Subject: good div 4 manager looking for active new player who needs help.

Quick check:

- You joined in August, so your experience is limited to a few league wins and friendlies - wow
- You've expanded your stadium at least 7 times already, in comical fashion
- You have 14 players with an average age of over 27, which you could get away with if training goalkeepers. As your starting keeper from Sunday is 30, that'd be dumb too
- In the mid to long-term you're totally screwed, and you wish to advise others on how to follow your path

In your defence:

- Sorry, I really can't come up with anything


Go back and re-read the newbie guides. Then read the rules, and read the newbie guide again. No mentor with a clue about this game would suggest buying & training old players whilst needlessly spending £200k+ on stadium expansions. An easy IV is the perfect opportunity to bring in 10 trainees, patiently train them and still get results. Oh well.

I joined in Feb 2009 and am now in my second season of Sokker and dont consider myself to be anywhere near mentor status. I agree with dj about training school - I have managed to keep 14 place going from the off as I believe it is my biggest opportunity to make money/increase my squad strength from talented trainees....... you do need a bit of luck here too! I have only just now expanded my stadium to 4900 seats but only because I could afford it and also can fill all seats most games. Without my 33 year old striker I have one of the youngest teams in England and concentrate on training as this will reap me rewards in the long term.... hopefully!!

Listening to the experienced players (old'uns) has helped me in my success so far and hopefully will be auto promoted at the end of this season! Thanks to all that have answered my seemingly silly questions and those higher division teams that put themselves out to play us weaker teams in a friendly. Cheers!

Seems a little harsh to me - I'd imagine ragnarokflame is fairly young and just trying to be helpful..
I'd certainly agree that he needs some more experience...well...quite a lot actually, ok LOTS more, but the brutal slating is a little OTT...as, for an example of not what to do when you first start his; "I did X, Y & Z.. therefore you should avoid doing X, Y & Z" advice to newbies could be invaluable..or is it valueless? Eitherway, give him a break you big bully ;-)
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harsh - but reasonably fair as the 3 priorities for a new team are

1 training
2 training
3 training

and ragnarokflame is far from mastering them yet
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But, on the flip side, he is a shining example of what not to do...so could still be usefull..

Harsh? Possibly, but if it serves as a wake-up call then I'll have done ragnarokflame a favour. If it stops some poor unsuspecting newbie following ragnarokflame's tutorage then, going by current set-up, I'll have done them a favour too.

Enthusiasm is great, but there's a recent history of people possessing it also needing a reality check. It's definitely not too late for rag to sort their team out and undo the damage - but if they think they know best then fair enough. Bully or not, anyone making basic errors that wishes to teach others how to play deserves to be set straight.

I'd love to know who rag's mentor is though. It's not you, is it? :)

my money is on ken or sty

I think Ken is now a lot better than he used to be and learnt from his initial mistakes. His side is fairly strong now and doing well in III.

1) no im not young
2)i earn per home game 4 times more than a player i talk with on this who has been in it for 4 seasons and i have overtaken him as far as team, tactics and income go.
3) the reason i have fairly old players is because i am getting good players for little money who have a few seasons left. i would be a mug to spend all my money on a few expensive young players who will be useless in division 3 unless i have a super trainin system which i cant afford considering a decent coach alone costs nearly all of the sponsorship moneyper week in wages alone.
4)i am looking a dead cert for top spot this season over a combined 11 seasons experience from the 2 other competetive teams who have both won the league at least twice but never been premoted.
5)wouldnt u rather (if say i have as u say no experience) help someone who will get no other help, to get a foothold.


i was told the forums were fair and friendly and if this is what the "good" managers are like then these forums are skrewed. im gonna win my league and be in a better position than most div 4 teams in only my first season. all of my players bar 2 have at least 3 seasons left and i can easily replace them as they retire. u act like u know all this but i have asked other successful managers that are at least div 3 and started not too long ago and they all said they couldnt afford a youth system in div 4. all the money i spent on my stadium was spare as i need no more buys this season and i am packing out my stadium against players who have only logged on a few times. say what u will but i am proving u wrong. my offers still open
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Can I just make a few suggestions?

1) Concerning your stadium you would be far better putting seats down the side before you attempt the corners or the end as that will give you more money.

2) You do not have to spend a fortune on trainees, my first trainee here cost me 10k and is now my best player and definately Premier division class. What do you train out of interest?

Whilst you are almost certainly going to win your IV I would say that in III you would struggle with your current setting. The older players do not train effectively and will lose you money when you sell them unless you buy for a bargain etc.

Tell me to mind my own business if you like, but I am just trying to help. ;)

yeah ok wdp i appriciate it. if u have doubts at least do it like u have coz its alot more mature.
1) i only did the corners (small amounts of seats if u look) to get rid of the standing places and as a cheap way to expand a frequently sold out stadium which makes sense. the benches and terraces were done b4 i knew wtf i was doin at all so that explains them.
2) yeah but without a top coach im unlikely to get any trainees good enough to be in first team and i cant rele afford good normal team training staff when im only gettin max 30k budget on away league fixture weeks(this includes sponsorship, friendly money and season holders) and on average i have 25k wages to pay with 6k miscellanious and 3k stadium maintenance plus whatever it will cost for my youth places. therefore if im gettin a few more coaches with like 5k at least a week wages i will be in the red even when im playin home games.
3) i did get a fair few players at bargain prices and my most expensive ones are likely to still be decent div 3 players according to other managers.
my plan tbh is to get to div 3 just for partly the experience and financial bonuses (although could dent my support). i would find it a bonus to hold onto a div 3 spot at the end of only my 2nd season although i will try. i have tactics already sorted for bigger teams (for example see my friendly against stourport stormers and hopefully my next friendly)

Ok well the thing about the stadium is that once you sell out those corners they then buy the next available seats, so if you expand the sides they buy there as they have no other choice and that would gain you some much needed extra income.

As far as coaches goes, I started off with a coach who had Unearthly in the skill I trained only, I started off training pace and my coach cost me very little really. I got a lot of pops though as I had young players and a head coach with Unearthly Pace. I also had 3 assistants, none were above Solid Coaches and cost very little.

With 22 cheap young players, which you can get and even talented ones if they have poor skill distribution......you can make a lot of money from the pace pops and random pops which you will still get from coaches who are not fantastic. This would make you far more money, and as you do so you can buy better trainees for your team and also improve your coaching setup.

I started off in IV like all others did and managed to get up with a very young team, I also ran a Youth Academy with a Formidable YC to start off with, I did make a two weekly loss but I budgeted for it. Plus I did get a couple of decent youth pulls that more than paid for the Youth Academy.

You are clearly doing well now but I do fear that your medium to long term strategy is going to affect your enjoyment of the game.

You have got a good start to the season and clearly are stronger than the other teams, you could gradually bring in other younger trainees now imo.

In IV the strongest teams do not always win, strong tactics are the best bet. In IV I had the 4th best ratings but still won my IV and gained promotion. All the while this was happening I was building a team of players who were improving fast.

I do not know who your mentor is but I do not think they have helped you in the correct way, and I do not mean that nastily. They obviously feel they are helping you but in a seasons time if you are struggling in III which I fear you will then things will feel a lot different to you than they do currently.

PS the new fan mood system would probably stop your fans being affected too badly if you do lose more games in III.

Hope that helps..... ;)

As you deserve a response.

1) I'm not fussed whether you're 5 or 105 - age doesn't matter (I didn't mention you age at any point in fairness). Your posts speak for themselves.

2) Taking just one of your many ingenious stadium expansions, changing 100 standing in a corner to 200 seats costs over £23,500. How long will it take you to make a profit on that investment?

Ignoring that though, I suspect you're comparing yourself to someone utterly clueless on what they're doing and/or proclaiming yourself a superior tactician just a tad too quickly.

3) I agree that there is value in buying some cheap, older players to help get results, as this will aid filling a 3,100 ground each week, boost sponshorship and fan numbers - that's fine. Doing this without a training regime or a youth school is, as you will discover, a bad idea in the mid to long-term. Money for starting clubs is tight - fact. This is why getting things right at the start is vital. All I see in you is a complete lack of patience to purchase and train players, with a view to getting results now and instant success. If your goal in sokker is to win your league this season then you're doing great, but if it's to progress up the leagues then you've gone wrong. Believe me - I'll be delighted when you prove me wrong.

4) I'm not sure what planet you're on here. Five of your seven league rivals have have started this month, and all seem to have given up. Another got his team a week after you did, and has succeeded only in blowing some cash on one stadium upgrade. The last manager, Bristol Shot, seems content to play in Div IV and create a big stadium - this isn't the case for most managers. I'm sure your 5-2 win against him owed nothing to a red card his defender received in the 2nd minute either...

5) I'd rather a newbie read the Newbie Guide and Rules through, then ask any questions they like on the forum. A mentor should know what they're talking about - and there are plenty of willing candidates that can do that already. I don't think you can correctly advise anyone on anything that isn't covered in the Newbie Guide - so unless your mentoring consisted solely of pointing people to it, it's unlikely to be beneficial.


The forums are fair and friendly to everyone that's respectful of other users. Plenty of people come on here and get what they're after, whether that be tips on how to start or progress, or get friendlies against experienced managers in bigger stadiums for extra revenue. All I've done is show up how much nonsense you've come up with, rather than bow down and accept your greatness. Sorry about that. Like I said, go ahead and prove me wrong - just don't take other managers down the same path in the process.

m8 u srsly have some issues. i am keepin those corners at 200 no matter how high i go. it was only to stop myself havin crappy standin places coz it was annoyin me. i never said i had a hard division i did say there are 2 other competetive teams. i agree although the sending off helped me it was likely to be the same result as he drew 2 times against a teams i have hammered. my team is 100% better than then also. as u basically insulted me in not so many words i think u should follow ur forum advice and show some respect.

I forgot to acknowledge that you speak sense, and that you'd probably make a fine mentor going by that post. Keep it up!

thanks for the advice but im already doing all of this that u have said. my apparently "bad mentor" told me about it a while back and it has been in my long term plans the whole time. i have been working on getting a coach who only has unearthly pace training and thats it. with the assistants as all solid hopefully. i worked it out that now i have my stadium as it is i am making a small profit when u take the away league weeks losses away from the home league weeks profits. this is where i want to be. then once i have trained some young slow players in pace i will sell them again hopefully for a profit whilst working 6 places in the youth academy with a solid coach also (i know not good enough but better than nothing) the intention is to replace the players as they retire with my best youth or players i have bought with money gained from selling youth i have worked on. there is no chance i could fund this without my stadium being this big otherwise i would be makin massive losses. my mentor isnt bad at all and he has helped me alot. i wouldnt be close to where i am now without him helping me. he also suggested what i am doin for my long term plan. my current team is merely to get established and promotion is a bonus.