It’s a weekend night, my eyes are tiring and I’m gazing across internet discussion boards, Big Brother’s Big Mouth’s repetitive commentary on the most compelling and yet most unimaginative reality show on television blares in the background as Russell Brand makes another shitty remark regarding his ”dicksacks”.

It’s been two and a half hours of playing FM06, my favourite version of the game ever and as I beat Tottenham 6-1 in the premier league with my rejuvenated youth-based Manchester United in the second season, I let my hand wander around my desk, rummagging for sustanance in the form of cheesy Doritos or half a pint of Pepsi Max.

I decide to surrender to MSN messenger and turn it offline, only seven contacts online and none of them relatively talkative and most probably away having a drunken pish. The FM scene is dry with activity, the odd Australian forumer having his say whilst he enjoys the daylight whilst I try and make it through the late evening and into the night, hopelessly addicted to the game at hand.

This however, has not happened once when I play FM07- the game has been a disappointment, merely FM06 with what is in my opinion, a poor skin despite the chorus of devotion to leaving the default skin as their skin of choice, and very limited new features. Feeder clubs was wanted since the days of CM4 and let it takes them four years to get it into their system and then to come up with such an over-rated feature.

Form and consistency are two words of choice that make me cry when I discover FM07, having to try and wade my way through suspensions and injuries just to get eleven professional footballers out onto the pitch, let alone spend 20 of my cherished minutes refining my tactic and personal instructions for each player just to get three past Rochdale.

My FM07 has packed in and to be honest, I’m glad in a way as it gives me a chance to enjoy my favourite PC Game ever- Football Manager 2006. So many graphical attributes, so many undiscovered gems, so much love and simplicity with a soft centre of complexity and originality; I dare you to close that FM07 and load up FM06 and you’ll realize what you’re missing. What you’ve judged to be better has betrayed your own personal judgement when you load up this gem and you realize that the old game that dominated your spare time and your computer screen is an improvement despite being a step back in time.

It’s a weekend night, my eyes are tiring and I’m gazing across internet discussion boards, Big Brother’s Big Mouth’s repetitive commentary on the most compelling and yet most unimaginative reality show on television blares in the background as Russell Brand makes another shitty remark regarding his ”dicksacks”.

It’s been two and a half hours of playing FM06, my favourite version of the game ever and as I beat Tottenham 6-1 in the premier league with my rejuvenated youth-based Manchester United in the second season, I let my hand wander around my desk, rummagging for sustanance in the form of cheesy Doritos or half a pint of Pepsi Max.

I decide to surrender to MSN messenger and turn it offline, only seven contacts online and none of them relatively talkative and most probably away having a drunken pish. The FM scene is dry with activity, the odd Australian forumer having his say whilst he enjoys the daylight whilst I try and make it through the late evening and into the night, hopelessly addicted to the game at hand.

This however, has not happened once when I play FM07- the game has been a disappointment, merely FM06 with what is in my opinion, a poor skin despite the chorus of devotion to leaving the default skin as their skin of choice, and very limited new features. Feeder clubs was wanted since the days of CM4 and let it takes them four years to get it into their system and then to come up with such an over-rated feature.

Form and consistency are two words of choice that make me cry when I discover FM07, having to try and wade my way through suspensions and injuries just to get eleven professional footballers out onto the pitch, let alone spend 20 of my cherished minutes refining my tactic and personal instructions for each player just to get three past Rochdale.

My FM07 has packed in and to be honest, I’m glad in a way as it gives me a chance to enjoy my favourite PC Game ever- Football Manager 2006. So many graphical attributes, so many undiscovered gems, so much love and simplicity with a soft centre of complexity and originality; I dare you to close that FM07 and load up FM06 and you’ll realize what you’re missing. What you’ve judged to be better has betrayed your own personal judgement when you load up this gem and you realize that the old game that dominated your spare time and your computer screen is an improvement despite being a step back in time.

The First Post Of Many….If I Can Remember My Password

Well, here goes nothing……they say the first cut is the deepest; who are they and how does that work? Anyway, let’s hope that this post does not dive you mental over the most petty of things and that you enjoy my blog, FMetc. Why the name you may ask? Well, I don’t want to be forced by my own lack of imagination to write constantly about FM, what’s wrong with a bit of sports and general life discussion whilst I’m at it?

 Now for those who don’t know me, I’ll tell you a little about myself. My name is Jamie, I don’t mind Jay or ‘hey you f***face’ if I’m getting on your nerves and my internet name across the FM scene and on other discussion boards (but never f***ing chatrooms, they’re for religious types and the sexually intrigued) is Jaygull. I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not a human seagull- in fact, the gull just happened to sound cool after Jay, so I kept it.

 I shamelessly stand by that ridiculous name, claiming it makes me feel more alive or just because I have a bitter vendetta against those who keep changing usernames in the vain attempt to have a fresh slate of people’s opinions from each forum they jump to- either that, or they are quickly bored of ”[your club there]_4eva” and they change it to something more compact or something that they read off the side of a CD album or the back of a drink bottle.

*waits for people to register under the guise of ‘May Contain Glucose’ or ‘Track 04′ because they think it will be worth laughing about, when really they’re probably the only person who has bothered to read this blog*

Anyway, moreover about my scene history- my first ever FM site was Rival Manager, an advertised site involving my recently favoured computer game and I dared to register and use my encyclopediac knowledge of coaching skills and player scouting to dazzle the members and establish myself as the most popular member on the FM scene, possibly the known universe……needless to say that the former is bulls**t and as you may have guessed, I was an utter n00b.

I proceeded to amass over 1000 posts at that haven of a site, although I didn’t seem to notice the hatred that built around the forums from the outside FM scene and like a fish in his bowl of water being slowly cooked, I found myself leaping for life and finding myself registering on many websites, whilst running my old ‘’shite” discussion board.

I then decided to take action and focused on my own website, briefly leaving Rival Manager for the comforting space of the Online Apartment, a place where I had complete control and everyone was equal, because we all came from n00bish backgrounds and egotistical top posters were snubbed for a nice bunch of lads. We missed out on becoming a top forum but we had lasted nearly nine months of activity and had a lot of good memories and a lot of good posters.

 I then took it upon myself to try and ressurrect Rival Manager, but failed miserably as no self-respecting member of the FM scene wanted to join, as Prentice quoted ”that pile of cack”. Eventually, JonB closed the site down and I decided to take TOA (The Online Apartment, are you that forgetful) to the next level and we’re currently in the process of building up the FM-Academy..I’ll reserve a nice long post about the countdown to the site and what we’re all about…if you actually care, that is.

Well, thanks for reading and for those 90% of you who clicked the link and will just lie and say it is well-written and to KUTGW (kutgawa of course being a tribal word for ”aspire to be sacrificed to the Sun God) when they really just skimmed the blog, whatever.

Kindest regards,

Jay

P.S. Don’t eat yellow snow, never pish in the wind.

The Premiership Title Race- The Climax

According to the ”experts” at the Daily Telegraph, Manchester United will win this accolade on goal difference, with both the Red Devils and the West London giants Chelsea (Chavscum, Chavski, Chevski, Chelski, Chavscumski, Oil Army etc.) will finish on 85 points.

Apparently, Manchester United will lose to Arsenal, Liverpool and Pompey, draw against Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Chelsea and Fulham and defeat Watford, Spurs, Charlton, Bolton, Blackburn, Sheffield United, Everton and West Ham.

And once again, the expert that is Tim Rich believes that Chelsea will lose only one game, that being to Arsenal, draw against Liverpool, Pompey, Spurs and United themselves and then beat Blackburn, Charlton, Boro, Man City, Sheffield Utd, Watford, West Ham, Newcastle, Bolton and Everton convincingly.

 But whatever the critics claim, football is not possible to predict. Form is only in the eye of the beholder- some say there is a crisis at Stamford Bridge, others say that even when they are running out of players in the back four, they can still draw games- it all depends on how your personal outlook is.

 One team that might make a definite push for a place high up the table this season if Chelsea and Man Utd slip up is Arsenal- I’d back them to even finish 2nd if they get convincing results against United and Chelsea and can continue their unbeaten run and go on a run of consecutive wins.

As a Manchester United fan, it pains me to believe that Arsenal will become a European super-power, but only take a look at their reserves and youth team to realize they will be regularly challenging for top honours in the future with the likes of Robin Van Persie, Julio Baptista, Theo Walcott and Cesc Fabregas maturing into international-class players…….but I’ll say it anyway.

As for the title race, I personally believe that it would be good for football if Manchester United could stop Chelsea from receiving their third consecutive premiership title- it would be unfair for a club to dominate a league purely due to their ability to conjure £250million in the transfer market and bring the likes of Andriy Shevchenko and Michael Ballack to the club without breaking a sweat (and of course, there are rumours that some particular players are going down quite easily in order to win free kicks, but that is hardly fair to comment upon).

Personally, I like the idea of a jaded Cristiano Ronaldo breaking the Player of the Month record books and lifting the premiership title after the world club, I’d like to see Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes end their careers on a high and feel hungry for silverware again, I’d like to see Gary Neville, one of the most passionate United supporters I have ever witnessed, lift the title above his head (his face when we won the Carling Cup, I swore he thought we had beaten Wigan Athletic 4-0 in the Champion’s League Final) and the jubilance of a team that despite Glazer putting us in debt and fans raging over the boardroom, the on-the-pitch performances of a young team with a nucleus of promising youth from Britain can take charge and the small squad of determined and hard-working players could overcome the odds (FourFourTwo predicted Man Utd to finish 4th and Chelsea to win the league by 11 points) and celebrate the English Premier League.

I don’t see too much hatred when it’s Liverpool and Man Utd or Man Utd-Arsenal anymore, only the odd few extremists fans that still show bitterness. It’s very much an all against Chelsea mentality now, but Jose Mourinho is relishing it and will continue to put fuel to the fire.