The Higher Tempo Press FM17

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Alright folks.  It seems to be in the “in thing” at the moment to announce what your plans are for FM17, in the vague hope anyone cares less and might sit there for the next three weeks or so looking forward to your first post about it.  As ever, I am a sheeple, so I am following suit.

Firstly, there will be a couple of changes to THTP before BETA gets launched and, at this rate, probably before we know anything more about the actual game.  I’ve decided to invest a small amount of cash in tarting up the old place, giving it a lick of paint and basically making the website a little nicer for passers by to enjoy.

On top of that, I have kept a little bit of my transfer budget back to go and get a few more writers to collaborate with me – the first of which I hope you are enjoying as he tells you about his plans for FC Coca Cola.

I’m also toying with an idea that could see all kinds of new content come through THTP, not just FM stuff but a few other things too.  The original idea of THTP was to be more than just FM, looking back at the old games which @www.thehighertempopress.comCM9798 has done so well, have some real life stuff on the site (which has waned a little) and basically be something a little different including publishing people’s work for them in physical form.  We’ve done a couple of things like that, but it is time to step up the tempo as it were.

On that note, if you are interested in collaborating with THTP then get in touch – I am looking for people that write about anything sports related that might be of interest – be it coaching, real life observations, games, mobile apps, FanDuel type things – anything really. From the FM point of view, I’d love to start hosting graphics, tactics, opinions, scouting reports etc so feel free to throw ideas at me.  We get a decent amount of views on the site, so although we are quite small and niche, your work won’t be completely lost in the big wide world.

Anyway, what am I cooking up for FM17.  The plan is to go for a full on career and challenge myself to see how far I can get into it before wanting to call it a day.  I’ve been dabbling with a bit of FM15 in the last week, mainly because I found it better than 16 on the whole, and I’ve been putting my idea to the test.

Many people have spoken about the desire to manage a club’s reserve team or U18 side.  Miles has always said this will never happen and that there is no interest in it.  Well, it is already available in the game in some countries.  I’ve been messing around at Valencia Mestalla, their B team basically, and seeing what you can and cannot do and it has been a lot of fun.

Mestalla play in the Segunda B, the third tier of Spanish football.  When managing them you have very little control other than the development of the players.  What attracts me to this idea for FM17 is that if I choose the right B or even C team to start off at, you’d carve out a career from the bottom up, kind of similar to Pep, or Zidane or even many of the German coaches who often started with a club’s B or C team.

At Mestalla I have had players removed from my squad and promoted to the senior squad without any warning.  I’ve had players come the other way.  I’ve seen my captain and goalkeeper sold with no knowledge the day before a top of the table clash.  My top scorer was allowed out on loan for “first team experience” to a club lower in the table than us.  I’ve been unable to sack my assistant manager and bring in my own man, and pretty much everything other than tactics and scouting for Mestalla is out of my hands.  It is different and it is fun.

I’m going down this road with 17.  Where, I am not too sure yet.  Part of me loves the absolute mess Valencia is in in real life, so it is tempting to go to Mestalla in 17 as Valencia have a fine academy squad.  Equally, I am tempted by Germany and will investigate clubs like Dortmund to see what their B team history is.  I’ll also dig around and see what other countries have a B team in lower league culture.

I’m looking forward to it, despite all the frustrations and secrecy around FM17.  That said, I’ll buy it.  Of course I will!

 

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