“My advice to you is after this is done, vacate Miami”
- Sonny Crockett, Season 1, Miami Vice
Intro
The purpose of this post is to demonstrate to myself (and to you: the reader) the reasons for me doing something. I feel it’s the bit that matters most in terms of Football Manager writing…otherwise what is the point? Always ask yourself why. Why should I do something this way? Why should I care about doing this? Why should my readers care? Because asking yourself ‘Why?’ really forces you to determine if this is the right course [or not]. Florida, USA is the right course.
I’m keeping my save introduction relatively short this year, because ultimately my MLS stint is likely to be short too: a two/three season multimedia adventure with Inter Miami…and then remnants of whatever can logistically happen after [Destination TBC, I go with the flow]. There’s a semi-story arc, there’s certainly a definite end to the madness that’s unfolded over the last two editions of Football Manager (FM20 & FM21) and I hope you can join me…
Why Inter Miami in FM22?
So, the answer to my titular question is today’s focus…I hope to answer it with four reasons below:
(1) Miami: Capital of Latin America
There’s no secret that the story drives some of my save decisions, especially regarding where I start from each year. The narrative I build in my head in this current ‘Bastardoverse’ has led me across multiple destinations in Latin America…so it’s little wonder then that I eventually end up in what’s known as the ‘Capital of Latin America’: Miami, Florida. It is estimated that 70% of Miami’s population is either Hispanic or Latino (of any race) with Cuban being the most significant, in what is known as a US majority-minority area (something the whole country is predicted to be by 2043). It’s a place where Ángel Bastardo would naturally agree to see out his final two terms of ‘jail time’, whilst managing Club Internacional de Fútbol Miami for his people. A quote from former anti-communist Cuban activist Armando Valladares perhaps sums Miami nicely:
“It’s a unique case in the history of the United States where the identity of a city was born, in a sense, in another country.”
Not only does the Hispanic population factor into my decision making, Miami has personally always been one of the more attractive American cities. Culturally via TV/Film/Music and Gaming, Florida is the setting of some of the most influential crime/action dramas such as Miami Vice, Scarface, Blow, Baywatch [the underrated 2017 movie] and Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach. It’s also the stereotypical reference point for a lot of 80s music, and its modern day retrowave counterpart, that just makes my working day that little bit more bearable! Then throw in PlayStation 2’s Vice City (a city modelled on Miami), which I grew up playing with my brothers, there is no cooler place to manage in.
Whilst my Northern Irish counterpart in this save (see entry below) will no doubt be picking a save somewhere in the cold woodlands of the north…I’ll be in and amongst the vibrant colours of Miami, where the Flamingos stand on one leg eating shrimps all day in the sun; that’s the place I want to start FM22!
(2) Friendship over troubled waters
In the years between graduation from University and marriage/mortgage/children, I left the house a lot more to pursue other adventures/pastimes…I therefore did not play the game that much and there was no social element to me playing FM. I had around eight years of undocumented single player offline saves - I remember hardly any of it. However, since fatherhood-induced-FM Blogging began…I've found some really nice friends to produce content with, content that remains on my blog. From blogging to podding…I love that social side to FM nowadays. It reminds me somewhat of my University era (and even some years before that), where I would play network saves with mates or share in each others narratives. In my opinion, the social element that FM can bring was heightened during the lockdown months of 2020/21, not just personally but across a lot of the content creator scene. With certain levels of normality returning towards the second half of 2021, should we therefore all try to go back to ‘normal’ as before? I don’t think so…I am instead transitioning to a 'new normal' and I believe my FM22 plans are a reflection of this.
I'm not sure when I began talking to Chris aka FM Eadster, but he's definitely improved my life. Naturally our discussions around content/FM get a bit crazy, as we both have a natural inclination to think and write creatively. The wild stories of Bastardo and Chepiga are pretty absurd, whose activities around drugs/espionage/geopolitics make entertaining discussions (for us at least). We now often find ourselves talking about our saves with one another prior to writing things up, and our decision to move into the same virtual house (coffeehousefm.com) blurs the lines even more, as we can now dip in-and-out of one another's draft posts.
We're therefore merging our stories (and content) even further this year for FM22 by streaming a shared network save. This will see us meet up over a call 2-3 times a week whilst we traverse the small matter of MLS draft/league systems (more on that later). It will not be a fast playstyle by any means, for that reason we are only aiming to complete two/three seasons before we break away from one another and take our various save files ‘offline’. This should, in our opinion, provide another unique way of consuming our content…as we may see conflicting save narratives build up in our respective write ups. We also intend to stream most, if not all, of our MLS adventure together on Twitch - with the finer details confirmed at a later date. However, it does mean that this save is likely to kick off a few weeks after FM22's release…just to make sure the game is safe and stable before we dive in. Feel free to stop by and say hi, twitch.tv/fm_grasshopper.
Note - I will still blog this save, I love writing and can’t think of anything better to do during the long dark nights to come.
(3) Major League Soccer
I have played Sports Interactive management simulations for over 20 years, and I would say a large portion of these years was always spent in my comfort zone: Europe. Mostly just a few nations in Europe too: England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain (with the exception of good saves in Czech Republic and Sweden). However, since deciding to write about the game from 2015 I’ve taken the approach of going to a few nations I’ve never been to. I no longer feel deterred by fancy league structures of mind puzzling rules, in fact I now see them as a good mental challenge to overcome.
Major League Soccer is one of those fancy league structures. With no promotions/relegations, footballers moved upwards in the pyramid via college drafts. Clubs can exchange players by offering draft picks, waiver them when they do not wish to use them and even unregister injured players temporarily. Then there is the financial element, with some superstar players sitting outside of a reserved allocation. The disparity in terms of squad player and MVP wage can be ridiculously far apart. Much of North American ‘soccer’ feels alien to the European fan.
I think for this reason, MLS gets a bad press. If I’m honest, there is a lot to like about how the Americans have done things in not just football, but also sport in general. They are light years ahead of much of the Globe in terms of the statistical interpretation of sports performance data. They also put fan experience at the heart of their ‘spectacle’. So, I’m giving MLS a go…even if I don’t see it as a league I want to manage in for long; which is a nice segue into my next justifying reason for Inter Miami in FM22.
(4) Short-termism & square pegs in round holes
Inter Miami have recently created a scandal from their own handiwork by messing up the registrations of their Designated Players (knows as DPs). It’s especially damming for a club to be in preparation for a number of years and still get one of the fundamentals of MLS squad registration so disastrously wrong: by trying to justify the signing of 33-year-old World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi with Targeted Allocation Money (known as TAM) and some real estate supplements thrown in. The league favoured against the Miami club and fined them around $2m in the process. Matuidi should have been a DP along with Gonzalo Higuaín (33), Rodolfo Pizarro (27) and Matías Pellegrini (21)…meaning that one had to go in order to make three again.
Matías Pellegrini struggling to get off the boat and on to dry land in Miami!
If you want to see an example of Inter Miami’s short-term approach, then look no further than the treatment of ex-Estudiantes de La Plata forward Matías Pellegrini - who was bought out from his contracted and loaned to lower league affiliate club Fort Lauderdale…just so Matuidi could be properly registered [again] for the 2021 MLS season. After training for a number of weeks away from the squad, the 21-year-old eventually re-signed with Estudiantes on loan.
Whilst some MLS clubs, notably Atlanta and FC Cincinnati, are recruiting highly rated young DPs for their First Team; Inter Miami’s approach to transfers (and the treatment of Pellegrini) seems focussed on the short term with no apparent strategy in place. The club is paying around $11m for two players nearing retirement (Higuaín and Matuidi) and a Mexican Attacking Midfielder in Pizarro who has yet to prove himself outside of Mexico’s Liga MX. It’s the highest combined DP salary in the league, and I’m not sure it’s deserving of it!
I’ll now move on to Phil Neville’s recruits (or at least that’s who I am crediting with these deals), with Premier Legends Kieran Gibbs and Ryan Shawcross joining Miami in Summer 2021. Both in their 30s, and probably looking for their last big pay cheque, neither signing fills me with confidence or argues against my theories that Inter Miami are not focussed on anything other than the next 6-12 months. Maybe this will prove to be an effective strategy in real-life? Yet, I cannot help but feel some succession planning and foresight is needed. Whilst I intend my stay to also be short, my aim over the next 24 months is to provide a platform, at the very least, for younger players to ply their trade here. Whether that’s moving on a DP and going for somebody younger with potential OR use the various draft options and fit youngers players into a system that suits remains to be seen.
Tactically, the way the squad has been assembled means not everything will suit. I feel that I have to make use of my $11m DPs, and then fill around the holes with what I am calling ‘square pegs’…essentially guys that have been thrown together in a scattergun way that perhaps don’t share a common identity or footballing philosophy. It’s a great challenge to have, and something I look forward to relishing in what I think will be a 4-1-4-1 /4-3-3.
Too long; didn’t read
I am managing Inter Miami in FM22 (post-full release) for the first two/three seasons of my save - providing I don’t get sacked in the first few months. Why?
Because many Hispanic/Latino people live there, and I love the vibe.
Because I want to catch up with my friend Chris in a regular network save setting.
Because Major League Soccer represents a sizeable headache, and it will be a good mental hurdle to overcome.
Inter Miami have a very imbalanced squad, and a tactical system will need to be tailored to suit them.
I don’t really have aims or aspirations right now, just to have fun and meet the Board’s criteria. Thanks for reading/sharing and caring,
Tony / FM Grasshopper