. But a bit further down the left flank, at a wingback or wide position, where his work rate and energetic approach could come in handy, that would be my take to get the best from a terrible situation.

@JustinCase0110Understood.

I was comparing him to what ten Hag seems to want from him.

The question regarding playing further back is how well he can tackle, I suppose.
It's unfortunate for the lad, but I just think he's not cut out for Premier League football.

In my Rangers thread I teased that I got drawn towards a (-nother) Man United career due to their poor performances IRL. So I've started a save, not knowing if I wanted to make it a story or not, thinking that I might do that, if things proved to be difficult. And the start has been absolutely dreadful, so I suppose a story could make sense somehow. Rangers is still my main story-thread, I think, and the other will be one I'll visit from time to time, when I feel like it.

Back in the hope of finding my CM mojo back, in fairness I completely lost interest in the game for a while mainly cause been too busy. Been playing my Blackburn career here and there just hadn't done anything regarding notes. Began a new season today so left an update for previous season and will try and update from current season soon too whilst also attempting to play catch up with careers here..I can't promise I'll go all the way back, but good to see there still a couple going on

---

@thurlow885 wrote:

Back in the hope of finding my CM mojo back, in fairness I completely lost interest in the game for a while mainly cause been too busy. Been playing my Blackburn career here and there just hadn't done anything regarding notes. Began a new season today so left an update for previous season and will try and update from current season soon too whilst also attempting to play catch up with careers here..I can't promise I'll go all the way back, but good to see there still a couple going on

---

Welcome back mate! I hope you find this mojo that you seek, and I look forward to see what you do with Blackburn in the Prem.

---

@JustinCase0110 wrote:

---

@thurlow885 wrote:

Back in the hope of finding my CM mojo back, in fairness I completely lost interest in the game for a while mainly cause been too busy. Been playing my Blackburn career here and there just hadn't done anything regarding notes. Began a new season today so left an update for previous season and will try and update from current season soon too whilst also attempting to play catch up with careers here..I can't promise I'll go all the way back, but good to see there still a couple going on

---

Welcome back mate! I hope you find this mojo that you seek, and I look forward to see what you do with Blackburn in the Prem.

---

Thanks, forgot how much of a pain it is to format on here. Had trouble with Canvas will try again next update 

Hello all, good to see the usual crew is still here. I'm kicking around the idea of starting a Spurs career and trying to play it extremely realistic with very difficult transfer restrictions to try stopping myself from getting bored.

I don't think I've played FIFA since my Sunderland career in October when I had to stop because of the games issues but it sounds like patches have improved things. 

@Stlducks4
Go for it. It'll be good to see some more stories on here...

As far as the game is concerned, there are still irritations, and the like, but the thing is better than '23, for sure.

---

@Stlducks4 wrote:

Hello all, good to see the usual crew is still here. I'm kicking around the idea of starting a Spurs career and trying to play it extremely realistic with very difficult transfer restrictions to try stopping myself from getting bored.

I don't think I've played FIFA since my Sunderland career in October when I had to stop because of the games issues but it sounds like patches have improved things. 

---

Well, there have been some improvements, I guess. For instance, I'm also playing with a national team, and somehow the players in the national team, who also played for the club, I managed, couldn't restitute whilst away on international duty. That was a bummer, since I have/had this Scottish spine in Rangers, and I wanted to use the same players in Scotland's 11, obviously. But it seems this issue has been fixed, as I haven't been bugged by it for several seasons now.

I don't know which game issues, you are referring to, but I would probably expect some of them still to be there. Cause I haven't seen that many changes from the initial release, to be honest.

But hey, welcome back! I hope you get something up and running, as it's always more fun with a few more careers to follow.

KdB comes back and turns the game around after missing with injury. He's a special player.

In other fun news, it is -14 F degrees where I live now and continuing to decline with more snow coming. Winter is fun.

@JustinCase0110 what did you think of the Spurs v United game?

---

@Stlducks4 wrote:

what did you think of the Spurs v United game?

---

I don't know what to think. Spurs were arguably the better side on the day. United don't keep possession well enough, simply throws the ball away far too often and too easily. I was happy to see United fight well and stay in the game despite this, even having a few good chances to take the win late on from McTominay. But overall I would hope for a bit more possession and control from United. Spurs should be disappointed not getting all three, when they were clearly the better team. But United can also be disappointed to concede as early as they did after the break. In my opinion it's almost unforgivable to go to half time in front, then starting the second half so passively and conceding within 30 seconds or so... 

I agree that Spurs should have taken all three points but with the number of players we have missing, I was hoping for at least a point going in so I can't be too disappointed. Our bench was two gk's, a few defenders and then all academy guys who have not played yet. 

I have no idea what ETH is doing. I thought he would turn the club around and I know it takes time but the improvements are barely noticable. I'm sure there is more behind the scenes making it difficult and it is not all on him but as someone who used to dread playing United, I can tell you that feeling is truly gone. Now I looked forward to the games thinking it is a good chance for a result against a top side. 

For Spurs, I still can't believe this season. After Jose, Nuno, and Conte sucking the fight out of the club, this year is hard to believe. We have played without our best XI or best players for most of the year but keep fighting in every match. I can't wait to see what Ange does with a full squad.