============================================================================= Championship Manager Season 99/00 English League FAQ Version Final 15th October 2000 by Rich Taylor e-mail: benoit@thecrippler.freeserve.co.uk ============================================================================= Copyright: © Copyright 2000 Rich Taylor. It may not be stolen, altered, or used for any type of profit. It may be reproduced electronically, and printed for PRIVATE, PERSONAL use. It may not be placed on a CD, printed in a magazine or any type of publication. It cannot be placed on any website without my permission.If you would like to contribute to this FAQ (you will be credited,) please e-mail me, as well as any questions, comments, or corrections, to the address above. If you use a small part of this in your own FAQ, give me credit, and do ask for permission first. The only websites that can post this are; Game FAQs http://www.gamefaqs.com Video Game Strategies http://vgstrategies.about.com The Cheat Empire http://home.planetinternet.be/~twuyts Version 1.0 can be found at http://dlh.net If you have found this guide, or an earlier version of it on any other site please e-mail me and tell me where. ============================================================================== This is my first ever FAQ for my favourite game ever. If there is anything that you feel needs to be said to me then please e-mail me as I appreciate all feedback whether it's good, bad or just indifferent. Just don't send insults as that is a very childish thing to do. Please e-mail me with any players or staff that you recommend as well, along with their details, the same format as below, I will add them in a later update. Please remember that they should be recommended for the English League, thanks. If you have read this just please e-mail me and tell me what you thought. I thought that I would write this as there is no other FAQ for this game at GameFaqs and I feel that it deserves one. I have only played the English leagues in any depth but a lot of this can be used in most leagues, but I find it easier to play the English leagues because of my familiarity with most of the players and teams. On another note, for any utilities for the game, as well as new menu bars to use through the picture editor go to www.thedugout.net for all your CM needs. ============================================================================== Revision History Version 1.0 8th October 2000 Wrote the entire thing Version 1.1 9th October 2000 Added one new formation, added a few new recommended players. Added someone else to the acknowledgements. Made a few spelling and grammar corrections. Version 1.2 11th October 2000 Updated my comedy acknowledgements. Corrected some errors. Changed the copyright notice as some people don't take them seriously enough. I am updating this a lot, I keep finding things wrong with it though. Mainly stupid spelling mistakes. Added more players. Version Final 15th October 2000 I have decided to make this the last update as CM 00/01 comes out on the 27th of October and the demo is already out. I haven't included as much as I would have liked as I have been busy playing the demo of CM 00/01 and it is fantastic you can download it now from www.thedugout.net. I have also been busy setting up my two Fansites. The first one is for John Shuttleworth, the Northern Singer/Songwriter. Which can be found at; http://vulcan.spaceports.com/~johnshut/ My other site is dedicated to the Women of the World Wrsetling Federation. This can be found at; http://www.geocities.com/wrestling_women/ Please visit them both if you are reading this and get back to me with any feedback on them. For this update I have added more staff, and a few new players. Look out for my CM 00/01 FAQ about Halloween time. Thank for reading. ============================================================================== Contents. 1. Introduction 2. Cheats and Tips 3. Recommended Players 4. Recommended Staff 5. Tactics and Formations 6. Acknowledgements ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ My best advice for people just starting out on the game is to be a First Division team to get used to the way that the games runs. Be a good team like Blackburn, Wolves or Fulham. These teams have a decent amount of money and some decent players. It's a good idea to start in the First Division as most of the games are League games and the competition is quite level all round. Then when you feel that you have got used to the game try either a Premiership team or a Second Division team, so that you can go from one extreme to another. This FAQ will not include a section about how everything works, such as Scouting or Training as they are explained very well in the Instruction Manual and to go over them here would be pointless and time consuming. This FAQ is mainly useful for when you are running a succesful team in the Premiership, it doesn't have to be a team that is good from the beggining, like Manchester United or Arsenal, it could be a team that you have made good. Just as long as it hasn't taken too long as the players that I will recommend later on might be a bit too old. I have done very well in this game with Manchester United, Leeds United, Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion (I did take me 5 seasons to get them promoted though). So that will be the basis of what I will go on. I have also managed the French national side to wins in the Olympics and the European Championships while I was managing Leeds, but that can get quite hectic and confusing so I won't go into detail about managing national sides. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. Cheats and Tips ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *To manage a national side without having them ask you. When you are picking a team to manage, click on a team name and then click on a player of the nationality of the Country you want to manage and then click on the nationality then click on Take Control. E.g. If you want to take over Emgland, clicl on Arsenal, click on David Seaman, and then click on English to go to the squad of the national team, the click on Take Control. This can be done for any country that you are running a league from, but Wales, Ireland and Northeren Ireland can be managed just by running the English League alone. *Get players for free. When you bid for a player make a high bid that will definitely be accepted, even if you don't have enough money. When the offer is accepted go to the Offer Contract screen and when you are on the first screen (the one with the player status on it, i.e. Indispensible, Important, Squad Player etc) click on the players name, then go to action and withdraw the bid. Then, while still on the player stats screen, go to action, go to Bid For Player and bid £O for him, then click on OK. Click on OK again and you will be back on the offer contract screen, offer the player a contract and if he accepts you will sign him for free. *Players Fines Be careful that you fine players consistently and fairly. If a player gets a two match ban from a red card fine him two weeks wages. If a player plays at least 45 minutes, gets a 5 rating and gets sent off for a 1 match ban, you can fine him two weeks wages, but do it seperately, once for the ban and once for the poor performance. Follow this chart for performance fines; Rating Fine 5 1 week 4 2 weeks 3 3 weeks 2 4 weeks 1 4 weeks + go back and fine him an additional week for poor performance again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. Recommended Players ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All of the players info will be laid out in the following format; Name Nationality Club Value Age If there are any mistakes on the clubs of the players, or their ages e-mail me at benoit@thecrippler.freeserve.co.uk with the subject CM99/00 FAQ corrections. There may be some errors as I have used a game update on my version so some players may have been changed incorrectly and I am going by memory on some of the past clubs. If you tell me of any errors I will change them. a)Goalkeepers. Always get a Goalie from within the EU, there are a vast number of Keepers from there and it seems pointless to waste one of the three foreigners on the Goalkeeper. Sander Westerveld Dutch Liverpool £3.3m 25 Alex Manninger Austrian Arsenal £3m 22 The keeper to buy. Incredibly consistent, and he is second choice behind Seaman, so he is very willing to leave. Expect to pay around £5.5m for him. Francesco Toldo Italian Fiorentina £5.75m 28 Richard Wright English Ipswich £3.3m 22 If you can't get Manninger, get him. Edwin Van Der Sar Dutch Juventus £6m 29 Fabian Barthez French Monaco £5m 28 My favourite keeper in the world (I am biased as a Manchester United fan though). Very tough to get. Magnus Hedman Swedish Coventry £4.6m 26 Shay Given Irish Newcastle £3.9m 23 Nicky Weaver English Manchester City £2.2m 20 b) Defenders Get central defender who are quick and can use both feet. Kieron Dyer English Newcastle £5.75m 20 Buy him now. Rio Ferdinand English West Ham £5.25m 21 Buy him as well Moreno Torricelli Italian Fiorentina £5.25m 29 Phil Neville English Manchester United £5m 22 Forget what he done in Euro 2000, he's class in CM 99/00 Bixente Lizarazu French Parma £5m 30 Lillian Thuram French Parma £5m 27 The best defender in the game Sol Campbell English Tottenham £4.5m 25 The best English defender Chris Morgan English Barnsley £110k 21 A fantastic defender for the price Sami Hyypia Finnish Liverpool £4m 26 Jonathan Woodgate English Leeds £3.7m 19 A great young defender Ben Thatcher English Wimbledon £2.2m 24 Juan Manuel Lopez (Rivihunt@aol.com) Spanish Atletico Madrid £1m 30 Quite old, but good for the price c) Midfielders Every midfielder needs to have good passing, pace and tackling or finishing. Harry Kewell Australian Leeds £11.75m 21 Jose Mari Spanish Atletico Madrid £11.25m 21 Must buy Ryan Giggs Welsh Manchester United £11.25m 26 Another must buy Paul Scholes English Manchester United £8.75m 25 A great attacking midfielder Roy Keane Irish Manchester United £5.5m 28 Just take over Man Utd it'll be easier Patrick Viera French Arsenal £7.25 23 Jorg Heinrich German Fiorentina £3.6m 30 Mehmett Scholl German Bayern Munich £5m 29 Robbie Keane Irish Coventry £9m 19 Joseba Etxeberria Spanish Atletico Bilbao £9.75m 22 Javi Gonzalez Spanish Atletico Bilbao £5.75m 25 Simon Davies Welsh Peterborough £500k 19 Matthew Etherington English Peterborough £500k 19 Buy both of these Peterborough players, Simon Davies can play now and Etherington comes good in 2 seasons. Ivan De La Pena Spanish Lazio £9m 27 Edgar Davids (Rivihunt@aol.com) Dutch Juventus £6.25m 26 A must buy Juan Sebastian Veron Argentinian Lazio £13m 24 A fantatstic all round midfielder, attacking or defending. d) Attackers They need good pace, finishing and passing. Robbie Fowler English Liverpool £11.25m 24 Best English attacker Alan Shearer English Newcastle £5.75m 29 Second best English attacker Dwight Yorke Trinidad & Tobagan Manchester United £8.75m 28 Mark Burchill Scottish Celtic £5.75m 19 Javier Saviola Argentinian River £3.9m 18 Christian Vieri Italian Inter Milan £10.75m 26 Ruud Van Nistelrooy Dutch PSV £9m 23 Sa Pinto Portuguese Real Sociedad £7.5m 27 Olivier Bierhoff German AC Milan £6.75m 31 Gabriel Batistuta Argentinian Firoentina £13.5m 30 My favourite attacker. Martin Palermo (Rivihunt@aol.com) Argentinian Boca £11m 25 Michael Owen (darthtripleh@yahoo.co.uk) English Liverpool £15m 20 Don't buy him if you aren't an English club Michael Bridges (darthtripleh@yahoo.co.uk) English Leeds £5m 21 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Recommended Staff ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I will follow this pattern for the staff; Name Nationality Age I don't usually follow the reputations of the staff as they can be overated the attributes are a much better way of finding out how good they are. All of the staff that I recommend can all speak English, which is needed otherwise they can't communicate with any of the players. Assistant Managers Terry Gibson English 36 A good assistant with good man management skills Tony McAndrew Scottish 43 The best assistant that you can get, any that are better are usually at good clubs and won't leave. Tommy Svensson (www.thedugout.net) Swedish Lars Lager (www.thedugout.net) Swedish Coaches You need 5 coaches, so try and get all of the ones that I recommend. If they won't come make sure that the ones that you get have at least 18 for both of their Coaching Attributes (Outfield players and Keepers) Joop Hiele Dutch 40 Sepp Maier German 55 Neil Bailey English 53 Antonio Pintos Italian 58 Martin Haas Dutch 34 Richard Stacey English Andoni Zubizaretta (www.thedugout.net) Spanish Ernie Tippett English Scouts Make sure that any scout you get has at least 18 for both scouting youth players and judging players potential. You need at least 4 scouts. Kit Carson English 54 Steven Brown Scottish 48 Matthew Atela English 56 Jon Burton English 38 Frans DeKat Dutch 53 Dean Gripton English 33 Shaun North English 59 Ralph Puncheno English 36 Bob Clayton American/English 45 Physios Make sure that you get 2 physios and that they have good attributes for physiotherapy and man management. Jimmy Conway Irish 53 Paul Knapp Dutch 44 Denis Circuit English 38 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. Tactics and Formations ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I always use the default tactics that are on the game, but I make the passing short. I also go to pressing when I am losing after about 55 minutes into the game. My formations differ, but always have a similar format. (These formations only really work when you have good solid midfielders). Formation 1 GK DR DC DC DR MC MC MC AM CF CF I use this when I am against opposition that isn't really bad or really good, i.e. Coventry. You need a really good attacking midfielder to pull this off, someone like Ryan Giggs or Robbie Keane usually fit the bill. Formation 2 GK DC DC DC DM MC MC MC AM CF CF I use this against equal oppostion as it packs the midfield and helps you win the ball easier. You need a good defensive midfielder for this, like Roy Keane or Patrick Viera as you need protection for your 3 defenders. Formation 3 GK DR DC DC DR DM MC MC MC CF CF I use this when I am away in Europe as it packs your midfield and gives the defence extra protection to try and stop the counter attack from the opposition. Formation 4 GK DC DC DC DM MR MC MC ML CF CF My mate has used this formation, it works well against weaker teams. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6. Acknowledgements ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I would like to thank the following people; Andy Stone for playing the game with me, helping me master it and for putting up with my mood swings when I lose. Perkin Doorknocker for his amusing e-mails to keep me happy. Eidos and Sportsinteractive for making the game in the first place. Kittie, Metallica, Kid Rock, Super Furry Animals and Limp Bizkit for keeping me sane as I didn't have to sit in silence while playing the game and writing this FAQ. Charisma Carpenter and Amy Dumas just for being so beautiful. (Nothing to do with the FAQ specifically, but they just make my life better). John Shuttleworth for ruling the earth. Milo. Gary Coleman. Jenna Jameson for keeping my wrists strong. Scoff Cruddle for introducing me to the beautiful game of Frogging, as Shania Twain has it, that don't impress me much. My agent Ken for getting me this gig, he is still trendy in his cuban's and with his afro and bum bag. "What's the matter Ken, have you seen a ghost?" GameFAQ's for putting this up in the first place. Weird Al Yankovic. Championship Manager Zine, a link can be found at www.sigames.com/eng. One of the most fantastic things on the Internet. (After porn). Mark Geneste for his site, www.thedugout.net.