Football Manager 2014: 9 Issues It Really Should Fix

6. Relationships With Other Managers Could Be Better

The sad thing is that once you've been playing FM a long time, the (virtual) days blur into weeks, the weeks blur into months and the months blur into seasons. There's a whole glut of change, but as per your status as an obsessive player, you're too focused on what's going on at your club. Yet one day, you take a whistle-stop tour around the clubs and find that literally every manager has changed from two years ago, and you haven't even noticed. Yet why is this? That's easy €“ it's because nobody's memorable enough. Every manager is just an avatar you can offer statements on a whim, and nothing more. They're not distinct humans, they're names who offer out identikit responses, whether they be a terrifying force of nature like Sir Alex Ferguson or a genial bloke like Chris Hughton. Nobody's distinct, and the game's drama suffers for it. I mean, think about it. In real life, a huge aspect of the footballing circus is the clash of managerial personalities, and it always has been. In the past we had Arsene Wenger vs. Sir Alex Ferguson, Rafa Benitez vs. Jose Mourinho. Until recently, we had the madcap Paolo Di Canio and his duels against the players. When faced with this menagerie of distinct personalities, FM's names-and-nothing-else approach can't help but suffer. I know at its heart FM is a tactical simulator, but nothing enhances a game than having another reason to beat the team put up against you, and if that reason's the manager, then so much the better. It would certainly make everything a whole lot more dramatic, and what is football, if not drama?