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It seems to me that the Backroom Boys (BRB) market needs a bit of a shake up, since there seem to be so many around that those in the Auction often attract little or no interest. I’m aware that my suggestions may seem a little radical, but I believe that they would increase interest and add to the tactical options available to managers, without overbalancing the game.
There are two types of BRB. The first operate as now in all cases except for the Youth Coach.
Youth Coach: A youth coach can train one youth player at their position (GK/SW, DF, MF or FW) once per session. Each training is equivalent to playing in one match, e.g. an apprentice who is trained once by a youth coach can only play one match in the same session. No youth player may utilise the services of a youth coach more than once per session. You may own multiple youth coaches and there is no limit on how many may be effective in any session. Youth coaches do not train in the close season. Note that players converting to a Youth Coach do so at their playing position. (Or is that a step too far?)
A new type of specialist BRB is introduced into the game. These are only available in the off‑season auction and cannot be created by converting a player into a BRB. One of each type will be available each off-season at Age I, therefore signing for a two-year contract. (Should they be tradeable? I think not, though if ever we are able to put players into the Auction then it should be possible to do so with these BRBs.) If enough specialist BRBs are introduced into the game then an auction only of those may be needed in the off-season. I’ve tried to make the suggestions such that they aren’t too powerful and also don’t require a major amount of work for Al to add them to the existing code.
Marketing Manager: The Marketing Manager knows how to sell your club and generate interest and support. Each session he generates an additional 50k in revenue for your team. In addition the added support that he generates gives you an extra one level of home advantage.
Fitness Coach: The Fitness Coach really gets to work on your players and generates two CP each session that can only be used to raise the fitness of your players. (These can be added to with real CPs to coach the fitness of older players – the first two spent on coaching fitness will come from the Fitness Coach.)
Psychologist: The Psychologist knows how to get the most out of your players in the biggest games. At the start of each season your team receives an additional 10GPP.
The Professor: The Professor knows how to motivate players to keep them at their peak long after they would have contemplated retirement at other clubs. The coaching costs for players who are Age 3 and above is reduced by 2CP.
Cup Specialist: The Cup Specialist knows how to raise players for Cup games and provides an extra two Home Advantage in all Cup games (whether the team is playing at home, away or at a neutral ground). (This way Al doesn’t need to redesign the order entry screen!)
Readers Comments
Don't like the proposal to the Youth Coach of only being able to coach their area. That'd force a team to keep at least 5 on their roster to develop their own team better in every area in the same season. The "no limit" to youth coaches per team would be disasterous! That would allow teams with multiple old stars to convert to youth coaches - which would only be the stronger teams who had the most players who will survive to age V, SL 2+. If they get lots of youth coaches, then their Sbys will never have to play at all, and the Apps only appear once. So their T11 plays all the time and the strong get stronger. Forcing even the best teams to put out Sbys and Apps each session is the one equalizer the rest of the teams get and can shoot for the upset against. Taking that away makes them all but unbeatable.
Can't say I care for the last three, however the Fitness Coach strikes a positive note with me!
My idea of what a BRB is includes that they have a very definite limit to abilities while being worth having around. The Fitness Coach could fit that bill. Think of it just like a Youth Coach, only a different column. You get one Fitness Coach who can raise the Fitness of any one player by one per session for free. If you also rest the player that session, you get the +2. The only difference between this and spending the CP is that you don't pay for the CP to use. The limit would be with the "just one player" part.
I like this because spending 4 or 5 CP to raise an older player one Fitness level isn't worth it to me. I cringe at the thought of 3, though I'll do it if he's one of the top two at a position for me. Having this guy around eases that burden when recovering a player from injury quicker or getting a team up to full speed at the start of a season. While it's only one player per session, the impact for any given session is very small. Added up though, it you used him on age 3+ players for the first 9 sessions (worthless the last one because all Fit gets reset anyway), you could save 27 or more CP a year! That's huge for a team, while still being just a little thing from session to session.
I love that easy use, easy plan (just one Fitness Coach BRB per team max and a column identical to the Youth Coach one with just Yes/No dropboxes for each player, pick the one you want to get the attention, no player getting Fit BRB also can get CP'd BRB - similar check to Youth Coach + playing time code), good total impact, small immediate impact, and I don't think the code would be overly tedious or problematic to work into the current gameplay. All around, it sounds to me like a good enhancement.