Football Manager Stories

As I listed FM as one of most favorite past time, I feel that it is only right to share with all of you some of the stories in FM forum which I have been following for a long time.

First up would be Sharpening a Rusty Blade (Book I to Book III) by Amaroq who won FMS 2007. It follows the exploits of Manager Ian Richards from the lower leagues of English Football to the heights of the Premiership with his current club Sheffield United in the Premership. He had managed three teams as of now which are Lancaster, York City and Sheffield United.

Things I love about it are that Amaroq's writing style and matching report would be able to bring you to scene of the matches as they unfolded. Furthermore, he does post regular updates.

Followed up would be Reviving the Legend by Donners. His grand experiment of bringing Rushden from Divison 2 in England to the heights to the premership. His reporting style is different from Amaroq where he gives a summary of matches instead of the a match report per match like Amaroq. However it is still an interesting story to follow. The reason why is that the basis of his team is based on youth development and not spending big as in real life EPL.

Lastly is the grand inspirtation to a lot of FM writers in the forum is flipsix3's story of leaving the past behind. His exploits of his character, Ed Allen, took him from French lower league team Pau to Boredux and then to his beloved Spurs in England. A FM classic story for those.

Now for the main reason for sharing the above with all of you is that this is another way to enjoy soccer other than watching on tv, playing it on field or on PC, is that one can add additional enjoyment to it if one writes about it.

Now for some news for football.

1. French Champions Lyon looks set for a win over Sochaux even without dead ball specalist Juninho; a win would maintain Lyon's six points lead over Bordeux.



2. A tough test in the form of Sevilla awaits Barcelona in its pursuit of Real Madrid in the La Liga. A victory for Barcelona would put the pressure back on Madrid giants; however with the return of Kanoute, Sevilla would be a tough nut to crack



3. In a supposedly dream final in the African Cup has turned into a meaningless third place match between Ghana and Ivory Coast. However it does show that the standard of play on the African Contient is improving, so that there is no such thing as a confirmed or easy route to the final.



4. FIFA would have the final say on the proposed EPL moves to take matches around the world.