Football Manager 2012

[Soda Jerk]

It's a piece of piss this Primera B Nacional. 15 games in, 15 wins. My squad is great and the kids coming through are incredible. How the fuck did this lot get relegated? Worry not, River. Bastardo Grande is on course to resume former glories.

Oh, and Crespo? 'Kin 'ell! 21 goals in 15 games. BANG! BANG! BANG!

The guys upstairs make alot of decisions without me though. I flogged a load of shite reserve players so I could bring in Erick Torres from Chivas, then they decided to send him out on loan. He was definitely good enough to slot straight in, but whatevz. You could at least drop me a memo, guys. Or even get me on the blower and ask "Hey, Bastardo, you gonna be playing that little Mexican lad anytime soon, cos we could make a few quid from a season long loan? Just sayin' is all". Oh well. Hopefully he'll score a buttload of goals at Cruz Azul, or wherever he is.

We're in loads of debt though. Not sure what I can really do about that. They want to be reduce the wage bill even though I have flogged about 18 players, and brought in only 3 and promoted a few kids who get paid fuck all. I'll take a pay cut? I'll do this job for free, because I pretty much am anyway, for the love of the game. I'll donate my wages to the academy. I'll be a sporting hero, with a heart of gold. I don't think I get to make such decisions however.

[FOX]

We're in loads of debt though. Not sure what I can really do about that. They want to be reduce the wage bill even though I have flogged about 18 players, and brought in only 3 and promoted a few kids who get paid fuck all. I'll take a pay cut? I'll do this job for free, because I pretty much am anyway, for the love of the game. I'll donate my wages to the academy. I'll be a sporting hero, with a heart of gold. I don't think I get to make such decisions however.

I never did work out why you even get paid at all. The kudos of saying "I've made £1,000,000 in fake wages in FM"?

[Soda Jerk]

I totally arseholed the second division. Absolutely no idea which fucknut managed to get this squad relegated. The teams in the second division are mostly shite too. I made Arsenal's "invincible" season look like fuck all.

The damage:

38 played. 37 won. 1 drawn. 113 goals. 13 conceded. 112 points. Piece of piss. Complete and utter annihilation. Even after one season in Argie football, I have no idea what the fuck that league table even means. Why did Chacarita get relegated for finishing 15th? I have no idea. Something about head to head records over the course of the first half and second half of the season. I didn't care, just as long as I won the league and scored a fuckload of goals. The other 19 teams can get relegated for all I care. CAMPEONES! There's a 2 month winter break separating the two halves of the season where friendlies and shit are played. It's absolutely bonkers.

I swooped the Copa Argentina too, which was the fucking best, especially as the semis and the final were grudge matches against teams not in my division.

Boca got fucked over!

Then Racing got cunted in the final

Glory!! Get an eyeful of the trophy too. You can't drop that under a bus like Sergio Ramos. It's made of fucking glass. It will literally explode into a billion pieces.

Hernán Crespo, even at age 36, is still the best player on the planet. Better than John O'Shea and Papiss Cissé combined.

His ancient legs still played practically every game, only missing 3 due to not being quite fit enough. 37 goals in 35 games. 13 assists. Ridiculous, and he cost me zero pounds. The fans absolutely love him. He is an icon. He's alsmost as important to the club as Bastardo himself, but not quite.

The club are back where they belong, in the top tier, still a mountain of debt, but the squad is healthy and some of the kids are going to take over the world. Hopefully I'll get thousands of goals out of them before they fuck off to Spain.

I wouldn't turn my coat on River though. If you do, you gotta answer to these guys:

BASTARDO!

[Moose]

Wonderful post. 10/10. Would read again.

[delboy]

brilliant only went to Ibrox and beat the huns 2-1, Queen's Park march into the league cup quarter final where a tie against my parent club Motherwell awaits!

[TR!ΔNGL€ T€€TH]

So, I am into January and my mighty Cheltenham side are sitting top of League One 13 points clear. We drew Arsenal in the FA Cup 3rd round, and if you remember, we pumped them in the League Cup. I suspected that current Gunners boss Graeme Souness wouldn't make the same mistake again and field a weakened team. Well, here is what happened:

It was a pretty surprising result.

I've just splashed out a whopping £130k on a Portuguese playmaker by the name of Armando Marques, a reject of the Braga youth system. I'm fairly confident he's going to help propel my side to the dizzying heights of the Championship.

[delboy]

that's what I love about FM, taking a small club to world domination even better when you support a small shit irrelevant eternally underachieving tinpot useless team in real life and you go rip up the premier league and champions league!

Liking this Queen's Park game, third in the league and despite getting knocked out the league cup gotta say most impressed to make it to the quarters and winning at Ibrox - probably my best ever result on FM! Even getting touted for such top Scottish jobs as erm Cowdenbeath

[The Milner]

Only thing is with Queens Park is you can never make it to pro status, so there is only so far you can take it.

[Alkaline]

Only thing is with Queens Park is you can never make it to pro status, so there is only so far you can take it.

Can you not switch to Pro later on (via chairman), you always used to be able to do that in FM games?

[The Milner]

Not Queens Park, they cannot become a pro club, even in real life they will never be a full time club, only ever amature, its the ethos the club was set up in.

[FOX]

Never say never. If Queen's Park were bought by an Arabic oligarch I'd bet they'd go pro.

[Scootray]

Seem like a team with no ethos of progress. Bottling cunts.

[delboy]

I'm sure I will be off as soon as the first offer of paid employment comes in lol! On the other hand be interesting to see just how far I can take them.... not very far probably as you lose any half decent players. I did get four players on loan from my other parent club Aberdeen, all youngsters of course but tied to a 2 year loan deal with no recall clause!!!!

[The Milner]

http://www.queensparkfc.co.uk/about/history/intro.html

http://www.queensparkfc.co.uk/about/history/pioneers.html

http://www.queensparkfc.co.uk/about/history/money.html

[FOX]

All well and good, but if somehow they get a team of amateurs together and actually do something (like, say, promotion a few times) they could never cope in the top flight as an amateur side.

Of course, we all know that's never going to happen...

[The Milner]

Queens Park used to be the Scottish powerhouse a long long time ago, they were even involved in the initial SPL set up, won several Scottish cups and quite a lot of other cools stuff. I dont think even if they got to the SPL somehow, they would become a full time club, its just against the ethos of the club.

[Scootray]

No ambition. All very well winning cups when you're the only club in the country.

[Soda Jerk]

Success is against their ethos? Whose fucking idea was it to start a shite football team?

[The Milner]

Are you being serious here? Did you read the links?

[Soda Jerk]

I didn't. I can't get on them at work. I'm just going by what you've said. Even if the opportunity came about for them to grow as a football club, they just wouldn't, because it's in their mission statement to always be an amateur club?

[The Milner]

To quote,

HE minutes of a meeting held on July 9, 1867 begin with the words: "Tonight at half past eight o'clock a number of gentlemen met at No. 3 Eglinton Terrace for the purpose of forming a football club."

They might not seem the most noteworthy comments ever made, but they are the prelude to possibly the most important moment in the history of Scottish Football.

That meeting in 3 Eglinton Terrace on the south side of Glasgow saw the formation of Queen’s Park Football Club, and the start of Scottish Football.

The game had been played before then, in public schools where they had their own code and their own established rules. But it was Queen’s who really set the ball rolling.

The club set about laying down the foundation of the modern game, adopting a passing style of play which employed skilful ball control. The team worked as a unit, utilising team tactics, unlike that of their contemporaries of the day who played an 'individualistic' style of game which used kick-and-rush tactics, 'dribbling' with the ball, hacking and rough play.

It also took a decision that its players would not be paid ; adopting the motto: “Ludere causa Ludendi” - to play for the sake of playing.

That decision holds good today, with no Queen’s Park player ever having received a wage from the club.

That amateur status is just one of the many factors that makes Queen’s Park unique in world of senior football.

THE fact their players don't get paid has never stopped the club from being at the forefront of much of the history of the game in this country.

Queen's Park was at the centre of establishing the Scottish Football Association. It organised and administered the first international meeting between Scotland and England under association rules - and indeed it was Queen's Park who supplied the entire Scottish side on that very first meeting on 30th November 1872.

The Scottish side wore their club jerseys for that international which was then dark blue in colour, the same dark blue as worn today by the national team. More than 4000 spectators watched the sides play out a 0-0 draw on St Andrew's Day.

Queen's Park looked to other competitions too, and when invited to take part in the first ever English F.A Cup in 1872, they took up the challenge, entering at the semi-final stage against the famous public school side, Wanderers. The game ended goalless. Unable to remain for the replay due to financial constraints, Queen's were compelled to scratch.

The club finished runners-up in the famous trophy on two occasions - 1884 when the amateurs scored a total of 32 goals with only one conceded, to reach the final.

The final itself saw Queen's Park battle it out against Blackburn Rovers at Kensington Oval. The Lancashire side won 2-1 to lift the trophy. The following year, Queen's Park found themselves in the F.A. Cup final once more. Blackburn Rovers were the opponents again and for the second time. it was the Lancashire side who emerged victors, this time by a 2-0 scoreline.

A year later, in 1873, the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Cup was instituted, with Queen's Park as founder members. The cup competition got under way on October 18, with Queen's Park entering on 25 October 1873. This was to be an important day for the club as they opened their new ground - Hampden Park - the first of their three grounds to bear the famous name.

On that day too, the 'glorious' black and white hooped shirt was introduced for the very first time. Queen's Park won the tie against Dumbreck 7-0 and went on to win the cup for the very first time.

Outside the domestic scene, Queen's Park journeyed far and wide to spread the concept of organised football.

One such sojourn was to Ireland in 1879 when Queen's played an exhibition match against Caledonians at the Ulster Cricket ground in Ballymafeigh. The game caused so much excitement amongst the local crowd that the first Irish soccer club, Cliftonville, was founded soon after the visit. A year later, the Irish Football Association was formed.

As a club, Queen's introduced new concepts into the game such as crossbars, half-time and free-kicks, all of which were later incorporated into the modern game.

Towards the end of the 19thcentury, Association football had become the people's game in Victorian society for both players and spectators. Soon this once recreational activity was to become a profession with high stakes to play for.

By 1890 the Scottish Football league was formed, but despite being invited to join, Queen's Park resisted this new league set-up. Remaining true to their amateur ethics, they staunchly repelled the new 'professionalism' creeping into the sport and rejected joining a league that would ultimately involve professional clubs.

There was another reason for the 'amateurs' resisting the new league.Queen's felt that rather than nurture the smaller and weaker clubs, the league would ultimately cause their demise. As a club that saw themselves as pioneers of the game, Queen's Park felt they could not be party to such a potentially destructive element.

Queen's Park remained outside the Scottish Football League for several years,during which time the club found it increasingly hard to arrange fixtures, especially with those who were members of the new league structure. In effect, Queen's Park had been 'frozen out'.

The lure of regular weekly fixtures was too hard to refuse; the club eventually entered the league in 1900. That same year, Queen's Park reached the Scottish Cup final for one more time. The game, played at Ibrox in front of a crowd of 17,000, saw Celtic emerge 4-3 victors after a thrilling match.

By the time Queen's Park had been elected into the Scottish League (the First Division no less), the club was already in decline as a major force in Scottish football. The League looked on kindly to amateur stalwarts and granted them special dispensation, preventing them from relegation into the second division. At the end of their first season, the 'amateurs' finished in 8th position (on goal difference) out of a league of eleven teams. In reality however, Queen's Park did not distinguish themselves well in league football, their best season being 1917-18, when the club finished 7th in a league of 18 clubs.

Fearing the prospect that its best players could be poached at anytime by other clubs, Queen's Park had asked the League for protection for amateur players. In 1910, the club had made an official complaint against rivals, Clyde, who had made an approach to one of their players, Willie McAndrew. The league ruled that Queen's Park had the right to retain their players until April 30 each year. That ruling is still in force today.

[The Milner]

I didn't. I can't get on them at work. I'm just going by what you've said. Even if the opportunity came about for them to grow as a football club, they just wouldn't, because it's in their mission statement to always be an amateur club?

Bascially the club was set up to spread football, not to make money. Queens are one of the most important football clubs in british, possibly world footballing history for what they achieved a long time ago. Its possible we may not have an SPL or EPL without them. The ethos is "to play for the sake of playing" nothing else. They have never paid a wage since they were founded to any player.

[Soda Jerk]

What happens if they got promoted? Would they be rejected due to their amateur status? Or would they go up with the intention of going straight back down?

[The Milner]

From previous times in the SPL they would get promoted with the knowledge they would go straight back down, but the chances are very slim, with all their players being on amature contracts they can be poached at any time, and the chances of attracting good players when your not willing to pay them anything makes it even more remote, infact its amazing they do not finish rock bottom of the third division every season.

[delboy]

and I don't I bloody know they get poached all the time! I've always admired Queen's Park for sticking to their guns, just secured a play off spot in my first season in charge with 6 games to spare!