Championship Manager 2 (e)

Cover
Championship Manager 2 97/98 FAQ/Strategy Guide v 0.5

By Penguin


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Table of contents

-What is this for?
-What do I need?
-Update history
-Walkthrough
 -Transfers! Buy! Sell! (Free em too!)
 -First match!!
 -OWN GOAL!!! (Oops)
-More general stuff (and it's random)
-Tips & Cheats
-Strategies for certain teams
-Q & A
-Legal Disclaimer
-Final Words
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What is this for?

This FAQ/Walkthrough is to use a certain team as an example to lead you 
throughout the first (or so) seasons. After the first season, don't use this 
FAQ/Walkthrough as a reference anymore, things would change DRAMATICALLY.
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What do I need?

You'll need the game CM 2 97/98, patched to the newest version (Version 2.93). 
I also suggest that you go here to download the newest roster: 
http://www.geocities.com/penguincm/
Actually it's my roster update (shameless self promotion). I've recently 
updated it. I'm pretty sure it's the newest roster update out there (tell me 
if you know a newer one).
OR you can go to http://www.sigames.com/ because they got some roster 
updates as well.
**Note that you'll need to update to ver. 2.93 to use the update, else problems 
arise and you'll be crying and all that.
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Update history

v 0.5 Changed from Walkthrough/FAQ to FAQ/Strategy Guide. Minor changes as well.

v 0.4: Added some team strategies and something for the general stuff as
well. Added 2 questions to Q&A. Moved update history's position.

V 0.3: Something made me write more for this FAQ. Minor changes around and 
added some more general stuff.

V 0.2: Wrote down some team strategies as well as minor changes.

v 0.1: Wrote the FAQ
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Ready? Go!

Now I'm not gonna teach you how to install and stuff (including the update), 
because I assume that you know all this.

**This is a walkthrough/scenario/example**
Start CM 97/98, and start a new game. Choose Italian League, then choose a 
slot you'd like to use. Name it whatever you like, press [Enter] and let the 
game load while you wait for the action to begin.
After the game loads, choose Juventus. I'm most familiar with Juve, and Juve 
is easier.
Name yourself, then press [Enter] again. Wait for the game to load.
Since I've also edited the standings and promotion/relegation for last season 
(99-00), Juventus will play these cups:
Champ League (need to play 1st round)
Coppa Italia
SuperCoppa Italia (vs Vicenza)

Now, I'd like to digress a bit. You don't really absolutely need to follow
what I write here, after all it's a sports sim, and every time you play
the game you get different results. So I guess straying a bit off from
this FAQ won't hurt.
Also, you don't need to use Juve, as I said, I'm most familiar with that
team, and would be a better help (for you and me). I guess it's just me.

Soccer fans may ask why is Juve facing Vicenza in SuperCoppa Italia? Well 
too bad, but I can't edit that for the game. Please bear with it.

**NOTE: Rosters here aren't current**
Now, go to your team (Juve) and look around the roster. 1st problem in hand: 
You need a backup goalie. Rampulla's getting old and all that (not that he's 
bad), and Isaksson is not a good goalie (as of that season). Transfer list 
Rampulla (and free Isaksson if you want to save roster space) and some team 
would be interested, but they won't strike a deal so quickly. Think of 2 
goalies that'll fit nicely. Van Der Sar is one of the best goalies in the 
game, no need to change that. Starting goalie set.

On to the defense! Ferrara, Iuliano are good stuff, so don't touch em now. 
You can also save Montero as well, but keep in mind that he loves getting 
cards (as in real life). Pessotto isn't that bad, so you can save the DL space 
for him as well. Maybe your defense line is set by: Pessotto, Iuliano, Montero 
and Ferrara. But I usually look for a DR and oust Montero out of the starting 
lineup.
What about Ivano Trotta, Marco Zanchi, Igor Tudor, Paramatti, Tacchinardi 
and Birindelli? Trotta is crap in the game, release him for extra space that 
you'll need (despite the reaction of the board). Loan Tudor and Zanchi to 
other teams (save Tudor if he got REALLY nice stats), and Paramatti & 
Birindelli can be 'made available.' It means that the player can be up for 
negotiations. Tacchinardi is more of a backup player, because he can play 
3 spots(SW/D/MC). So maybe buying a few backup defenders won't hurt much. 
Find a backup DL and DR.

Next is the midfield. What do you do with this star-filled midfield? Well 
for starters everybody know Zidane, Davids and Conte are pretty much 
untouchable. Zambrotta, well, is definitely a starter in the game. So 
basically the starting 4 for the midfield is set. However you may want an 
extra (A/D)MR, so that when Zambrotta gets inconsistent or low, this guy can 
take his place. Athirson (if he's in the roster, I forgot if he's in the team 
in this update) and O'Neill can do a pretty well job with the ML backup. So 
the placing is: Davids, Conte (MC), Zidane (AMC) and Zambrotta.

Ah, the forwards. Inzaghi, Del Piero and Trezeguet are untouchables. 
Esinaider is a good backup. But what about Fonseca? You won't play much 
Fonseca when the 4 forwards are around. Sadly, you'll have to put him on 
Transfer List. As for Zalayeta, it's up to you but I usually boot him from 
the club. Find a good prospect that doesn't take a lot of money. Oh yeah, 
Del Piero and Inzaghi as starters please.

Now, all this is set, on to the transfer market.
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Transfers! Buy! Sell! (Free em too!)

According to my 'ingenious plan' up there, you'll need to find:
2 goalies
2 defenders (DL, DR)
1 midfielder (MR)
1 forward (if you want to store good prospects in your team for whatever 
reasons)

Go to the Player Search & Transfers and choose Player Search.

What do you need for goalies? Well there is always the nifty little "Skills" 
and "Search" buttons. Go to "Skills" and look around.
**What goalies need are: Rushing Out, Aerial Abilities, Shot Stopping, 
Positioning**
That's pretty much easy to identify, because these abilities are only for 
goalies, and the "Skills" function accommodates both goalies and non-goalies. 
So for example Rushing Out is Pace/Rushing Out.
Now set the min for Rushing Out 20, and others around 16 or so. You may want 
to limit injury proneness, so make the max 10 or so.
Click [Done] and press the "Search" button. Wow, a huge list of goalies came 
up. Buffon, Toldo, Peruzzi and all that. But you may notice that aside from 
adding them to your Shortlist (kinda like "I'm interested in this guy" thing), 
you can't buy them. That's because they're unavailable for transfer.
So at the Player Search screen you go to the bottom of the screen, and click 
on "Including Unavailable." And Viola! Changed to "Excluding Unavailable." 
Press "Search" again.
Now the list has trimmed down, like into 1/10th of what it was. Wow. And all 
the big names are gone.
Fear not! For thee has started thee longest search for quality goalies! Look 
at the goalies, and see which ones are good and which isn't.
Now you may find some "Buffon type" of goalies (my friend named it). What's 
a "Buffon type" goalie? Basically that goalie fits your requirements (and 
pretty high for some stats), but all other stats are constant at low digits 
like 6 or 7 or what have you. Don't buy those guys unless absolutely needed, 
they usually aren't that good.
It's best that you choose cheaper goalies, and it won't cut down your transfer 
budget as much as bigger names. And big names don't like being numba 2.

Now for DL and a DR. Press the "Reset" button, and click the "Including 
Unavailable" button again. Since you need to find a DL and DR, more stuff 
are required to do. Go to "Any position" and keep on clicking until you reach 
"Defenders." Then go to "Left/Right or Center" and click until you found your 
desired side, as for this example we're gonna have "Left sided."
Now go to "Skills."
**What defenders need are: Positioning, Heading, Stamina, Strength, 
Tackling**
If you are really picky, the Passing and Pace skills are good too.
Now set Positioning and Heading to around 15, Stamina and Strength around 
10, and Tackling around 17 as a min. If you're the picky type, make Passing 
and Pace 10.
Now not a lot of people shows up in the list because you're so specific, so 
maybe you can loosen some stat requirements like setting Tackling to 16 as 
a min.
The same goes for DR, but of course you'll set the position to "Right."

For midfielders, reset the players search thingo. Then choose position and 
side to "Midfielder" and "Right." (as in this example)
**What midfielders need are: Passing, Pace, Stamina**
If you're looking for the defensive type, you may want to consider: Tackling, 
Strength, Heading and Positioning
If you're looking for the creative/passing type, you may want to consider: 
Creativity, Dribbling, Set Pieces
So set Passing to 16, Pace and Stamina to around 12.
For the defensive type you may want to set the stats to something like a 
defender. Lower passing as well, maybe around 12. Determination is optional.
For the creative/passing type you may want to set Creativity to 16, Dribbling 
to 14, Set Pieces to 17, and maybe lower the Heading if you want him to kick 
corners and stuff like that. But in this scenario, Del Piero will be our corner 
kicker. So no need for that.

For forwards, you can't negotiate with them now. Why? It's because you reached 
the 5 negotiation limit for every teams. So you'll have to Shortlist the 
forward.
Anyway, there's a few types of forwards, but it's actually REALLY two types. 
They are: 'Passers (Baggio type) and 'Receivers' (Vieri type).
**What the Passing type forwards need are: Creativity, Dribbling, Pace, 
Stamina, Passing, Shooting, Set Pieces**
**What the Receiving type forwards need are: Pace, Stamina, Strength, 
Shooting, Positioning**
For Passers, set Creativity, Passing, Shooting and Set Pieces to around 17 
or so. Maybe you'd like to crank up Shooting a bit. Dribbling and Pace can 
be around 13 or 14, and Stamina above 10. You may want to limit heading if 
you want this guy to take corners, else you'll waste his heading ability.
For Receivers, set Shooting to around 18, Pace, Stamina and Strength to around 
13, and Positioning to 15. You may want to set passing above 10 as well.

I personally recommend players that can play more than 1 positions. A good 
player is Jiri Novotny, who got nice stats and his position is D/MRLC. Yup, 
6 positions.
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First match!!

Okay, it's the first match, and you're playing some team for a spot in the 
Champ League. Usually it's a random team from some other country, but if 
you're facing a team that has more than 1 REAL players, they usually got some 
reputation in Europe.
Now for the first match, you'll need to distribute positions. Unless you want 
some crazy number distributions, usually the lineup (according to the number) 
is (note this is in default 4-4-2 formation):
1-GK
2-DR
3-DL
4, 5-DC
6-MC
7-MR
8-MC
9-FC
10-FC
11-ML

12-16 Reserves

And the formation on the field will be like:

            10       9


11         6        8        7


3         5          4        2

                 1

They have arrows, but I'm too lazy to draw it. Besides, I'm bad at drawing.

Now throw in the players to the lineup by dragging the numbers on the right 
to the little blue boxes on the left of their names. Do it for all players 
that you want to be in your lineup. It's a bit tedious, but hopefully you'll 
only do it a few times in the game.
Now remember the starting lineup I told you for Juve? Here's how you put em:
1- Van der Sar
2- Ferrara (or a newly acquired DR)
3- Pessotto
4- Iuliano
5- Montero (or Ferrara if the #2 spot is taken)
6- Conte
7- Zambrotta
8- Zidane
9- Inzaghi
10- Del Piero
11- Davids

Now for the reserves (#12-16). What to do? Well the logical thing is to put 
a backup goalie in the reserves just in case your goalie gets injured in the 
game. Every team in CM 97/98 does that. Then place a player into the reserves 
for each positions (so 3 spots taken here), and there's a final spot. Put 
a guy who can play lots of positions and/or sides. He'll definitely help.
 
Here's what I'll put for reserves:
12- Backup goalie (if Rampulla is good then give him this spot)
13- Tudor/new defender (or Montero if Ferrara is DC)
14- O'Neill
15- Trezeguet
16- Tacchinardi (or Novotny if you got him)

Now on to the "Match Tactics." The formation is the default 4-4-2, and if 
you're happy with it, cool. But this is my favorite formation (never changed 
much since then):

            10        9

                  8
11                6             7


3          5          4         2

                  1

Again, I don't make arrows here, but the arrows are:
11 and 7 going straight up
3 and 2 going a little bit up (not reaching the positions of 11 and 7)
8 going straight up (between 10 and 9)
5 and 4 going to the direction of 1 (GK), but not touching it

***How do you make arrows? You right click on the player, drag it to the 
desired place and release. It's that easy.

My friend has a similar one to my formation, but his # 11 and 7 are closer 
to #6 than my formation. You may create your own formation as well, or choose 
one of the preset formations the game provides.

Passing style - You have 3 choices here: Passing style, Long ball style and 
Direct style. The first one is a "Mixed style" which the latter 2 are used. 
Long ball style is the way of Norway and Wimbledon, passing long balls to 
the front. Direct style is more like Italy and various teams in Serie A. They 
uh....pass the ball directly on the ground, and make short passes.

Now it's time to set roles. There are 4 roles for you to set: Captain, Free 
Kick taker, Corner taker, and Penalty taker. I'll explain this a bit:
Captain: Leader of the team. The skill Influence is very important here. The 
guy who has the highest Influence can be the captain, BUT it's better to have 
a guy who's in the team for AT LEAST 3 SEASONS AND WITH HIGH INFLUENCE. Oops, 
typed in caps.

Free Kick taker: This is the guy who takes all the free kicks. Passing, 
Shooting and Set Pieces are important here. But somehow sometimes a guy who's 
not designated may take the FK in games. But at 'crucial moments' (special 
messages would appear) the real FK takers will take it instead. (thanks to 
the one who e-mailed me on this matter)

Corner taker: This is the guy who takes all the corners. Unless you changed 
the designated player, it's gonna be that specific player who takes it. 
Passing and Set Pieces are important. Also a low Heading would help to. Why 
isn't Shooting a factor? Well I haven't seen the corner taker scored by a 
corner all by himself.

Penalty taker: The guy who takes the penalty. The one with highest Shooting 
should take this, but sometimes a guy with 19 Shooting fares off better than 
a guy with 20 Shooting. Hmm.

Anyway, since Conte has a longer experience than Ferrara, he'll be the captain. 
But if Conte's injured, Ferrara can be the captain. Then designate every other 
roles to Del Piero. Yup, that's it.

On to the match.
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OWN GOAL!!! (Oops)

Now all things are set, click [Done] at the roster screen. Unless you screwed 
up some place, it'll ask you if you wanna start the match. Click [Yes], or 
[No] if you're still unsure.
If you found out that it has some warning signals, these may be the possible 
reasons: 
1) You got a player who can't play the match. What you can ONLY do is to remove 
that player from the lineup (including the reserves). It's usually that 
they're injured, suspended, or got an international game.
2) You left out a player. Unless you wanna give the other side a handicap 
or something, click [No] when the game asks if you wanna start the match. 
Fill the number with a player, and go on with the match again.
3) No manually designated captain. The game will automatically designate a 
captain for you, but it's usually a weird choice and you may want to change 
that by clicking [No] when the game asks if you wanna proceed with the match, 
go to "Match Tactics," and re-designate your captain.
Maybe there's more, but these are the ones I can get from my head now.

On to the match, you'll have to click the bar at the bottom (called "Kick 
Off"). Now you'll get a few information, the time counter, the score (at the 
top), the 'message bar' and the possession bar. Here's a few explanations:
Timer - Counts the time, stops when the game ends, the first half is finished, 
or you paused it by clicking your mouse or pressing a key (except [Space]).
Score - The left team is the home team, and the team on the right is the away 
team. A number that indicates the current score is at the right of each team's 
name.
Message bar - Shows you how the game is playing, cards, injuries, corner 
taking, and all that. Oh yeah, it flashes when a team scores too.
Possession bar - It's the possession for the last 5 minutes. Indicates on 
which team is gaining possession, and increases your urge to win the match 
and all that.

Now the game is slow as hell when you clicked the "Kick Off" bar. Press [Space] 
(provided in your keyboard) to speed it up. You can pause the game by pressing 
any button (except [Space]), or clicking with your mouse.
At the pause screen it shows you how the players are performing. You can go 
to the "Match Tactics" screen too, and you can sub players. How do you do 
a sub? Drag the little blue box or the name of the reserves, and release it 
on the name of the player you want to be subbed. Same can be done for starters, 
you can drag them and release them on the player you'd like to be on the field. 
Click [Done], and click [Yes] in the next screen if you're sure you want to 
sub the players. If you click [No] nothing happens.

Have fun with the match...
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More general stuff (and it's random)

How do you know how well do you perform in the season? Well aside from the 
league table, you can click "Board Confidence" in the main screen. Another 
screen pops up, and it shows you the profit/deficit of the team's balance 
and the board's confidence in you. If you're performing very bad, and they 
aren't happy with you, you'll get the boot.
Say you got the boot or you're currently unemployed. What you can do is to 
check out "Job News" in "Manager Info." You'll have to wait for a manager 
to get fired if there's no team in the list of "Job News." If there's one, 
you may choose to apply. They may accept or reject you. Note that the team
that just fired you won't recruit you as manager (even if you apply).

Injuries are bad, everybody knows that. They are pretty random, and it can 
strike you at anytime the computer wants to. Well you may have to deal with 
it...*wink wink*
**
In-game injuries are classified into these:

X is injured. (default injury message)

Then either one of the following would appear:

-He'll be OK.
That means nothing much happens, you're fine but the player will be injured 
at most, a week.

-He's struggling.
The "Match Tactics" screen comes up. Now he can play if you want, but it may 
prolong his injury (unproven). If the game's not important, sub him out. 
Usually the duration is around a week or so.

-He's unable to continue!
Bad stuff, the player must be subbed unless you want to play with 10 guys 
(or whatever you had minus 1). Usually these type of injuries will last from 
a couple of weeks to a month.

-He's been stretched off!
Ouch. This is major! The injury can last from a few weeks to ten years or 
more (I'm not joking). The player must be subbed unless you want to play with 
one guy less.
**

What about the non in-game injuries? Usually they are random, so anything 
can happen. But actually, here's two that you must avoid...the Flu.
The Flu is bad. It spreads around the team, causing everyone injured and 
cannot play in a match unless they recover. But it usually recovers pretty 
fast. But this is bad because there can be like 6 or 7 (or more) starters 
getting injured. And that's bad, mmmkay?
The other one is a (near-)season ending injury. I usually quit the game 
without saving if the injury takes 3 months or more. It takes a REALLY long 
time for the player to recover, even if it's 3 months.

In the game your players can receive three types of warnings: Verbal warning, 
Yellow card, Red card.
Verbal warning - Nothing much. Really.
Yellow card - One more yellow card, and it's a red. Adds 3 disp. points to 
the current total.
Red card - Ousted from the match immediately. Adds 6 disp. points to the 
current total. Suspension as well.
Your players usually receive a red card for deliberate handball. They can 
also do stupid stuff like kicking the ball away, and thus receiving a card.

Red cards kinda depends, but if it's an important game (like a Cup), the player 
can receive up to a 5 match suspension. If your player's disp. points reaches 
24, he'll be suspended for 3 games. If the disp. points reaches 32, he'll 
be suspended for...I think it's 5 games. I think there's one for 36 points 
as well. And so on.

Sometimes at the end of a season the president (remember, you're only the 
manager of the team), seeing a chance for better profit, would decide to 
increase your stadium capacity. Provided that you have enough money, it'll 
usually cost around $10m. I don't see anything good for the team, because 
the president would take the money out of your balance and you may not be 
able to make deals for good players.

If you have a pre-game editor of the players, you should know that some stats 
are zero. It means that they're random. If the "Potential" is -1, it should 
mean that the player's current ability won't change (no idea though).

You can apply for the national team's manager position if either:
1. You type in the manager's name (see Tips and Cheats)
2. Your rep is "Superb" and there is a void in the national team
You can manage both club and the national team. A bit more work will be 
required. 

Transfer status is transfer status of the player (duh). Here are the statuses:
Unavailable - You cannot negotiate with the team who holds this player.
Available - This guy can be negotiated, but it depends on some teams (like 
Roma not letting me offer a price for Totti and lets some other teams 
negotiate)
Transfer listed - This player is not needed OR he requested to be transfer 
listed.
For loan - This player is available for loan (but sometimes not for sell).
Free - This player is in the free transfers market.
Retired - This player has retired (not shown in the game).

The little symbols next to their names in the roster:
Unh - This player is unhappy for some reason. He'll request to be placed in 
the Transfer List sometime.
Lst - This player is transfer listed.
Loa - This player is available for loan.
Req - This player is transfer listed by his request.
Inj - This player is injured.
Int - This player has an international match to play and can't play for your 
team.
Ctr - This player's contract is about to (or has) end(ed).
Fgn - This player is a foreign player (non EU).
Wnt - This player is wanted by other clubs.

Usually when a player is young (as in 16-19/20) his stamina and strength are
pretty low, but will rise when he gets older (it'll rise when it's his
birthday). When a player's getting old (31+) his stamina, strength and pace
will fall. While these 3 stats fall when it's the player's birthday, other
stats are untouched. However, there are some exceptions to players on both
matters. I had a player retaining his stamina, strength and pace even at
the age of 34. And when he retired his stamina and strength are only 9.

Players retire when:
1) They are getting too old (and they know it)
2) They are getting old and their contract ends
3) They got a career-ending injury
Players and computer managers can only retire at the end of a season. A message 
will appear telling you that a certain player in your team retired. Managers 
who retire (excluding you) also have messages telling you that they've 
retired. When players retire or get old, they may become managers.
Players will not come out of retirement when they retire, but a 'new' version 
of them will appear at the next season. I.e. players reincarnate themselves.
--------
Tips & Cheats

I'm against cheat codes, there's almost none in CM 97/98 anyway. But here's 
a nifty thing: Press [*] when you need to quit the game immediately. It's 
good when you're in a bad situation and would like to 'change the fate,' a 
season-ending injury for your player, or just to 'escape' in time so that 
you boss won't find out that you're playing this game.

Here's a neat trick for maxing out players' price when other teams (more than 
3) are bidding for one of your players:
When somebody wants to negotiate with you for a player (say Pessotto, he's 
not too expensive and teams like this guy), they'll usually give a price lower 
than the player's actual price. IF and only if there are more than 3 teams 
that's interested, you can click [Consider] for the first team who bids 
Pessotto. Then, the second team will come and ask for a deal with the same 
price. Reject it. Then the 3rd, reject it. You'll notice the 3rd team would 
pay a higher price than the last 2. Still, reject it. For the 4th team, click 
[Consider] so that you'll have at least 2 teams that will go into a deal with 
you. For the 5th (if there's one), click [Consider]. Now Pessotto has a higher 
market price now, depending on his skills. You can sell him with the maxed 
out price. A neat little trick to squeeze their wallets.

You can also be the manager for a national team. Just type in their respective 
names when you choose a national team (like Ericksson for England etc.)
--------
Strategies for certain teams (not current)

Inter Milan - Like in real life, they don't cooperate well. First thing in 
hand is to strengthen the defense. Don't hesitate to transfer list most of 
the defenders. The offense is too good to be dumped.

Bologna - The defense (except the keeper) should have a facelift. Get better 
midfielders since yours is only average. Dump most forwards except Signori. 
Use the first season as more of an 'experiment,' but your team should shine 
in the second one.

Parma - Assuming that Thuram isn't gone, you got an extremely steady starting 
defense. Buy some backup defenders, grab a midfielder at the left side, and 
you're pretty much done.

Lazio - It's a small mess. Too many good foreign players (3 non-EU max), so 
maybe dump Simeone. The defense isn't bad, but you might want to dump an 
excessive DR or two.

AC Milan - Too many midfielders. Uh, do something about it. I reckon that 
you can throw away some crappy midfielders. Get some good defenders. Try a 
3-5-2 formation. You're pretty much set.

Fiorentina - First, you don't need 5 goalies. Dump some. The defenders are 
around average.

Man Utd - Use the lineup that Sir Alex uses currently.

Arsenal - 4-4-2 or 4-3-1-2 are the best formations for this team. It doesn't
need much fine tuning, but watch out for the aging defense.

Liverpool - This team's stacked full of players ranging from good to really
good. Not much tampering is needed I guess...

--------
Well that's pretty much what I could think of right now. Here's a Q & A section 
for you guys who need questions. Feel free to send me questions (non technical 
please) to penguin_wong@hotmail.com, and I'll put it up here if I can answer 
it.

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Q & A

How do I slow down the match after I speed it up?
Press [Space] again.

Can I do multiple substitutions at one time in a match?
Yes, you can.

I designated *a player* for *certain role* when playing in a match. After 
the game it's resetted.
That's how the game works, say if I have Baggio as captain after Conte was 
subbed (who was the default captain), after the game Conte will resume his 
captain job. Baggio was only captain of that game. Same for other roles.

How do I get *a certain player that's not in your team*?
It depends if the player's interested in your team or not, and if he's 
available or not.

I gave *loads of money* to *a certain team* for *a certain player* but he 
won't come even though that team lets me negotiate with him!!
He's not interested in your team, or he's happy with his current status.

I can't add more players to my roster by negotiations.
You have reached the max number of players in your team, free some unwanted 
guys if need be.

Why do some players have darker names? And why I can't do anything about 
him (transfer list etc.)?
Those are temporary players. The game generates temporary players when you 
don't have enough players for a certain position. But you need roster space 
for temporary players to appear. They'll disappear when you have enough 
players for that position.

Why does *a certain team* has 12 players instead of 11 players in a match 
after they subbed a guy out?
That's a bug, SI still can't find the reason behind it. They have stopped 
development in the CM 2 series anyway.

What are scouts? 
Scouts are officials who finds the best players in a certain place. There 
are three types of scouts: League scouts, EU scouts, and World scouts. There 
are 3 league scouts, 1 EU scout and 1 World scout. The league scouts look 
for good players in the league and recommend them if they think it's good. 
EU scout goes around Europe, and World scout goes around the world. Note that 
EU scout doesn't cover the league you're in, and World scout doesn't cover 
Europe (and the league you're in). They also "highly recommend" certain 
players as well. But their judgements aren't so good, else it's dead obvious 
(Del Piero is highly recommended etc).

What if I play without a GK?
Just got the news from my friend. #3 (usually the DL spot) will take place 
as goalie.

I got this certain player whom I haven't even heard of, but he got nice stats
...is he good?
While this may sound bizarre, the stats won't actually reflect on how the
player will perform. It depends on his current ability and the potential
(both are hidden stats BTW). I once had a striker which had shooting 20 but
he does jack squat in matches (he moved on, and continues jack squatting in
other teams). I guess it's better to use that player in unimportant matches,
and if he shows something good, then you can slowly bring him up.

How do I make my players' morale and/or form superb?
First, you need to win matches. A losing squad won't see players having a
good morale and/or form. But, sometimes it's pretty weird, as one of the
players you constantly left alone in the squad gets superb in both.

Are you going to use another team instead of Juventus as an example?
No. Juventus is a good team for starters, and it's best to work with a 
'starters' team, then move on to the other teams on your own.

Can you play my game for me?
No.

Are you REALLY good at this game?
I'd say I'm between 'pro' and 'good' because my scores haven't cranked up 
to the millions yet.

Your roster update isn't working.
Don't ask me here, the update has a readme.txt that kinda explains it all.

Where can I download your roster update?
See top of FAQ.

I got more stuff to add for your FAQ. How can I find you?
penguin_wong@hotmail.com

Blah blah expletive expletive curse curse...
Thanks for your concern.
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Legal disclaimer

All this is written by Penguin himself. Anyone cannot post or edit this FAQ 
without the consent of myself. If you were to post it, please give credit 
to me after asking for my permission. If you were to rip this FAQ and put 
it under your name, you have violated the laws and will be reported. This 
document is for private & personal use only and cannot be 
distributed/reprinted/edited for commercial purposes.
Any further questions can be e-mailed to penguin_wong@hotmail.com.

The Championship Manager series is developed by Sports Interactive and 
published by Eidos Interactive.
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Final words

Shameless self-promotion:
Aero Fighters/Sonic Wings 2 FAQ

I hope my 'guidance' (more like making you do things) has helped you in your 
way of the Championship Manager 97/98. Hopefully you will become a 
full-fledged manager with your own style and players.
Remember that this game is addicting and you should only play it during your
free time. If you got more important stuff in hand, I guess it's better to
do that.

Thank yous:
Kenny - Soccer guru, CM fanatic, the man who introduced me to the CM scene.

Sports Interactive - Thank you for making me addicted to this game, but CM 
3 is a bit too complicated for me.

You - For reading another long FAQ of mine. You made it to the end. You must 
be all over the game.
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Written by Penguin (da P)
penguin_wong@hotmail.com