Oh wow, I step away from my story for a while and a controversy breaks out! I'm a little surprised that it's taken this long, to be honest. I stopped playing my game for a while and I've been off and on with interest lately. When I look at my starting lineup I find
myself a little starstruck with the players in the starting eleven. The funny thing is, and I've mentioned it before, is that Caca isn't even the best striker for Brazil. He's not the best striker in the game (Arsenal? have a Spanish striker that I've posted). And at his age he won't be the best striker for too much longer on the team.
Marcel Hasselbaink is coming into his own and looks like he is gearing up for what is inevitable - the eventual decline of Caca. I've also brought back Mark Phillips after he left me - on a free, no less! - for Barca. I rejoiced when Caca agreed to join me because he replaced another striker that I had lost on a free - Peter Stochl.
Let's bottom line this a bit. I don't cheat. I've logged over 30 days of game time into one save because I've put together a world-class team. I've used FMRTE once - back in FM11 when I tried to modify the South American team I was playing because it had crazy restrictions. I can barely get around FMRTE. I haven't used Genie Scout since FM09. I've wasted vast amounts of transfer money on players that don't work out. Does that sound like the work of any kind of program? For all the stars I have on the team, I relish each and every one of them because I've unearthed them the only way I know how - with a dearth of 20/20 ca/pa scouts, a set of training schedules (in my LOL guide) that I've had in place since day one, top training facilities that I've haggled over with the board for years to attain, and a blossoming youth recruiting network that I'm just now able to start improving. I didn't mention coaches because you know what? I don't have a
single 5 star coach! Let Stam attest to our conversations of how his team is light years ahead of mine in terms of coaching staff.
Looking back at the comment about how I must have modified Caca when he was 15... I laugh a bit because I haven't the slightest clue on how to do that. Truth be told, when I read the forums and see people talking about CA/PA values and how 190 or -something is the best, I have no idea what you guys are talking about. The only CA/PA I know is the current/potential ratings that my scouts have.
And regarding my tactics, it's been mentioned that I have it all laid out in my guide. I've been using the same boring 442 formation since FM10. I used the listed player roles and what not until recently, when I started playing very aggressively up front and very defensively with the back line. Do I think they are awesome? They are for me. I don't advertise them because I've learned one big thing when it comes to tactics - your silver bullet won't work in someone else's gun. When I took the England job I immediately installed my 442. I've been winning, but I've been struggling to put the right pieces together on the pitch to carry out those tactics. The reason I've had so much success with this save is because my tactic is something that I've pieced together since FM10. And as I built my team around it, you have the story that you read here. No edits, no scout program, no nothing. I even had someone suggest once that Caca's inflated goalscoring is due to me reloading games until he scores a bunch. Again, let's bottom line it. I have two young kids, a wife, a dog, a full time job, and countless other interests beyond FM. I rarely have free time to play the game. Do you honestly think I have time to play the same match more than once?

When I set out to write this story I wanted to give the community a good read. I wouldn't dare taint that experience by cheating along the way.