TM Ireland - Trophymanager Ireland

Upgrade Your Youth Development.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, Youth Development would be it. The long-term benefits of Youth Development have been proven by successful managers, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and skill of your players. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and skill of your players until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 seasons, you'll look back at your league history page and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how good your team really was. You are not as bad as you imagine.

Don't worry about the red card bug. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your team are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind like too many users are trying to do something at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Also, Use Sunscreen

Scout Players.

Don’t be reckless with formation choice. Take advantage of teams who are.

Get your FITA License.

Don't waste your time on building a roof. It doesn’t really work and its definitely not worth it.

Remember the victories. Forget the defeats where their keeper got MOM and a 10 rating. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old scout reports. You never know when you might use them.

Use Player Notes.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your team. The best managers I know didn't know after 3 seasons what they wanted to do with their team. Some of the most experienced managers I know still don't.

Be sure before you put a player on the TL. This can’t be undone. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you'll win the League, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll win the Cup, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll get relegated, maybe you'll win the World cup as NT manager. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your games still involve luck. So do everybody else's.

Enjoy the forums. Use them in every way you can. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice. They are the greatest instrument you’ll use to get help.

Buy Pro, even if it’s just to realize you didn’t need it. You do.

Read the User Guide, even if you don’t follow everything it says.

Do not read ‘Players over 200K ASI’ threads. They will only make your team look rubbish.

Train your players properly when they’re blooming. You never know when they’ll stop. Take care of their key stats. They’re the best chance you have of making an average player better.

Understand that players come and go, but good coaches are hard to find. Spend the money to get coaches as close to 90% as possible, because the more players you get, the more you need coaches to train and get the most out of them.

Manage the NT team once, but leave before it makes you hard. Manage in Armenia once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Routine.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Transfer prices will rise. Big Teams will get arrogant. You, too, will get relegated. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you first started, Transfer prices were reasonable, big teams were noble and new managers took advice from more experienced Managers.

Take advice from more experienced Managers.

Don’t expect your attendance to support you. Maybe you'll pull a 20* youth. Maybe you’ll have a great cup run. But outside of your own youth players, you can’t be sure of income.

Don’t mess around too much in the Cup. A win is worth double the fans.

Be careful whose advice you take, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the Youth Development.