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FA Premiere League Manager 2002
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Game Copyright: EA Sports, an Electronic Arts brand
FAQ Version 1.00 (09/05/2003)
Copyright 2003 Vadim Deylgat
Author: Modena81
E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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This FAQ may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal,
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Contents
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I. A word from the Author
II. Tips and hints
1) Tips for use of the database editor
2) Bugs and glitches
3) Transfer Tips
4) Facility Development
5) Stadium Development
6) General Tips
7) Team Management (Coming in through the main gate)
8) Team Management (Starting small)
III. Contact and Contributing
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I. A word from the author
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I was shocked to find that no one had written a FAQ for this game. I admit
there are some harder soccer managing sims out there, but some tips can't hurt.
I have filled this FAQ with my knowledge I gathered from playing this game for
over a year. When I discover some new things or I get contributions from other
gamers, I'll write an update.
This is still a work in progress. For those who want to contribute or comment
on this FAQ, see section III at the bottom. Any contributors will get
mentioned in a next version of this FAQ.
One more thing. English isn't my native language, so there bound to be some
gramatical mistakes my spelling corrector didn't pick up. If there are any
comments concerning the language or grammar, send me an e-mail and I'll make
the proper corrections for the next version.
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II. Tips and Hints
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1) Tips for use of the database editor
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- You can change every rating of every player, but be aware that the higher a
players rating is, the higher his salary will be at the start of a new game.
You need to keep this in mind when improving the ratings of a lower division
team. The salary cost might be too high for the team to support.
- You can change the starting budget of any managable team, but this holds some
risks too. The higher the budget, the higher the expectations will be from
your team. When chosing an objective, you also have to achieve a certain
bank balance. This will be your starting budget + about 15%. When you change
the budget for a division 3 team to 30 million, you'll get say 25 million
for achieving your first objective (e.g. winning the current league) and
you will need a bank balance of 28 million at the end of that contract.
You can not buy top class players and win division AND earn millions. This
can get you fired.
- What you could do when starting with a lower division team is raising the
ratings of one or a few players so you start the game with some 80+ or 90+
players and then sell them for hard currency. Use that money for the 60+ or
70+ players you need to promote to the higher divisions. This way you can
bypass the money issues at the end of the season, keep your salary structure
healthy and get some decent players.
- Increasing the size of your stadium is also an option, but don't bother with
giving a Division two team a 75.000 seat stadium, because the starting
number of active fans won't be affected and you'll end up with lots of
maintenance costs and a small attendance. You could start a game with the
team of your choice, have a look at the active supporters and increase the
seating to your active supporter number + about 2000 (for away supporters).
Then start the game again with a close to optimal stadium size.
2) Bugs and glitches
--------------------
- "The instant kill"
This bug has hit me almost every time I started a new game. In one of the
first games of the season a player will get a serious injury (often knee or
thigh) and no matter how fast you try to build a medical centre, this
player will see his career ended. This is no fun at all when this happens
to your star player (I've lost David Beckham in my first game I started to
this bug). Sometimes this doesn't happen, but there is no real way of
avoiding this bug. The only advice I can give on this one is twofold. First,
when signing the insurance, take the full package at the start of your first
season, include retirements. This way you can compensate for the player's
value. Second, save after every game your team played. If a player get's
that expected injury, restart from your last save. Do this a few times to
make sure the injury will happen over and over in that one game. The moment
won't change, but the player that gets injured will change. Only save when
it happens to a player you can miss.
- Predeterminded games
For those of you who have re-loaded a game because they found a result
unfair and wanted another chance, the predetermined game won't be new.
Some games, no matter how often you play them have the same result and even
the same course of events. The most striking example I personally
experienced was a game between my first division team versus Manchester
City. I replayed that game 15 times and every time the same player scored at
exactly the same moment. I changed startegy and field positions, but it
wasn't untill I changed some individual orders that the game had a different
outcome. You have to make up your own mind if restarting a game is cheating
or not, but sometimes the computer decides you just won't win a game and
you will never know if you don't restart. Besides the final score of a game,
an injury can also be predetermined and no matter how often you simulate a
certain game, there will almost always be one player with a serious injury.
- Not quite reaching your objectives
This is a tricky one. When you have the objective to win the current league
and you are not in the Premier League, coming in second is a real pain in
the ass. Promoting won't do, you need to win a league, so you either have to
win the higher division you promoted to or relegate and win the lower
division. Of course, relegating can cost you your job and winning the league
you just promoted to in two years isn't a piece of cake. If you feel you
won't be able to win the current league, but you can promote, let your team
slide back down and try again the next year. Unless you are sure you can win
the division above in two years time.
- The unsignable player
Sometimes when a player's contract comes to an end, there isn't an option to
offer a contract and the players stays on the transfer list, waiting for a
team. I had it happen once to a player whose contract was coming to an end.
I got an e-mail saying his contract was nearly up and asking me to resign
him. I answered the e-mail, but the player wouldn't accept my offer,
saying that he had already signed for an other team. Yet he stayed on the
transfer list, without an option to offer him a contract. And when I say
that he stayed on the transfer list, I mean he stayed there for years.
- The fast regressing player
This bug appears sometimes when you have to play a lot of games in a short
time and your players don't get a chance to train. I've seen Buffon go from
94 to 77 in three weeks time once. You can imagine that got me a little
worried. Why he went down and my other players didn't, even though they too
played two games per week, is a mystery. I've seen the same thing happen to
Thierry Henry. He regressed, even after I had him train individually. The
difference between these two examples however is that once Buffon had time
to train again, he went back to a 94 rating in one week, Henry never
recovered and in the end I sold him to a Greek team.
The lesson from all of this is not to panic if a player's rating goes down
due to a lack of training. Most of the time he will go back to his normal
rating once he gets time to train.
3) Transfer Tips
----------------
- There are some golden nuggets out there and lot's of gamers have found these
by themselves. Two well-known gems are:
- Marco Bergani, Striker
- Dimitar Balabonov, Central Defender
Just type in their names in player search screen if you haven't heard from
them yet and you'll know why they are made of pure gold. You do need lots
of money to buy them, but after a few years they tend to pop up under a
Bosman opening and you could offer them a contract.
- Other tips when using the default rosters:
a) centre midfield:
-Dejan Bojinov
(More to come in updates of this FAQ, send me your tips too!)
- Keep an eye on the Eufa Cup and the Champions League. Be on the lookout
for unlikely teams. When you spot a team that you wouldn't expect, take
a look at their roster, they might have a few players you can use.
- If you buy a non-EU player and you play him regularly for three years, he
will get EU status.
- Bringing a non-EU player to England will increase his value just because he
will be playing in a thougher competition. In any case' you should be able to
get a nice profit when you sell the player.
- Do not loan a player you intend on buying during the next transfer period.
Why not? If you loan that player, his ratings will go up in case you have
a training facility (which you should have very early on!). That player will
thus become more expensive for you to buy.
- The Bosman ruling really kicks in at the third year. Lots of players will
hit the market that are available without a transfer fee. However, plan
carefully. You have to pay the signing fees before a new finnacial period
starts. If You have to cough up 7 million in signing fees and you only have
4 million over the financial target, you will end you financial year with
a big hole in the budget. Not reaching your financial objective will get you
an angry e-mail from the chairman. Falling millions short can get you fired.
- Beware of players on the transfer list who are injured for a long time.
(Longer than 10 weeks) If you have a medical centre and a doctor, you will
be warned for risky transfers, but if you do not have a doctor to give you
advice, then you might be better off buying the lower rated player who does
have a good condition.
4) Facility Development
-----------------------
General advice:
- Don't build to close to your stadium, so you have room to upgrade your
stadium. A friend of mine surrounded his stadium with facilities and
found himself boxed in when he wanted to expand his stadium.
- Start with a medical centre, so you can hire a doctor. This greatly
reduces the risk of a career ending injury.
- Your second priority is a training centre. Now you can hire a good coach
to get your players'ratings up.
Facilities:
a) Medical Centre: A first priority for long-term management. Speeds recovery
of injured players and reduces the risk of career ending injuries. Upgrade
this falility when you can afford it or really need it.
b) Training Centre: A second priority and essential if you want to develop
your players. Upgrade this facility as soon as possible when you have the
resources.
c) School of Excellence: To improve the quality of your own youth players.
A pretty good investment, but very much on the long term. If you can spare
the money, upgrade the School as quickly as possible to get the maximum out
of the local talent.
d) Clubhouse: Cheap, only one level and attracts more active fans. Put it as
close to the stadium as possible, without hindering future stadium
development. Not quite necessary for big clubs, but a great help for the
little teams.
e) Sports Shop: Increases income from merchandising. Is well worth the
investment, but it all depends on the number of supporters that attend the
matches.
f) Car Park: If your stadium is packed for every home game, you don't need it.
Only interesting if you can't seem to fill your stadium.
g) Hotel: Consider building a Hotel only when you are a regular contender in
European competitions. Attracts more away supporters when the visiting team
is from abroad. Even for big clubs this is the lowest priority facility.
5) Stadium Development
----------------------
- When an upgrade to your stadium is complete, go to tickets and change the
visiting team seats a bit. If you do not do this, the upgrade of the stadium
will not affect the attendance. If you do a major upgrade, you'll have to
allocate more seats for the visiting team (about 1/7th of the full stadium
capacity)
- Take a look at your teams info page before you decide to expand your
Stadium. How many active fans do you have? This number goes up slowly if
your team performs well, but there's no need to have a 60.000 seat stadium
when you only have 30.000 active fans.
- When you have decided to expand the stadium, take a look at the calendar
and see when your last home game of the season is. Start construction right
after that last home game, thus limiting the number of matches you have to
miss that part of the stadium. Of course, this does not apply when you build
a new stand where there was none before (e.g. in corners with only lights).
- Expand the stadium in little steps, increasing the seats by a few thousand
at a time. Expanding the stadium by 15.000 seats at a time might leave you
with 10.000 empty seats during home games. Even when you play every home
game for a full stadium, upgrade in small steps.
6) General Tips
---------------
- Do not try to rush things. If it takes you two seasons to get your team into
the higher division, so be it. If you try to rush things by buying players
like mad, you will create some major money issues down the road.
- Don't be cheap on support staff. Sign the best trainer, doctor or scout
there is, these investments pay off in the long term.
- If you do not use the auto-training option, check on the training settings
at least once every two weeks. Players returning from injury won't resume
training if you don't put them back on the training shedule.
Auto-training takes some workload of your back, but the downside is that
your players keep training on the same skills week after week.
7) Team Management (Coming in through the main gate)
----------------------------------------------------
What I mean by "coming through the main gate" is starting with a team like
Manchester United, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Juventus or Bayern Munich. There is
no great challenge in coaching Man United to a Champions League win in this
game. You start with world class players, a ton of money, a big stadium and
lot's of loyal supporters. However, there are some guidelines you should
keep in mind.
- You have lot's of money, but don't spend it all at once. Don't start by
buying Ronaldo, just because you want him. Do you need him? Are you prepared
to sell another player later on to achieve your financial objective? If you
start a game with a big team, go training first, then you can go shopping.
- Start by building facilities and pitch upgrades, you can afford them and
your team will benefit greatly.
- Try to find a balance between young talent and more mature effeciency. You
could theoretically build a team with only 90+ rating players, but these
players will be in their late twenties and early thirties. Do not forget to
plan for the future by giving your youth players playing time or skimming
the market for the next Ronaldo.
- If you are a genuine contender for the championship or a European cup, don't
put a lot of effort in the domestic cup(s). Don't tire your best players in
a chase for yet another trophy, you could be left with no trophy at all at
the end of the season. Play the domestic cup(s) with your reserves and
younger players so that they get a chance to show their potential. This
advice is not relevant when your objective is to win a domestic cup or to do
a "double" or "treble".
8) Team Management (Starting small)
-----------------------------------
Starting small, here's the real challenge, get a 3rd division team in the
Premiership and then win it. Or try to win the Champions League with an Italian
second division team. You start with less supporters, average (or just plain
bad) players, and a real tight budget. If you want to try this, here's some
tips.
- If you have players of similar quality, but one is younger, start the youth.
There is more room for progression with the young players (well, duh!) and
they could carry your team for more years to come. Starting at the bottom of
the ladder means long term planning is a necessity.
- There are some real bargains to be made in Eastern Europe, and later on you
can either sell them with a nice profit or take them with you on your way
up.
- After three to four years there are a lot of Bosman bargains. Here's a cheap
way of getting some middle class players that can help you enter the Premier
League or form the basis to avoid relegation the first year at the top.
Be aware however that signing players under a Bosman ruling is like
shopping with a credit card. You can buy lots of guys and you only have to
pay at the end of the season. Make sure you have a surplus at the end of the
year to pay for all the signing fees of your new players.
- When you reach the Premier League, you will get a lot more offers for your
star players. Don't be tempted into selling the foundations of your team.
What good does a 40 million account do when you have only mediocre players
left? You can sell some top players and try to replace them by home grown
talent or buy some lower rated players.
- Cup competitions are a good source of extra money if you can get far or draw
a big team, but they also put an extra load on your players. Sometimes it
just isn't worth tiring your players in an attempt to upset for instance
Arsenal in the F.A. cup.
"Winning a domestic cup" can be an interesting objective to pursue, this is
especially true when coaching in England. Almost every division has a cup
competition and almost every team has a chance to win a cup. The Conference
cup should be doable for every conference team. The Challenge Shield can be
won by any third or second division team. First division teams should focus
on the League cup or if they are really talented, try for the F.A. Cup.
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III. Contact and Contributing
-----------------------------
For questions, comments or contributions, there's only one address:
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If you make a valuable addition to this FAQ, you'll get your name in it.
