i dont understand the point of giving you prize money for the season when you cant keep it. it's just plain dumb. and there is not transparency about how the process works (which could be said about most things on fifa. eg requirements to sell tickets)

also i found in fifa 17 when i'd stack the wages on someone i wanted to sell - so i could get the money back next season - negotiations fell apart.

did you sell a player?  that is what im getting at with squad changes. it definitely impacts my teams performance. i notice a slump at the end of every january/feb start and a slow start to every season.

If it was squad changes I could understand it (to a degree) but this was literally one out, one in.  Re-started the game and immediately won three games 1-0, 5-0, 3-1... And then season has fallen apart again - they score with every attack, I can't buy a goal.  As I said before - if I wasn't getting those wins at the start I'd put it down to me being shit, or my squad not being up to it...  But I win, and easily, then it randomly changes from Legendary mode to Bastard mode.

So is prize money carried over realistically? I won millions in money but only received 6 millions as a budget the next season.

wow.  just brutalised walsall. 8-1.  maclaren puts 5 away.  i think our boys are ready for the championship.

why cant the commentator say the name of the club when you swap in a club? im playing melbourne city in england. it never changes over new releases of games.  the commentator just says nothing and reads out every other team in the table.

also there is a glitch in the team announcement in game.  it will say the other team eg "they are playing a 4231" etc and read out the names of players in the team. but my team the commentator says something like "the home team line up today".,.... then silence.

i always found it hard to win after squad changes.  i push to grind out draws after all transfer windows and then they pick up form.  

Following on from this...  Not sure WTF happened (only sold one player in January), but went from 3rd top in the league, 2nd highest scorers, to only winning 3 games after January - strengthened considerably in the summer transfer window (getting 4 76-80 ranked players back off loan for a start), and started the new season with 1 win, 2 draws, and 4 defeats, plus getting knocked out of the cup...  Aaaaannd, rage quit my own game.

Wouldn't have minded losing games if it had been from the start of the season and I could have blamed it being new game-play, but I had a good first half of the year and was scoring for fun...  Either player confidence is ridiculously important, some kind of bug in the game, or I've had a stroke...

Seems a lot more realistic on the financial side.  Gameplay a little different, especially on the defensive side (you'll notice that on FUT too obviously), goals are easier and more varied - I haven't noticed that I'm scoring the same goal over and over again.  First touches can be shocking (but that's possibly because I'm playing Championship rather than Premier League now).

Final thoughts on career mode so far? Picking up fifa 18 this arvo, might give it a whirl while I set up shop on FUT

Spoke too soon...  January window was excellent and I thought I was set up for the second half of the season...  February/March has seen a draw and 5 (count them) defeats.  Once you lose 2 in a row the players confident drops through the floor and getting them up again is a nightmare... Either that or I was half asleep when I was playing!

Mid February and have already fulfilled all the goals the club set me for season 1 - need a 'mid table' finish and I'm currently in the promotion chase.  VERY interested to see how the step up to Premier League will go (I beat Chelsea in the league cup - smash and grab 2-0 away win - drew 1-1 with West Ham then lost the replay 0-1) - particularly how much cash I'll be given to built a Prem team...  Just need to grind out the results between now and then.

Agree defending is tougher, players don't turn as fast and overshoot the player when you try to cover.  Tackling not as precise either.  Easier to score goals though - so more realistic scores.  Have won games 5-2 and 5-3 this season.  Comedy defending but wicked fast attacks with my wingers cutting inside.  Also the midfield claiming a lot more goals.

also. Angel Gomes from man united. 16 years old. starts with a 64 and a 89 potential.

signed him for 900k and sfa wages.  he's only up to 68 at 3 months in but is absolutely killing it from an attacking mid position.  best of my 4 wonderkids.

i havent ever been fired but it would really shit me off after putting so much time into the team.  so i dont overdo difficulties.

i bought in mooy, sainsbury and maclaren into the squad before loading a new career. it gets annoying try to chase down a few decent aus signings every time i start, so i did it like that.  i had about 6 millions euros to stock the team.  out of the original city squad only budz, fornaroli, fitzgerald and jameison made the 11. fitz is playing fullback.

it's tougher to defend this time.  although ive only just switched to legendary for the first time, so that is probably all the difference.

really interesting tactic with the long ball setting.  i set my team up for tiki taka and possession and try so move the ball quickly up the pitch with short passes and lots of little through balls.  i play a 4 2 2 2 with no wings just a defensive box and an attacking box with the fullbacks running their guts out up and down the sides.  i find the defensive mids sit back to much and dont move forward into attacking passing options when they are open.  that's pretty frustrating watching mooy hang back when you know he would overload the front and have a clear space for a shot if he pushed up a bit.

Sunderland (as usual) on Legendary.  Half a season in.  Finances seem a little more realistic (in terms of being very hard to get a bargain) - although the starting wages of my squad are stupidly low (in reality we are over-stretched and haemorrhaging cash).  Have absolutely nothing to spend which will make things very interesting if I get promoted at the end of the season.

For anyone playing outside the top leagues - can thoroughly recommend picking up Gyrano Kerk, a very quick and young Dutch striker/winger who can be signed for around 2.5m; and as a target man Ridge Munsy, a journeyman playing in Switzerland, who you can nick for a million.

I'm finding a 4-3-3 is working a lot better than my usual 4-3-1-2 formation.  Also using 'long ball' rather than 'counter attack', even though I tend to play a close-passing game, as it gives me the option to launch the occasion long pass over the top.  Using a lot of short through-balls as regular passes too.

Also, to make things even tougher - I edited the squads to return all of Sunderland's real life summer signings to their original clubs and leave me with the actual squad Simon Grayson inherited (but left our 'best' players - Lens, Djilobodji, Khazri and Borini - out on loan).  Left me with about 10-11 million to spend on half a dozen signings (3 for transfer fees, 1 trade, 2 free agents).

Bosnians still to easy, still to easy to gain money and legendary is too easy but besides that I think its great this year. Was playing on legendary and killing everyone but have since adjusted sliders to make it a bit harder (found one on YouTube by the name of Chesnoid gaming that works well). I am a decent but not fantastic player yet was top of the league with Newcastle so that says a lot.

every year i say im not going to buy it until they fix career mode.  at least this year i bought it straight away. $79 at target.

i think the new transfers are good. at least it's quicker. although it seems really hard to offload dead wood in a new squad though. that's pretty annoying and I count on that to raise some cash for early purchases.  the transfer hub is a bit clunky.

the training is a bit shitty. it's really hard to get a A grade for training. and using the training sim is still a waste.  i think they need to bring back some of the old training routines and improve sim performance.

i started with melbourne city in league 1 in england. soft enough to build the team up  - which is pretty weak this year - and purchase a bunch of young talents and build them up on a budget.

What are your thoughts?

Wunderkinds?  Good Bosmans?  New Negotiations?