So it begins....

So FML finally reset today, I'm in gameworld Ramos and a few problems. I got a terrible pool of players, none I recognise in the slightest....none with really any worthy stats apart from maybe one. and second, I got 6 million skill points which is a joke, when you take in to account what skills I earnt since feb 09! Plus I had 11 in the pre reset. I opened a ticket and hope to get this sorted. I spent the points on Management like I said I would in my last post.

Anyway, this is the team I have been lumped with.

and this is probably my best player, Masoud. Well Known, pretty decent stats.

I hope to pick up some better talent when I get some funds but as of now...A very weak team!

Skill Specialization - My Decision

So with the new reset of FML, comes my 12 million or so bonus points which I will be learning skills with.

My first thoughts was to go with coaching and get that to a high standard and then spend the rest on JP/Scouting, however after playing on the new 1.5 update and seeing how the wages are. I think it would be safer in the long run and much better for my game if I specialised in Management. My decision was finally made after I read this on another blog...

Of all the skill sets, Management is the one that is the biggest no-brainer to me. It consists of a number of powerful and "expensive" skills that can help any team, no matter how big or small. Nearly every skill in the set is desirable in some way (save for Finance, in my opinion, which is still nice but hardly essential). Specializing in Management will allow you to save/make tons of money (Transfer Negotiation, Contract Negotiation, Finance, Commercial) and provide affect your teams morale and availability (Team Management, Influence).

Many people seem to think that the Management skill set is not a good choice for specialization due to the fact that SI have made the (probably correct) decision to nerf the effectiveness of some of these skills (Transfer Negotiation and Commercial) for the first 3 seasons of a new gameworld. These people are merely being short-sighted. Management is a skill tree with a huge benefit to your team over the long-term lifetime of the game and is now more necessary than ever, with some of the changes implemented in version 1.5 with regards to the price that you will be paying to auto-extend contracts.

I fully expect to specialize in Management upon relaunch and I can't think of a very convincing reason why somebody would not want to do the same. The ONLY instance I can think of eschewing the management skill is if you are taking one very specific approach to the game and think that other skills will serve you better in this specific approach.

http://fmlanalyst.blogspot.com/

It makes perfect sense. With the fact wages on your best players raise a hell of alot per year, it is much better to just learn contract negotiations to keep this down to a minimum which in the long run will save you a fortune over the time spent on FML. Transfer negotiation also will save you money as well as finance being one that will earn you much more - of course only after 3 seasons. After 5-7 seasons, the full effect of Finance and Commercial will be apparent.

As I am in this for the long run, I am not too fussed about being overly succesful straight away. I'd rather build a squad and wait it out as I feel after 5 seasons, I will be in a better state.

Coaching is something I can learn over time and in all honesty isn't key to being a good team in Returning Stars. If you are playing fantasy then Scouting and Coaching is key, in RS, I feel it is management.