Blackburn Rovers for CM2007

I’ve never really explored Championship Manager 2007 that much when I received the game CD.

Previously I installed it, played it awhile before forgetting about it.

It is indeed a ‘forgettable’ game, being that nothing striking attracts me at first glance after installing.

I chose the English league. Click thumbnail to enlarge picture.

The graphics isn’t that much pretty to look at. The skin could be better and the icons used are rather bland. Aesthetically there’s room for improvement.

Well I decided to give it another go. The installation was really fast, under 3 minutes or less. I did choose one league, the English league.

After that, the creation of my game was even faster. I reckon it’s because the game database for CM2007 is much smaller than Football Manager.

Well for 07 edition of CM, I chose Blackburn Rovers for team management.

I just felt like bringing back the glory days to Ewood Park. I do hope I’m up to the challenge.

After being elected as manager I was handsomely given a £29.5 million pounds of transfer kitty. That’s rather large.

I’m not too familiar with the Rovers team, so I used my Assistant Manager opinion to weed out players that’s of no use.

My bid for Leo Messi was in vain. Barca ask for an exhorbitant price for him! Click thumbnail to enlarge picture.

I offloaded them cheap to bring about another few millions into the transfer budget. Anyway I like my first team to be compact and small.

Unlike Rafael Benitez, I don’t like to tinker and always rotating my players. A person needs a purpose in life. So as in CM2007, I should stick and have faith to a certain player for that specific position.

My first team and reserved team number of players dwindled by half within a few weeks time. Many players have left after being sold, even those with big reputation wasn’t spared if I find them a surplus.

I did bring-in Pizarro from AS Roma, Agger from Liverpool, Bayern’s Ludas Podolski and Brazillian Marcelinho Carioca. I find that buying players in CM2007 is far much ‘easier’ than in Football Manager.

Despite a loss in the second leg, I qualified for the next stage of UEFA Cup. Click thumbnail to enlarge picture.

My first few friendlies were easy-peasey, nothing to worry about, but I did lose humiliatingly to Benfica 4-1. It’s just one of those days where everything went wrong.

Tactic-wise I sticked to the formidable 4-4-2. English teams just love this formation and it works well in such a pacey league and climate.

As for my staff, I didn’t do much change other than bringing in a new coach and physio. There was a few staff that was unemployed with good reputation at the start of the game. I snatched them up fast.

Currently I’m doing well in the league, fourth in the table, no losses, but plenty of draws. A game came into mind was a recent one against Chelsea. I knew their midfield would be world-class, so I stifled the middle of the field with my own five midfielders. I walked away with a deserving draw from the match.

My Brazilian player Carioca was a surprisingly good player even at 35 years of age. He’s cheap too! Click thumbnail to enlarge picture.

I did finally lost a match, not in the league but my UEFA Cup match. After a convincing first leg win of 3-0 against Club Brugge, I had an abysmal showing even with home-court advantage.

I lost the return leg 1-0. The Belgian side played a perfect soak-and-attack game. Their counter-attack got my team on the lapse and we conceded a goal early. Despite relentless attack, my Rovers couldn’t break their defences down.

My next match would be against Middlesborough in the league. An away game and the punters put better odds for my team. Despite that I can’t be too cocky, as my team performances are still inconsistent, well gotta plug-up the gaps in the team.