Players that you can sign for free at the very start of the game are really important if you manage any club that doesn?t belong to top 10 of English Premier League. For instance, I have signed several players for Leeds United because they will help my club and it?s for free! So I decided to prepare list of free Football Manager 2010 players grouped by positions. Goalkeepers (GK)Pablo Cavallero Other decent goalies:Maxym Levytskyi (Ukraine, 36 years)Ian Walker (England, 37 years)Scott Tynan (England, 25 years)Paul Jones (Wales, 42 years)Sebastian Viera(Uruguay, 26 years) Central Defenders (DC)Samuel Kuffour \Sol Campbell Vladislav Vaschuk Jorge Andrade Other decent central defenders:Jeff Strasser (Luxembourg, 34 years)Marlon Ritter Ayovi (Ecuador, 37 years)Roque Junior (Brazil, 32 years)Lucien Mettomo (Cameroon, 32 years)Ivan Helguera (Spain, 34 yearsBobo Balde (Guinea, 33 years)Sergiy Fedorov (Ukraine, 34 years)Dejan Stefanovic (Serbia, 34 years)Olexandr Zotov (Ukraine, 34 years)Boris Zivkovic (Croatia, 33 years)Izzy Iriekpen (England, 27 years) Glauber (Brazil, 25 years) Right Defenders (DR/WBR)Ze Maria Elliot Omouzusi (20 years old!!!) Other decent right defenders:Lauren (Cameroon, 32 years)Danny Mills (England, 32 years)Jean-Joel Perrier-Doumbe (Cameroon, 32 years)Steve Watson (England, 35 years) Left Defenders (DL/WBL)Olivier Bernard (France, 29 years)Jean-Joel Perrier-Doumbe (Cameroon, 32 years) Defensive Midfielders (DMC)German Villa Other good central defensive midfielders:Edgard Davids  (Holland, 36 years)Johan Vogel (Switzerland, 32 years)Andriy Husin (Ukraine, 36 years)Pape Diop (Senegal, 34 years)Seifo Soley (Gambia, 29 years)Amaral (Brazil, 36 years)Ivan Campo (Spain, 35 years)Brahim Hemdani (Algeria, 31 years) Central Midfielders (MC)Stephen Appiah Other decent central midfielders:Joe Keenan (England, 26 years)Inigo Idiakez (Spain, 35 years)Jermaine Wright (England, 33 years)Matt Holland (Ireland, 35 years)Gareth Williams (Scotland, 27 years) Left Midfielders (ML/AML)Denilson Other decent left midfielders:Rudi Skacel (Czech Republic, 29 years) Right Midfielders (MR/AMR)Jorge Soto (Peru, 37 years)Klever Manuel Chala (Ecuador, 38 years)Andy van der Meyde (Holland, 29 years)Hamed Namouchi(Tunisia, 25 years)  Central Attacking Midfielders (AMC)Sylvain Wiltord (France, 35 years)Mustapha Hadji (Morocco, 37 years)Ervin Skela (Albania, 32 years) Forwards (FC)Vratislav Lokvenc Ebi Smolarek Other good forwards:Mark Viduka (Australia, 33 years)Carsten Jancker (Germany, 34 years)Amoroso (Brazil, 35 years)Tommy Mooney (England, 37 years)Rune Lange (Norway, 32 years)Christian Vieri (Italy, 35 years)Goran Ljubojevic (Croatia, 26 years)PS As I have told I managed to sign several free players from this list to my Leeds. Overtaking my next post I disclose Sol Campbell is one of them .True Football Manager Click here to play

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Let?s start Football Manager 2010 story with Leeds! The first thing every new manager should do is an analysis of the squad. It has to be done at first because it will influence on decisions of tactical schemes, transfers and signings and targets for a season. So here is my Leeds United squad analysis? Goalkeepers It?s certainly the weakest line of the club. Shane Higgs and Casper Ankergren ? two pretty poor keepers that doesn?t deserve to be in the first squad. It means that I must buy a good goalie very soon!   Defenders I didn?t look through the squads of other League 1 clubs but I am quite sure that Leeds has one of the best defensive lines in the league. Take a look at Australian DC - Patrick Kisnorbo: He is good defender for Championship, I think, not only League 1. Leigh Bromby. Decent central defender with good natural fitness. He has good chances to be in the first squad if I don?t buy better DC. Lubomir Michalik is pretty average DC that will be backup player together with Richard Naylor if I don?t sell them both. Best left back in the team is Irish guy Alan Sheehan. His level is probably enough for League 1 but not for Championship. Ben Parker is slightly worse and should start matches from substitution bench. Regarding right backs I can say that there are two guys: Jason Crowe and Andy Hughes. The first one has good Work Rate and Natural Fitness values + average values of other important attributes. So he is my preference for sure.   Midfielders Jonathan Howson. MRC of 21 years old. He has quite average values of attributes but his Work Rate (15) allows me to think of some his prospects in the club. David Prutton. Another MRC. Determined pitch fighter that will start any match from substitution bench. Bradley Johnson. MLC. 22 years old. Good for backup. Most of attributes are between 10 and 13. Michael Doyle Central midfielder loaned from Coventry. And I will not cancel this loan because this player seems very useful. Neil Kilkenny is a bit better than Bradly Johnson but costs much ? $875K.  So maybe he will be sold if I need additional money. Andy Robinson. Poor AMRL with high salary of $11.5K. I have to try to sell him! Robert Snodgrass   Young Scottish star of Leeds United! Of course, he is left-right winger with somewhat poor speed (Pace=10, Acceleration=12)? But his other attributes including Work Rate promise bright future for this youngster.   Forwards 5 forwards here.  The best of them is top scorer of the previous season - Jermaine Beckford: By the way he has the highest transfer price in Leeds United - $1.4M. The second forward is Luciano Becchio who costs $800K.  Well, he is not enough for promotion from Championship but perhaps good for League 1. Prospective young striker Tom Elliott makes me to think about his destiny. From one hand he can develop in decent forward, from the other hand I can sell him for at least $325K? American Mike Grella and Nigerian Enoch Showunmi are quite weak attackers in my mind. True Football Manager Click here to play

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    What I can say? It was the most hot voting in my blog. I have been following it till the end? Newcastle or Leeds, Leeds or Newcastle? It was a great competition between voters of these two great English teams! Both clubs are very interesting to me for managing, but finally 1020 of you chose Leeds United. So I must follow your decision!   The third position is taken by Burnley with 10% of votes. Frankly speaking I thought that Burnley is one of the favourites in this poll and it should get more votes? Another surprise for me is in that the last positions were taken by Birmingham City and Wolverhampton with 5% of votes both. Not so many fans of these clubs?   Thank you, my dear readers, for you participation in the poll!  You selected a team for new story from me! Football Manager 2010 story, this time?   PS By the way I gave my vote to Nottingham Forrest in the very beginning . True Football Manager Click here to play

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I congratulate all of you, dear readers! Football Manager 2010 is available now. I have ordered it on Amazon and should wait some time till delivery. You can follow my example if you want:   Buying Football Manager 2010 Digital Download Another totally different option is buying FM 2010 digital download through Steam, IGN D2D, GamersGate or Gamesplanet.com. It will cost you more money but you will receive FM 2010 almost instantly.   FM 2010 Patch 10.1 Football Manager 2010 Patch 10.1 is announced and can be downloaded from here. In my opinion the most important changes in the patch are: - Fixed player listed as 'Unh' no longer will have no evidence that they are unhappy on their personal section. - Adjusted quality of newgens produced in both active and inactive leagues. - Fixed crash when going to squad screen after retiring - Fixed bug where Match Preview screen was missing team and competition links. - Extra-time and penalty wins now indicated on team fixture panel - Fixed players on very high wages requesting a lot less when renewing contract. - Prevented board from stepping in and accepting bids just over the basic value of the player on behalf of a manager when player was transfer listed. - Prevented big clubs from actively looking to replace their terrible third choice goalkeepers - Fixed bug where playmaker and target man roles were not being setup correctly in the match. True Football Manager Click here to play

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Today I would like to present you my list of Football Manager 2010 wonderkids and young talented players! I tried to do my best to make this list maximally useful and long. Hope that results of my research will be one of the best your sources for search of Football Manager 2010 wonderkids! Some facts:- I spent almost 8 hours to prepare this list of these FM 2010 wonderkids and best youngsters.- Research was performed using 3 quickstarts of Football Manager 2010 demo: English, Italian and Spanish.- I used different methods of player search: manual player search, U21 national teams check, usage of my FM 2009 wonderkids list, reading discussions of FM10 young talents at forums, etc.- Data about each player of the list was verified by me personally.So after all I feel myself a bit tired but happy ?  Pay attention that every week I add new wonderkids and young talents to this list! It allows you to follow the list continuosly. Goalkeepers (GK) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage Sergio Asenjo SPA 20 Atletico Madrid $6.25M $24.5K Matej Delac CRO 16 Chelsea $4.3M $90 Rui Patricio POR 21 Sporting $3.7M $10K Vincenzo Fiorillo ITA 19 Sampdoria $1.6M $3.9K Silviu Lung jr ROM 20 U Craiova $210K $550 Alphonse Areola FRA 16 PSG $12K $100 Jeroen Zoet HOL 18 PSV $1.1M $1.7K  Central Defenders (DC) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage Breno BRA 19 Bayern Munich $6.5M $19K Sidnei BRA 19 Benfica $5.25M $13K Mamadou Sakho FRA 19 PSG $9M $32.5K Kyriakos Papadopoulos GRE 17 Olympiakos $975K $725 Micah Richards ENG 21 Manchester City $9M $58K Holger Badstuber GER 20 Bayern Munich $7M $15K Ryan Shawcross ENG 21 Stoke City $7.25M $12.25K Mark Beevers ENG 19 Sheffield Wed $1.9M $1.4K Nicolas Otamendi ARG 21 Velez $3.7M $1.6K Neven Subotic SRB 20 Dortmund $7.25M $17.25K Marc Muniesa SPA 17 Barcelona $2.5M $210 Mathias Jorgensen DEN 19 FC Kobenhavn $1.7M $3.9K Leandro Cabrera URG 18 Atletico Madrid $2.7M $5.75K Jerome Boateng GER 20 HSV $7M $38.5K Lorenzo Ariaudo ITA 20 Juventus $4.4M $19.75K Omer Toprak GER 19 Freiburg $3.7M $8K Gale Agbossoumonde USA 17 Miami $220K $1K Sergiy Kryvtsov UKR 18 Metalurg Zp $900K $1.1K  Left Defenders (DL) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage Diego Renan BRA 19 Cruzeiro $5.5M $4.2K Arman Traore ENG 19 Arsenal $8.5M $16.5K Gareth Bale WAL 20 Tottenham $8.25M $41K Marcelo BRA 21 Real Madrid $8.75M $69K Emiliano Insua ARG 20 Liverpool $6M $13.25K Jeremy Helan FRA 17 Manchester City $375K $150 Joe Mattock ENG 19 West Brom $1.6M $10K Pedro Botelho BRA 19 Arsenal $2.8M $1.6K Joao Paulo BRA 18 Fluminese $3.8M $3.7K Dodo BRA 17 Corinthians $2.3M $2.6K Thimothee Kolodzieczak FRA 17 Lyon $2.1M $130 Ivan Obradovic SRB 20 Zaragoza $5.25M $10.75K Fabio BRA 18 Manchester United $6.5M $750  Right Defenders (DR) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage Raul BRA 19 Atl. Paranaence $3.5M $3.9K Rafael BRA 19 Manchester Utd $7.75M $16.5K Davide Santon ITA 18 Inter $10.5M $39.5K Sebastien Corchia FRA 18 Le Mans $2.8M $5.5K Cesar Azpilicueta  SPA 19 Osasuna $7.5M $7.25K Loic Nestor FRA 20 Havre $2.5M $5.75K Richard Stearman ENG 21 Wolves $4.1M $10K Kyle Naughton ENG 20 Tottenham $8.25M $8.25K  Defensive Central Midfielders (DMC) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage Ignacio Camacho SPA 19 Atletico Madrid $2.6M $10.5K Sandro BRA 20 Internacional $6M $7.75K Francesco Bolzoni ITA 20 Genoa $5.5M $27.5K Lorenzo Crisetig ITA 16 Inter Milan $2.7M $90 Miles Addison ENG 20 Derby $2.5M $11.5K Moussa Sissoko FRA 19 Toulouse $8M $10.25K Etienne Capoue FRA 20 Toulouse $5.25M $11.25K Aaron Gunnarsson ICE 19 Coventry $1.7M $4.1K Edu Ramos SPA 17 Malaga $2.2M $2.8K Dan Gosling ENG 19 Everton $3.6M $4.9K Kwadwo Asamoah GHA 19 Udinese $11.5M $11K Kyrylo Petrov UKR 19 Dinamo Kiev $1.1M $2.1K Denys Garmash UKR 19 Dinamo Kiev $1.1M $2.6K Vitaliy Vitsenets UKR 18 Shakhtar $650K $2.7K Lukman Haruna NIG 18 Monaco $1.7M $1.7K  Central Midfielders (MC) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage Franco Zuculini ARG 18 Hoffenheim $3.4M $6.75K Tinga BRA 18 Ponte Preta $1.5M $3.1K Bernardo BRA 19 Cruzeiro $6M $6K Javi Martinez SPA 20 Athletic $9M $12.75K Lars Bender GER 20 Leverkusen $5M $14K Jack Rodwell ENG 18 Everton $7M $13.25K Aaron Ramsey ENG 18 Arsenal $8.75M $24.5K Ever Banega ARG 21 Valencia $4.7M $39K Axel Witsel BEL 20 Standard $2.4M $13K Nuri Sahin TUR 20 Dortmund $8.5M $43K Marek Hamsik SVK 21 Napoli $9.25M $43.5K Jack Collison WAL 20 West Ham $8M $13.25K Mauricio Isla CHI 21 Udinese $7M $9.75K Michael Johnson ENG 21 Manchester City $6.25M $41K Lee Cattermole ENG 21 Sunderland $10M $74K Sergio Busquets SPA 20 Barcelona $8.5M $44.5K Necip TUR 18 Besiktas $2.8M $7K Steven Defour BEL 21 Standard $4.6M $18K Adrien POR 20 Sporting $2.7M $7.25K Rene Krhin SVN 19 Inter $1.1M $15.75K Rasmus Elm SWE 21 AZ $5M $16K Morgan Schneiderlin FRA 19 Southampton $1.3M $2.8K Zakaria Labyad HOL 16 PSV $1.1M $250  Left Midfielders / Wingers (ML/AML) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage David Alaba AUS 17 Bayern Munich $1.8M $1.2K Angel Di Maria ARG 21 Benfica $6.75M $17.25K Juan Manuel Mata SPA 21 Valencia $14.25M $24.5K Mesut Ozil GER 20 Werder $8M $33K Stevan Jovetic MON 19 Fiorentina $9.25M $27.5K Carlos Eduardo BRA 21 Hoffenheim $7.5M $55K Zezinho BRA 17 Juventude $1.9M $2.8K Rodney Sneijder HOL 18 Ajax $1.1M $1.3K Guido Marilungo ITA 19 Sampdoria $3.2M $190 Magaye Gueye FRA 19 Strasbourg $2.5M $1.7K  Right Midfielders / Wingers (MR/AMR) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage Theo Walcott ENG 20 Arsenal $10.75M $58K Henri Saivet FRA 18 Bordeaux $3.8M $9.25K Marko Marin GER 20 Werder $7.75M $28.5K Georginio Wijnaldum HOL 18 Feyenoord $3M $4K Giuliano BRA 19 Internacional $5M $8.5K Eduardo Salvio ARG 19 Lanus $3.1M $1.1K Adem Ljajic SRB 17 Manchester Utd $5.75M $80 Stephan El Shaarawy ITA 16 Genoa $3.6M $90 Diego Perotti ITA 20 Sevilla $5.25M $11.5K James O'Shea IRL 20 Birmingham $130K $2.5K Luca Tremolada ITA 17 Inter $2.2M $90  Attacking Central Midfielders (AMC) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage Javier Pastore ARG 20 Palermo $11.75M $15.75K Patricio Rodriges ARG 19 Indenpediente $2.3M $1.1K Renato Augusto BRA 21 Leverkuzen $7.5M $44.5K Dudu BRA 17 Cruzeiro $3.6M $4.3K Paulo Henrique BRA 19 Santos $5.25M $5.25K Marquinhos BRA 19 Internacional $5.25M $5.25K Ismael Aissati HOL 20 Ajax $5.5M $19.5K Miralem Pjanic BOS 19 Lyon $8M $28.5K Willian BRA 20 Shakhtar $6.25M $13.25K Toni Kroos GER 19 Bayern Munich $7.5M $51K Jack Wilshere ENG 17 Arsenal $5.5M $24.5K Coutinho BRA 17 Vasco $3.4M $2.1K Douglas Costa BRA 18 Gremio $4.3M $5.25K Diego Buonanotte ARG 21 River $3.9M $2.6K Eden Hazard BEL 18 Lille $5.5M $9K Jano Ananidze GEO 16 Spartak Moscow Free! $900 Martin Galvan MEX 16 Cruz Azul $1.5M $15 Alan Dzagoev RUS 19 CSKA Moscow $7.5M $4.4K Jonjo Shelvey ENG 17 Charlton $1.7M $4.1K Marco Verratti ITA 16 Pescara $350K $90 Milan Badelj CRO 20 NK Dinamo $1.5M $2.7K James Rodriguez COL 17 Banfield $1M $400 Levan Kenia GEO 18 Schalke $5.5M $8.75K John Fleck SCO 17 Rangers $2.6M $1.6K Celso Borges CSR 21 Fredrikstad $1.3M $3.3K Sambou Yatabare FRA 20 Caen $3.3M $7.5K Sofiane Feghouli FRA 19 Grenoble $4.3M $6.75K Eyal Golasa ISR 17 M. Haifa $425K $475 Gael Kakuta FRA 18 Chelsea $650K $9.25K Sotiris Ninis GRE 19 Panathianaikos $2.7M $7K  Forwards (FC) Name Nation Age Club Value Wage Dentinho BRA 20 Corithians $6.5M $4.7K Guilherme BRA 20 Dinamo Kiev $6.75M $21.5K Neymar BRA 17 Santos $5.25M $10.5K Keirrison BRA 20 Barcelona $9.5M $32K Sergio Aguero ARG 21 Atletico Madrid $29M $86K Bojan SPA 18 Barcelona $11.5M $47.5K Mario Balotelli ITA 18 Inter $11.25M $59K Alexis Sanchez CHI 20 Udinese $12.75M $15.75K Pato BRA 19 Milan $28M $39.5K Tomas Necid CZE 19 CSKA Moscow $4.8M $3.8K Walter BRA 19 Internacional $4.2M $3.1K Alberto Paloschi ITA 19 Parma/Milan $8.5M $15.75K Ched Evans WAL 20 Sheffield Utd $4.9M $33K Andrej Kramaric CRO 18 NK Dinamo $1.4M $1.2K Federico Macheda ITA 17 Manchester Utd $7.5M $2.3K Robert Acquafresca ITA 21 Genoa $6.75M $17.75K Romelu Lukaku BEL 16 Anderlecht $1.1M $1.4K Daniel Villalva ARG 17 River $1.4M $40 Sercan TUR 19 Bursaspor $6M $11.5K Daniel Aquino SPA 18 Murcia $3.1M $2.7K Iker Muniain SPA 16 Athletic Free! $500 Khouma Babacar SEN 16 Fiorentina $3.8M $90 Abel Hernandez URG 18 Palermo $5.75M $9.75K Nathan Delfouneso ENG 18 Aston Villa $4.3M $650 David N'Gog ENG 20 Liverpool $6.5M $16.5K Yannis Tafer FRA 18 Lyon $3.9M $3.6K Roman Zozulya UKR 19 Dinamo Kiev $1.5M $5K Marko Arnautovic AUS 20 Inter $6.5M $9.75K Andriy Yarmolenko UKR 19 Dinamo Kiev $875K $1.9K Vitaliy Balashov UKR 18 Chornomorets $925K $625 Jonathan Cristaldo ARG 20 Velez $950K $700 Jose Baxter ENG 17 Everton $3.1M $1.3K Robert Lewandowski POL 20 Lech $1.8M $2.2K Jay Rodriguez ENG 19 Burnley $4.5M $1.6K Chris Wood NZL 17 West Brom $3.3M $2.5K German Pacheco ARG 18 Atletico $2.4M $9.25K True Football Manager Click here to play

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Barcelona ? Rubin 1:2, Inter ? Dynamo Kiev 2:2 ? simply fantastic! Post-USSR clubs created sensational results tonight. And, of course, I am proud for Dynamo Kiev and Andriy Shevchenko! PS Rangers ? Unirea 1:4 ? another sensation! True Football Manager Click here to play

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Hello my dear readers! I am completely in exploration of FM 2010 demo now. I started some kind of trial game with Genoa. It?s just for playing the demo, trying new features and expressing my feelings about it. And when the poll about my future FM 2010 team is over and I have patched full version of the Game I will start a new story managing another team. Now some words about FM 2010 features that impressed me.   Backroom Advice Backroom advice give so much information... I think it can be very useful feature. Sure it is necessary to explore it more deeply to understand the whole power of the feature.   Customizable Views I have been dreaming of customizing columns in squad selection and transfer search since Football Manager 2005 probably! And now my dream has come true! My first action about this feature: I opened squad selection, added two columns - Nationality and Value. From the other hand the feature is pretty buggy now. Actually column resizing works quite bad. You can hide other columns trying to resize another one.   Tactics Creator Tactics Creator is probably the most important change between FM 2009 and FM 2010. I impressed by the screen above ? highlighting of the most important attributes for selected Role looks awesome. And the description of role is also very good. Click on Advanced button returns us to the former system of individual instructions with sliders and comboboxes. By the way in my humble opinion setting up and tuning tactics using new wizard looks fluent as well as tuning through Tactics screen.     Press Conference about new player Press Conferences regarding new signings are nice. They are not so important as abovementioned features but they make The Game more realistic.   New User Interface New UI looks good. System of tabs and buttons instead of tree view on a sidebar allows to access any section in more easy way. Additionally sidebar was removed ? so we have more space that can  be used by added columns to your views (customizable views). I like also relocation of many buttons - for instance, Continue, Assistant Advice, Media Comments. It?s also cool that Player Report looks better and more understandable than in FM 2009.   FM 2010 Skins I have negative impressions about standard FM 2010 skins. Light one is too light. Impossible for me to use because white background strikes my eyes. Dark skin is not really good because of some white words on light background. For instance, Overview screen and Pending transfers screen part at the right bottom corner. And Background of player profile could be darker as well. So in my mind Football Manager 2009 has much better standard skin!   That?s all at the moment, dear readers. Play Football Manager 2010! True Football Manager Click here to play

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Football Manager 2010 Demo is available for downloading now! As usually there are two versions of FM 2010 demo: vanilla and strawberry. Vanilla It can be downloaded from here:  MirrorFootball.co.uk FM 2010 download page  DailyRecord Description of FM 2010 Demo Vanilla Quickstarts: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales Languages: English only Stripped assets: including no player pictures, club logs, competition logos, sounds, etc Strawberry It can be downloaded from the following sources: Worthplaying site Rapidshare site Torrent - PC Torrent - Mac Steam FilePlay - PC FilePlay - Mac Description of FM 2010 Demo Strawberry Quickstarts: Brazil, Denmark, England, France, Italy, Northern Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and Wales Languages: Danish, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish Full assets: including player pictures, club logos, competition logos, etc for where we have the license. Full pitch textures, stadiums and sounds.   Have fun with Football Manager 2010 demo!True Football Manager Click here to play

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As I promised here is my Hull story save. You can download it now from here: Hull Game Download link True Football Manager Click here to play

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Hello, my dear readers! The season #7 is over. My Hull has the following results: What I can say? It was the best season in my Football Manager 2009 career! Let?s analyze a bit results of my club in every tournament. Premier League I didn?t cope with Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal at all and disappointed board expectations of getting Premier League title. By the way my Hull got only 1 point in 3 last Premier League because of second squad players usage. I tried to have 100% conditioned first squad players for Champions League and FA Cup finals. Three finals But the results in the other tournaments more than satisfied Hull board. League Cup League Cup final was a very dramatic one. We took a lead on the 19th minute and I was already starting to celebrate the first historical League Cup of Hull when Asier (regen forward of Man City) scored a late equalizer on the 3rd minute of injury time. Then sudden penalty brought Manchester City ahead in the score. Unfortunately my guys were unable to do anything with strong defence of opponent during the last minutes of extra time.   FA Cup Blackburn awaited us in the FA Cup final. It was easy game because Hull is better and more strong team than Blackburn. 2:1 score doesn?t reflect our complete advantage on the pitch of Wembley stadium. It was my second FA Cup in row!   Champions League I got so many emotions during the 3 last rounds of Champions League. It was something really special! Quarterfinal with Inter was complicated but not so dramatic as semi final matches against Real Madrid: Real Madrid ? Hull 1:1 Hull ? Real Madrid 2:1 (extra time) The decisive goals in the second match were scored during last minutes of 2nd and 4th times by Manuel Brand. We had certain advantage in the home match but Iker Casillas was truly perfect performer! I think he is the best goalkeeper in Football Manager 2009! Look how many cards were shown to Real Madrid players! They battled hardly against my team! The Final Ooooh, it was absolutely incredible match! 1:0 ? Milovan Rakic scores! 1:1 ? Kaka scores! 1:2 ? Strange own goal by Ochoa on the 81th minute!!! 2:2 ? All out of attack mentality creates one-on-one chance for Rakic! 3:2 ? 114th minute. Manuel Brand makes a golden header for our club!   It was really great fight, equal game: Milovan Rakic got Man of the Match award: As a result:   This is how my Hull story ends? But don?t be sad if you are becoming sad because Football Manager 2010 is on the way! And new story will begin for you and me?   PS Tomorrow I will post a link on my Hull game save. I know some of you are keen to try it. True Football Manager Click here to play

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I am glad to share the news that yesterday Miles Jacobson announced Football Manager 2010 system requirements. The great thing is that the requirements remain the same as for Football Manager 2009 (drum roll!): PC OS Windows XP / Vista / Windows 7 Processor 1.4GHZ+ for XP   or 2.0GHZ+ for Vista / Windows 7  Memory 512MB Ram for XP   or 1GB Ram for Vista / Windows 7 Video Card  128MB of memory. NVidia FX 5900 Ultra or better; ATI Radeon 9800 or better; Intel 82915G/82910GL or better. If you have older card then only 2D Match will be available for you. Mac Intel Processor OS X 10.5 NVidia Geforce 7300 GT / ATI X1600 Radeon Important remark If your computer does not meet FM 2010 system requirements the game may work anyway. But you will not receive support from SI Games and SEGA. You should just try FM2010 demo coming out this week.True Football Manager Click here to play

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I am trying to do my best to finish my last season in Football Manager 2009. And this is the latest report about it. Actually about the first half of the season. Matches Here are Hull matches of season #7 in 2014: I want you to pay attention to the Community Shield Final against Manchester United. That was really great victory ? 4:1! The next important thing you may notice in the screenshots is poor start of Hull in Premier League. We managed to loose 3 away matches of starting 5? It decreased my chances of winning title perceptibly.   Tournament Tables You see there is a gap between Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal and my Hull. But I hope to shorten the distance because in the second half of the season I will play only home matches with these rivals. Meantime I got quite complicated group in the Champions League having Inter, Lyon and Celtic as opponents. But excellent 3 wins and 3 tough draws (the one with Inter was really tough) provided the first position in this group. Now Bayern Munich waits for Hull in the next round!   Players sold during winter transfer window All 5 players were sold because they had been unhappy with their second roles in the team.  33-years old Eto?o didn?t impress me at all.   Player stats Some Hull player statistics: Best players of the season #7 first half are: 1. Darwin Suarez ? the man who makes goals in my team either scoring or assisting! 2. Diego Buonanotte ? the best assister, Hull leader. 3. Javi Garcia ? brilliant debut from former Inter DMC! His long shots are amazing! 4. Fabian Monzon ? the most confident and reliable defender in my club. Heavy transfer money paid for itself. 5. Milovan Rakic ? sometimes he scores wonderful one touch goals from any position on a pitch. Praising Fabian Monzon I can add the following picture:   PS This is my last weekend with Football Manager 2009. I will start investigating FM 2010 demo on the next Saturday! True Football Manager Click here to play

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According to this source Football Manager 2010 demo will be available on the 16th of October! It?s very very soon! Meantime I will be trying to finish my last season with Hull in Football Manager 2009. I have already played the first half. And there is going to be a report about the first half of season #7 in 2-3 days.   PS Don?t forget to vote for my future team in Football Manager 2010! The poll is located at the right panel of the blog. True Football Manager Click here to play

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Hello, my dear readers! Today I would like to start so awaited voting! Since this day till October, 30 (the date of FM2010 release) you will be able to choose a club that I will be managing in Football Manager 2010! I selected nine English clubs for the voting. They are divided into 3 groups by league of each club. So you will choose a league for me start from as well as club.   Premier League teams Birmingham City Burnley Wolverhampton   Championship teams Newcastle United Nottingham Forest Queens Park Rangers   League One Leeds United Millwall Southampton   The poll that will determine my future team in Football Manager 2010 is located at the right column of this blog. Only votes through that poll are accepted. So do you want me get Leeds United or Nottingham Forest back to Premier League? Or it?s better if I try to survive with Burnley in the first Premier League year? Choose and vote! I am looking forward to know my first FM 2010 club! True Football Manager Click here to play

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You know the upcoming season #7 is the last one in my Football Manager 2009 career with Hull. It?s just because FM 2010 is on the way! So without any risk I decided to set up the highest targets for the season and receive maximum of money for transfers and wages: Win the league! Ye! We can try ? though it will be very complicated having such great opponents as Manchester United, Arsenal and Manchester City. And you see my Hull is on the 4th position following season bets: Transfers Players out I sold Barazite and Witsel who were unhappy with their second roles in Hull. Genero Zeefuik disappointed me during the last season due to his inefficient dealing with ball when there should be goals from his side. So he was sold as well. Players in I decided to buy experienced players who can either become new team leaders or add some depth to Hull squad. Fabian Monzon The most valuable signing is Fabian Monzon. Left back of Argentina, World cup champion? I paid $53M paid to Villarreal for him. Look at his stats. He is one of the best (if not the best at all) left defenders in my game! Gojko Kacar Excellent versatile player from Bayern Munich. Hope to use him on different positions: DR, DMC, MC. We?ll see where he will show himself better. Javi Garcia Inter should cry selling this very good DMC to my club. He will certainly be in the first squad instead of my Ukrainian defensive midfielder - Eugene Shakhov. Joe Cole Risky $8M transfer aimed at gaining experienced flank attacker. But surely he will start the season from substitution bench because of current team leaders ? Buonanotte, Suarez and O?Brien. Robert Lewandowski   During the last season I had a real problem when leading forward Milovan Rakic had been injured. So I decided to buy two good forwards. Robert Lewandowski is the one of them. I think many of you, my dear readers, tried his services in your team. Now it?s my turn to try him! Samuel Eto?o The second forward is the most famous footballer of Cameroon ? Samuel Eto?o. Experience of Eto?o should help in the Premier League and Champions League.   PS They predict us the 6th position? True Football Manager Click here to play

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Let?s talk about new Football Manager 2010 features. There are really a lot of them. Every new FM10 features announcement makes my heart to beat harder! :-)   Press conferences In Football Manager 2009, it's possible to ask an assistant to visit press conferences instead of you. However, there was no way to know whether your assistant would be any good at them, so there's a media handling style for your staff. It will specify how a staff member will deal with press conferences.   Declaring job interest You will be noticed by supporters and the board if you declare your interest in a job, and then visit a match of the club you are interested in. Such your behaviour will add some media focus as well as in real life.   Stadiums Stadiums can have both terracing and seating. Now terracing will be shut or replaced with temporary seats for matches like an international fixture or European cups.   Supporters will comment! Your team?s supporters will comment on a team selection you did telling their impressions about some players and aspects after match. The players who don?t play in the first squad will be also discussed by your supporters and you will be able to read all those discussions.   Monthly board updated Monthly board update includes: - financial aspects with profit and loss for the month - club, and a regular physio summary too, telling you about who in the squad in injured or coming back from injury   New type of press conferences Press conference for new signings. Journalists will talk about possible impact of new signing on your club, your squad, pressure on the player due to transfer fees, financial pressure due to the signing.   Free transfer player list At the end of each football season, Football Manager 2010 will inform you about the high profile players who have been released. There will be a simple link to a list of all of them that you can checkout and analyze. Convenient feature, I think!   Equal values ? one award Sometimes it happens when 2 players have the same amount of scored goal in the season?s end. FM 2010 will explain you why one of these player got Best Scorer award. It doesn?t happen using alphabetic order by the way!   Controlling amount of news Dear readers, I suspect you are different in the following thing: some of you like to receive a lot of news about different leagues and football events, another part of you is interested in news about your club only. SI Games presents excellent feature for all of us ? we will be able to manage amount of news we want to receive in Football Manager 2010! There will be very flexible system to do that. True Football Manager Click here to play

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Some people still don?t know Football Manager 2010 release date and ask me about it in blog comments. It happens when you are not really interested in FM community. You just need The Game and when you have it you start having fun with it. That?s all! By the way I was of the same kind of people 7-8 years ago. Therefore I decided to create this post and announce for those who still don?t know the release date:   FM 2010 Release date ? October 30th Regarding demo I can say that Football Manager 2010 demo will come out in 2-3 weeks before the release.True Football Manager Click here to play

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It was tough and very interesting competition for me that I had been waiting for a long time. Currently Ivory Coast national team has a row of really good players like Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure, Emmanuel Eboue, Salomon Kalou and 36 years old Didier Drogba. But when I take a look at squad of Brazil, Argentina or Holland it seems almost impossible to win the World Cup?  Anyway great team collaboration and quick direct tactics I use made my Ivory Coast the 3rd best national team in the world! Matches and results review The group with Colombia, Sweden and Iran didn?t seem a complicated one. So after first 2 fixtures we had 6 points and guaranteed the 1st place in the group. Therefore I decided to use players of the second squad for their form estimation in the last game with Colombia. It explains the loss in that game. 2nd Round ? Denmark Denmark wasn?t a strong opponent for us. They have no dangerous forwards in my game at all. Their best one is Nicklas Bendtner who plays in FC Kobenhaven. So you understand if he plays Danish club then his attributes are not impressive. Excellent strikes of Drogba and Yaya Toure brought 2:0 win: Quarterfinal ? Serbia National team of Serbia ? the first opponent that had squad stronger than the one of Ivory Coast. Vidic, Ivanovic, Jankovic, Kacar, Kuzmanovic and some great regen-players as well... Just look at this brilliant regen forward - Nicola Petrovic - playing in Milan: His price is $73M!!! I had some fortune with the fact that Serbian star forward Milovan Rakic (my Hull player) had been injured. As a result he was substituted by Nicola Zigic in the first squad who wasn?t dangerous in the match at all. Again Yaya Toure, again Didier Drogba and powerful header from Kolo Toure guaranteed the victory: Semi final - Holland Mighty Holland, World Cup 2010 champions, were expecting us in the semi final. I remembered our 3:1 win in the Confederations Cup and thought that we have all chances of becoming a finalists. But, but, but?   The class of Holland team was perceptibly higher. Though it was an equal game. The only thing is that Ivory Coast was not so good in shots on target? By the way, Holland has lost the Final to Argentina with 1:3 score. Two goals - by Carlos Teves, two other ? by Pablo Zabaleta and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. 3rd place match - Brazil It is my moment of triumph! Ivory Coast ? Brazil 3:1!!! Bets were absolutely against my team but two quick goals by Kolo Toure (9h minute) and Baky Kone (16th minutes) shocked Brazil players and fans! Fantastic commitment by all players of Ivory Coast team allowed to have an advantage in the amount of made shots: Player ratings of this historical match:   This is my last post about Ivory Coast team in Football Manager 2009. It?s always said to say ?Good Bye?. But who knows? maybe I will be managing this flamboyant national team in FM 2010. True Football Manager Click here to play

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The season #6 is finished and it?s time to sum up its results. Here are the latest matches of my Hull: Premier League Sudden losses to Aston Villa, Tottenham and Middlesbrough and awful defeat to Manchester City (0:4) made my mission of struggle for title totally impossible. Moreover, Man City got a great form and left Hull behind at the 4th position. What were the reasons of such failure? Actually I can say that the main problem was the absence of Milovan Rakic ? our leading forward ? due to that damned 3-4 month injury.  Genero Zeefuik was absolutely unstable and many goal moments were failed due to his poor shots and other actions. Another forward - Akeem Ugbah - was too young and inexperienced for participation in the most decisive games of the season. Champions League The problem of Rakic?s absence played its role in the second quarterfinal match of the Champions League against Manchester United. The Red Devils got the unconvincing win having less shots and only 61% of passes completed versus my 71%. The first quarterfinal match on the Old Trafford gave me some hope on getting to the semi final. The game was pretty equal and we had a quite convenient 1:1 away draw. But the goal moments failed by Zeefuik in the second match played the main role in this face-off? FA Cup But Hull didn?t finish the season without any trophy! At first The Tigres have won FA Cup!!! It happened in easy final with Sunderland: The easiness of the final was some kind of compensational award for very complicated opponents in the previous rounds. If you follow my Hull story you should know that Manchester United and Arsenal had been beaten in the 4th and 6th rounds. Additionally the semi-final with Tottenham was really hard one. Don?t believe 3:1 score in the first screen shot of this post! We had been loosing with 0:1 until Ramires scored an equalizer on the 63 minute. The next two goals were made done by Shakhov and Brand during 115 and 116 minutes (extra time!). Some emotions from fans and board about our historical victory: Hull players Traditionally here are some statistics of Hull players: The best debutant of the season is Manuel Brand. He is fantastic central defender who wins headers during attacking corners very often! Darwin Suarez and Milovan Rakic became real young leaders of the team in this season. But the best Hull player of season #6 is certainly Diego Buonanotte. Hull old-timer became the best assister of the club, and even Darwin Suarez couldn?t compete with him (please note that Suarez was on the 1st position of best assister rating in the middle of the season). Fans agreed with me:   Previous posts of the Hull story (season #6) Hull ? the most interesting is ahead! Top 8 of all best championships in my game Chasing Arsenal? Coaches of Hull in Football Manager 2009 Champions League debut of Hull in FM2009 July and August transfers before season #6 Expectations and transfers of the upcoming season   PS The next post is going to be about my Ivory Coast national team in the World Cup 2014! True Football Manager Click here to play

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Sports Interactive published description of new FM 2010 feature that I find quite interesting ? Touchline Shouts. Yes, we will be able to shout from touchline in Football Manager 2010 and influence behaviour of our players. Sounds great, doesn?t it? Hope that shouting will really make some influence on players, otherwise the game feature is unusable. Here you can see all variants of shouts during match: Retain Possession Get Ball Forward Pass Into Space Pass To Feet Pump Ball Into Box Clear Ball To Flanks Shoot On Sight Work Ball Into Box Exploit the Flanks Exploit the Middle Look For Overlap Take A Breather Play Wider Play Narrower Push High Up Drop Deeper Hassle Opponents Stand Off Opponents Get Stuck In Stay On Feet Play Even Safer Take More Risks True Football Manager Click here to play

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