How to play

You run one club. The league moves a week at a time, and it only moves when the managers do.

The week

1
Monday
The office. A word with a player, an answer for the board, the week set up before anybody kicks a ball.
2
Matchday
The eleven you saved takes the field. Watch it play out on the clock, or go straight to full time.
3
Weiter
German for “carry on”, and the one word we kept from the original. It ends your week. Press it when you are done.

Moving on

The league waits for you

A week ends one of three ways and your league picked one: when everybody has pressed Weiter, when a deadline passes, or whichever comes first. Nobody is ever left behind by longer than that.

Settings → When the week runs.

Finding things

The bar at the top

Your club is pinned on the left and never moves. That is the way back from anywhere in the game. The gear is pinned on the right. Everything between them scrolls sideways, and there is more of it than fits on a phone.

The amber dots

A dot means something is waiting. It never means you could go and look.

Squad — Somebody in your eleven cannot take the field. Leave it and the week will quietly replace him, which is not a decision you made.
2
Market — A player is at the table waiting for an answer. This is the one with a clock on it. Let it lapse and the club you outbid gets another try.
Press — The reporters are in the room until you turn up.
Office — The week is not open: no wages paid, nobody trained, no board review.

Your club

Squad and the eleven

Everyone you have and who is fit to play. Pick eleven and a shape, save it once, and it stands until you change it.

The pitch

Drag a man anywhere you like. Where you put him decides the role he plays; moving him about inside that role changes the picture and not the match.

Training and staff

What you drill decides what improves. Your staff decide how quickly, and how much of anybody you can see.

Money

Where it comes from

Mostly the gate. A full ground on a Saturday beats anything else you can arrange, which is why the stadium is a decision and not scenery.

Tickets

Overcharge the terraces and they stay home.

Where it goes

Wages, every week, whether he plays or not.

Players

Signing somebody

Two halves. Agree a fee with his club, then agree terms with him, and he will haggle. Either half can fail on its own.

Bids

Sealed bids, opened at the tick.

Contracts

Renew in the final contract year, on the transfer market. Let one run out and the player walks in the summer for nothing.

Loans

For the season, with the wage split settled once. There is nothing else to agree and nothing to forget.

The academy

Six boys arrive and three can stay. How well you can tell them apart is down to your coach.

Private

Your salary

The club pays you by the week, into your own account. The sack pays half of what remains; resigning pays nothing.

Betting shop

The week’s matches, never your own. Stake up to one week’s salary per slip.

Standing

What you are worth as a manager: priced once a season, by results. The manager table never resets; it is the career.

Every section

What each pill in the bar is for.

Office: Monday: what the week cost, who is hurt, what the board thinks.
Table: Who is winning, and where you are in it.
Squad: Your players, and the eleven that takes the field.
Tactics: The shape, the pitch and the instructions.
Training: What the week is spent drilling.
Staff: The people you hire to make everything else work.
Finance: The books: the gate, the wages, the stadium.
Private: Your own money: salary, the betting shop, the rich list.
Market: Buying, selling, loaning, and the offers on your desk.
Scouting: Reports on players who are not yours yet.
Academy: The boys coming through, and which of them you keep.
Calendar: What is coming, week by week.
Stats: The season in numbers: scorers, cards, minutes.
Results: Every match already played.
Internationals: The summer tournament, and your men in it.
Press: The reporters, on the weeks they are waiting. Every answer moves the dressing room, the board and the fans.
Settings: How the league runs, and how it looks to you.

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