For no particularly good reason other than "I wanted to see what would happen", I downloaded the 1999-2000 Season Throwback Database for FM20 game from [https://www.fmscout.com/a-season-1999-2000-throwback-fm20.html\] to play in FM2020. Really, I'm doing it for the nostalgia - Luis Figo, Rui Costa, Andriy Shevchenko, David Beckham, Javier Saviola, Gabriel Batistuta, Seth Johnson....
It's not a data update, it's a saved game that you download and then load up, so you can't even tweak it to begin with. There are no other mods or amendments running in the game. It plays from the start of last season, with the 1999-2000 database in place, and I'm playing the game with playable leagues in England only. As there's a 40K character limit on posts, I'll do it a few seasons at a time.
I thought I would let it play for a while and follow the careers of indisputably the three greatest players of the modern generation:
Cristiano Ronaldo, who starts the game as a 14yo old in Sporting's U19s, valued at £160:
https://preview.redd.it/t54zspcqp7l51.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=4cf40641d0bda876a8b33813202d356363f13ba2
Lionel Messi, who is just an unattached youngster joining La Masia on 1/7/2021:
https://preview.redd.it/zri6vucrp7l51.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=5dacabacb19ebecb07748200089d0b004df2eb7d
And as most impartial observers would probably agree, the greatest of this trio is currently picking up a whopping £35 a week in Man Utd's reserves - behold, the King of Scotland, Darren Fletcher:
https://preview.redd.it/u3n7limsp7l51.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=7d76ce73846101f5c4a0012ff6f14ffdb9391576
Let's follow them until they have all retired and see what happens.
Season 1 - 2019-2020
Ronaldo: made his debut for Portugal U21s aged just 14. No league appearances.
Messi: still a free agent loitering about outside La Masia waiting for someone to notice him
Fletcher: no first team appearances yet, but his Man Utd U18s team have had a good season, winning both the English FA Youth Cup and the U18 Premier Division Cup.
Premier League Champions: Man Utd
Top 6: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Aston Villa
FA Cup Winners: Arsenal
Relegated: Watford, Derby, Bradford
Top Scorers: Shearer (23), Fowler (21), Zola/Owen/Kevin Phillips (20). Hamilton Ricard was 7th with 18 goals!
Big transfers:
Stan Collymore - Villa to Lille, £6.5m
Martin Hiden - Leeds to Dynamo Kyiv, £4.3m
Gianluigi Lentini - Torino to Arsenal, £2.9m
Martin Jorgensen - Udinese to Real Madrid, £7.75m
Ronaldinho - Gremio to Inter, £8m
All in all, not what one would describe as a big transfer window. Whelming, at best.
Champions League: Barcelona 2-1 Real Madrid
Top scorer: Shevchenko (Milan), 16
UEFA Cup: Juventus
Top scorer: Nikos Machlas (Ajax), 10
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Season 2 - 2020-2021
Ronaldo: no league appearances but another 12 U-21 appearances, his season is punctuated by a series of niggly injuries.
Messi: still claiming Universal Credit but starts gainful employment soon!
Fletcher: starting to show up in the first team squad, he's made 2 Worthington Cup starts, with 5 sub appearances in the league and 2 sub appearances in the FA Cup. His league bow came against Wimbledon on 11th September. All this means he picks up his first senior medal in the league. He's currently available for loan.
Premier League Champions: Man Utd, with 104 points and 95 goals
Top 6: Arsenal (78 points), Arsenal, Leeds, Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool
FA Cup Winners:
Relegated: Middlesbrough, Coventry, Barnsley
Top Scorers: Saviola (Man Utd) 27, Owen and Shearer (22), Sigurd Rushfeldt (Newcastle) 20
Big transfers:
Rio Ferdinand - West Ham to Man Utd, £27m, avoiding all that tedious malingering in Leeds
Aldo Duschler - Sporting to Man Utd, £20.5m
Finidi George - Real Betis to Chelsea, £21.5m
Denilson - Real Betis to Arsenal, £16.5m
It's been a big couple of transfer windows in England. By the end of the January 2021 window, some of the big names on the move are:
Arsenal - signed Gus Poyet, Ivan Cordoba, Leandro Romagnoli, Par Zetterberg and Denilson
Blackburn - currently rebuilding, they have signed 11 players including Temur Ketsbaia, Darren Eadie, Richard Wright, Gary Breen and Chris Bart-Williams
Chelsea - signed Finidi George, Dida, Milan Rapaic, Vassilis Tsartsas, Paolo Vaoli, Daniel Andersson and Martijn Reuser
Everton - signed some 16yo kid called Wayne Rooney with the face of a 40yo, wonder if he's any good
Liverpool - signed Paul Robinson (full name Paul Robinson Yellow Card) from Watford, Mario Stanic, Saliou Lassissi, Dejan Stankovic, Gabor Kiraly and Flavio Mestri
Man City - larging it by splashing out on, ummm, Jon Newsome from Wednesday for £650K
Man Utd - Rio Ferdinand, Javier Saviola (for £1.5m! - he's later voted Player, Young Player, and Fans Player of the Year at Old Trafford), Deco, Aldo Duschler, Jesper Gronkjaer, Cedric Barbosa, Guillermo Pereyra and 21 yo man mountain John Carew; heartbreakingly, David May went to join Stan Collymore at Lille. Solskjaer has gone to Napoli on loan.
Spurs - have just signed George Weah to fight for a place in the team against Chris Armstrong, Peter Crouch, Steffen Iversen and Alen Boksic. Sol Campbell signed a pre-contract with Fiorentina, presumably finding it prettier than Seven Sisters Road and its immediate environs.
West Ham - signed perpetual FM faves Darren Huckerby and Tijjani Babangida
Champions League: Inter 2-0 Man Utd
Top scorer: Shevchenko (18)
UEFA Cup: Valencia 1-0 Barcelona
Top scorer: loads on 11 goals - Figo and some geezer called Guardiola at Barca; Veron, Almeyda and Diego Cagna at Lazio; and Kim Daugard at Spurs. Next up, 32 yo Boro reject Gianluca Festa, currently tearing it up at Roma.
Swivel-eyed Liverpool loon Gerard Houllier was sacked after the players lost confidence in him, being replaced by Vassilis Danhil. The Greek had one season in charge of Panathinaikos and 10 months at Deportivo La Coruna, and in January was already "coming under scrutiny for some questionable tactical decisions." He went at the end of the season, as did Arsene Wenger after two 2nd place finishes - it's going to take a special one to replace him, I reckon. Also joining the dole queue are Martin O'Neill from Leicester, Bryan Robson from Boro, Walter Smith from Everton, and Vialli from Chelsea.
Meanwhile City finish a creditable 7th in the Nationwide First Division under new manager David Moyes, with strong showings from Chris Marsden, Andy Melville, Alec Cleland and Alan Wright. Robinho, unaware of what a potential alternative future holds, is a young player with SAN, The Club Formerly Known As Santos.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Season 3 - 2021/2022
Ronaldo: still not made a league appearance but now he is described as "the next Rui Aguas". He's currently valued at £9K and is the vice-captain of Portugal's U19s.
Messi: 10 goals in 36 games for Barcelona's B team, as their vice-captain.
Fletcher: on loan at Boro in the first division, he made 53 appearances (5 as sub) in all competitions. Nine goals, 13 assists and, most encouragingly, 15 yellow cards. He's also made 5 international appearances for Scotland and is in their world cup squad to face Colombia, Jamaica and Portugal. The midfield enforcer we know is taking shape. He's valued at £3.4m.
Premier League Champions: Man Utd (18 points clear)
Top 6: Chelsea, Arsenal (so sacking Wenger didn't work), Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool (so hiring Wenger did work) and Leeds
FA Cup Winners:
Relegated: Fulham, Bradford, Forest
Top Scorers: Shevchenko (25), Saviola (24), Chris Sutton! Chelsea! (24), Shearer 22, Finidi George 21
Big transfers:
Rui Costa - Fiorentina to Man Utd £25m
Orde Kamphuis - Schalke to Liverpool, £16.5m
Van Nistelrooy - PSV to Barcelona, £18.25m
Ariel Ortega - Fiorentina to Real Madrid, £19.5m
Mario Jardel - FCP to Atletico MAdrid, £18.25m
Champions League: Man Utd 3-1 Bayern Munich
Top scorer: Shevchenko (12), Kiko and Vieiri (10), Roque Santa Cruz and Nikos Machlas (9)
UEFA Cup: Lazio 3-2 Liverpool
Top scorer: Simone Inzaghi (14), Roy Makaay (7 - does anyone else miss Deportivo being great), and then a bunch of players on 6 including West Ham's Darren Huckerby.
"Man City splash out on record transfer" - let's take a look... £15m on Matt Murray from Wolves, overtaking the £6.75m spent on Enzo Maresca. Whatever reality it is, David Moyes' ability to spot a bargain is still non-existent. Let's see what else is happening.
Francisco Toldo and Rigobert Song have both joined Arsenal. Claude Makelele has gone to Villa; they're on a roll, having also signed Zvonomir Boban from AC Milan, Jussi Jaaskelainen from Bolton, Djibril Diawara from Torino, Lentini from Arsenal, and Andy Cole from Man Utd. Also using the overused door marked "Do One" at Old Trafford are Solskjaer, who has left permanently for Porto and Danny Webber, who has literally been sent to Coventry. 21 players have left United, most of them on loan, including Nicky Butt (Roma), John Carew (Maccabi Tel Aviv) and Jesper Blomqvist (Lazio). Coming through the revolving Old Trafford door to keep Rui Costa company are Gareth Southgate and, at age 25 and on a free transfer, the leading scorer in the Champions League for the last two seasons, Andriy Shevchenko. Opportunities for Jonthan Greening are ever more limited. Also going on a free - Ronaldo (the other one), signing for Bayern Munich and getting just the 28 goals and 18 assists in 28 games. Shevchenko bagged 46 goals/11 assists in 58 games; Saviola 33/6 in 35 games and Beckham got 21/25 in 61.
Lifelong Blackburn fan Robbie Keane joined his boyhood heroes from Coventry. George Weah obviously couldn't dislodge Peter Crouch and has already left Spurs, for Shakhtar Donetsk. Christian Ziege has moved from Boro to West Ham for £10m, the bafflingly expensive Seth Johnson has joined Wimbledon for £8.75m. Nick Barmby has gone to Celtic, Steve McManaman to Chelsea, and Jose Luis Chilavert is now at Spurs.
Large numbers of leavers have been a feature. Thirteen have left Arsenal, including the Romford Pele who went to Feyenoord, and a young tyro called Ashley Cole who has been loaned to Walsall (the only Polish club in the First Division). Twelve from Liverpool, 21 from Villa, 26 from Blackburn, 11 from Chelsea, 16 from Leeds, 26 from Newcastle
Arsene Wenger is the new manager of Liverpool and they're fifth in the league, so it's kinda working so far? His replacement at Arsenal is none other than former Porto boss Jose Mourinho, I bet no one saw that coming. Chelsea replaced Vialli with Alberto Zaccharoni. Houllier replaced Dave Jones at Southampton, whilst Remi Garde was sacked as Leeds manager and replaced by John Barnes - well at least they don't have Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Man City replaced David Moyes with Gary Megson - Maine Road must be an absolute laugh a minute - as City finished 11th in the first division. Stil,l at least they finished above Tranmere and Grimsby.
There's a young midfielder at SPO called Kaka with frankly terrifying stats even at this point. Robinho has already moved twice, from SAN to COR to CEC. Smeg knows who they are.
In the World Cup this year, a Beckham-inspired England knocked Italy out cold, 5-1, in the quarter-finals. They despatched Holland in the semis, on penalties no less!, before ultimately losing the final 1-0 to Sweden. The squad is full of the regular names except for a newgen third choice goalie called Ryan Doe who started at Atalanta and is now at Benfica. Viorel Moldovan was top scorer with 6 while Shearer, Henrik Larsson and Ze Roberto got 5.
Seriously though. Zvonomir Bobin is at Aston Villa. Amazing.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
Season 4 - 2022/2023
Ronaldo: finally the chiselled one has made his league debut. 3 goals and 3 assists from 16 appearances overall, plus a shiny new contract on £240pw. And hurrah - Sporting won the league and were cup runners up. 23 caps for Portugal's U21s too - not to be sneered at.
Messi: another solid season at Barcelona B - 15/8 in 34, and on £800 a week too.
Fletcher: on loan at Everton who finished 13th in the Premier League, Fletch collected 9 yellows and 1 red in 37 appearances. Nine goals suggests he hasn't started getting nosebleeds when he crosses the halfway line yet. He's on 13 caps and isn't 20 for another seven months. As befits a world cup player, he's on £11.5K per week.
Premier League Champions: Man Utd (94 points)
Top 6: arsenal, Chelsea, leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle
FA Cup Winners: Leeds 3-2 Man Utd (winning goals from Harry Kewell and Hidetoshi Nakata)
Relegated: Derby, Charlton, Wolves
Top Scorers:
Big transfers:
Daniel Andersson - Atletico to Chelsea, £30m
Sol Campbell - Atletico to Chelsea, £18.25m
Veggard Heggem - Porto to Chelsea, £16.75m
Vincenzo Montella - Roma to Chelsea, free
Andrea Pirlo - Inter to Liverpool, £15m
Christian Vieri - Inter to Man Utd, free
Kaka - SPO to Barcelona, £8m
Champions League: Man Utd 1-0 Real Madrid
Top scorer: Batistuta (Inter) and Marco Ferrante (Roma) 13, Ronaldo, Vieiri and Delvecchio 12
UEFA Cup: Valencia 3-0 Liverpool
Top scorer: Michael Owen, Santiago Canizares and Martin Reuser with 13 each
In the Big Cup Final, Robson Ponte scored the winner for Man Utd. 15yo Juan Mata came on as sub for Real Madrid to make his full debut. Unbelievably Shevchenko was not even close to being top scorer this year.
Let's have a look at some manager moves. Houllier has been sacked from Southampton with Bryan Robson warming his bum on the seat. Steve Clarke has been relieved of the Everton job with Snoozy Van Gaal starting to sell off the best players (psst - there's a kid in Charleroi's U23s you might find interesting. He's on £15 a week, so still overpaid). Fatih Terim is out at Villa and George Burley no longer has a reserved parking spot at Wimbledon.
Little Wazza played 52 games for Everton reserves, notching 5 goals and 7 assists, so he's probably not ready to give David Seaman nightmares just yet. Kaka has gone to Barca, doing 5 goals and 1 assist in his 13 games whilst the player most usually confused with him, Dirk Kuyt, is doing well (14 in 24) for Ajax. There's a young lad in Bayern's second team who is starting to post numbers - Schweini, they call him. Ronaldinho is doing okay at Inter, 11 goals/17 assists in 51.
In Scotland Steve Clarke's Celtic are doing nicely thank you, winning the league with a squad featuring Henrik Larsson, Nick Barmby, Mark Burchill, Dwight Yorke, Matthew Etherington and Craig Burley. Close runners up Rangers have a young Charlie Adam wheeling a wheelbarrow full of pies wherever he goes.
West Ham's golden generation have propelled them to 8th in the table. Carrick, Cole, Lampard and Defoe are all still there, but Glen Johnson (apparently a Defender (right), Striker (centre) / D (C)) is at Newcastle now. Former headmaster Paolo Di Canio is at Sampdoria.
And finally, Gary Megson's cheery demeanour and ready supply of witticisms have charmed the likes of Enzo Maresca and Jon Newsome into a formidable force. By which I mean City haven't been relegated yet.
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/vtohe63xy8l51.png){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/h3ozp71rw2l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/v88uk0jfu4l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/hbfhknboh9l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/kerzvsar57l51.png){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/avaywfdar8l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/p9jl6g10f6l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/lo9uyfswc7l51.png){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/91m6ifgcr6l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/t6tidz7at8l51.png){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/7nd3cjy084l51.png){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/nv3hqvgqc5l51.png){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/1jlg7d61b5l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/qws1uk4bo3l51.png){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/pe9j9uq1v2l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/1ivx28zuu7l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/w9l9xvwkk6l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/1knuf68is8l51.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/tjd5urnzv7l51.png){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/p3eth9eim4l51.png){kind=link}
![[link]](https://i.redd.it/vgwu6eoph5l51.jpg){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment