Matthew Le God

- FM has 400,000+ staff in the database, FIFA doesn't even come remotely close to that. - My Saints FM file for example has around 90 different people in it, FIFA's Saints file is tiny in comparison. - FM also has many more leagues and teams than FIFA, even if they aren't playable, it is still possible to play against them. Even teams like Sholing are on FM. - FM also creates players in future seasons all over the world and these names would need to be included.

SI did have commentary for CM2 back in the mid 1990's. But it is unlikely to happen again anytime soon (if ever). Not really needed in a management game and extremely difficult to implement well. Even with the huge budgets EA give FIFA, the commentary still isn't great. Plus given FM has far more players and teams than FIFA, it would be a nightmare to implement.

Are you insane? Do you seriously think the average ticket for Fratton Park is £26? The 9,000 season ticket holders don't pay anywhere near £26 per match. Nor do many of the concessions pay £26 in the walkup (particularly the children). So when you get gates of 12,000 vs Peterborough, match-day income is tiny. Did you go to the Peter Storrie school of accounting?

Because as it is a serious long term injury not sustained in a football match and happened early in the season, it was included.

So what about Jos Hooiveld? So what about a £3.2 million bid accepted for Billy Sharp and confirmed by Adkins? So what about Steve De Ridder signing for Saints and being used mostly upfront so far? So what about Jack Cork signing for £1m and Danny Fox for £1.8m? So what about Lambert, Guly Do Prado, Connolly all in good form and Barnard close to a return? So what about a bid for Jay Rodriguez confirmed by Burnley on their website? So what about Saints scoring 25 Championship goals in 10 games and being top of the league having scored 7 more than anyone else?

He joined aged 18.

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I don't know what happened there. SEGA/SI require the Football League to send them the kits in order to create them for the game. Either the Football League haven't sent it or SEGA/SI have left it out by mistake. I will try and find out what happened, but it won't be changed until a data update now as the game has gone gold.

"Positioning" is a defensive attribute. "Off the ball" is for attacking movement.

The game starts in July 2011, so the player ratings reflect the players in July 2011 i.e. the Championship hadn't started and Saints hadn't stormed to the top of it. That doesn't mean to say players won't improve as you play out your first season, give them games and good training and they will improve, many have good potential ratings. The January 2012 data update will reflect the squad as it is in January, if we still sit top of the league, lots of players will be getting boosts!

He has a high flair, two footedness, dribbling and creativity rating which should make him play as he does in real life.

In order to give him the kind of attributes some of you are talking about, I'd have to make him a 140+ CA player, and I could never justify that at the moment to SI and the other researchers would crucify me!

As I said earlier, should the club maintain current form until January you will see improvements for many Saints players. In any case Lallana is one of the best Championship players in FM12 in terms of CA, certainly one of the best for his position, plus he has a good potetial ability rating so will improve as the game progresses through the first season. I've also made him more two footed than he was in FM11, which takes a large weighting.

Remember this is 1-20 on a world scale. I have to remove my rose tinted Saints glasses for this. The database needs to be balanced and can't have the many researchers working for SI/SEGA overrating all of their own players. We work to guidelines in order to achieve this, and being guidelines they still do allow for some flexibility.

What do you mean by "clunky"? Give it time and I think you will get used to it. I think it is easier to navigate than before. In any case if you still don't like the GUI there will be lots of user created skins to use available soon. His value may be higher, but he doesn't have a current ability rating anywhere near Lallana, Fox, Fonte, Cork or indeed the vast majority of the Saints 1st team squad. That value is largely meaningless and always has been in FM. What stats are you unhappy about?

Yes, if Saints continue as they are until January you will see big improvements for that data update. They needed to prove it before I can justify to SI that they can have higher ratings. In any case many of them already have good ratings for Championship level.

Those values mean very little, it will cost a lot more than that to buy them. Both of them have high CA's for Championship players. I have asked about this so it may change, but bear in mind there are generic kit styles used for every team in the game and many teams even if they have patterned fronts, have plain backs to make numbers easier to read.

Then why does Derby chairman, Tom Glick think otherwise? What counts as "football income" anyway? And where did you read this?

Give the demo a try and see how your computer copes with it.

But why does it matter if it is unrelated to football? It is another sustainable revenue stream to make the football club a stronger business. That is what this financial fair play regulations are here to bring about, football clubs with strong financial revenue streams that can support themselves rather than with huge debts or sugar daddies.

I don't see why using things cafes, restaurants, offices, hotels etc would be an issue. These rules have been brought in to prevent unsustainable expenditure by clubs and relying on sugar daddy's. If clubs find new ways to increase revenue, I don't see why they shouldn't be included in the clubs turnover for the new regulations. They are sustainable long term revenue streams for the benefit of the club.

But is that what the new rules say? Tom Glick in that interview seems to think the cafes, restaurants and offices at the Plaza will count for Derby County. And I'm sure he has looked into this more than any of us have.

No, aintforever used it, not me. Tom Glick clearly sees the Plaza at Pride Park as a way of helping Derby when the regulations come in.

Where have you got the phrase "football income" from?

So where would you draw the line? Do St Mary's concourse sales count towards turnover? Does the Saints store income from West Quay count? Does St Mary's corporate restaurant revenue count? Do conferencing events held at St Mary's on non matchdays count? Does income from the St Mary's megastore count? Does revenue from the online store count? etc etc They all will, and as the Derby excutive states, so will the income from the Plaza at Pride Park. So if Saints were to do similar, it would also count.