|     |
|     |  |   |    .                 |
|     |  | --|--     /\ /\  ____  --|--   ___
|     |  |   |    | |  |  |  ___\   |    /   |
|     |  |   |    | |  |  | /   |   |   |----
 \___/   |    \_  | |  |  | \___|\   \_  \___
  ____
 /
|         _     _    _     ___     __
 \____   / \   / \  / \   /   | \ /  \
      \ |   | |    |     |----   |
 _____/  \_/   \_/  \_/   \___   |
  _   _                                                      ___    ___
 / \ / \                                                /   /   |  / _ \
|   |   | ____     __   ____     __    ___     __      /   |    |  \|_|/
|   |   |  ___\ \ /  \   ___\   /  \  /   | \ /  \          \__/|  / _ \
|   |   | /   |  |    | /   |  |   | |----   |                  | | |_| |
|   |   | \___|\ |    | \___|\  \__|  \___   |              \___/  \___/
                                   |
                                \__|

===============================================================================
Table of Contents
===============================================================================
[INTRO] Introduction
[STRAT] Strategies
[CHEAT] Cheats
[VERSN] Version History
[COPYR] Copyright
[CONTC] Contact Information

Navigation tip: Press Ctrl and F to bring down a search bar. Then type in the
name of the section you're looking for - like [VERSN] for the Version History.

===============================================================================
Introduction                                                         [INTRO]
===============================================================================
This is undoubtedly going to go down as one of my most unusual FAQs. I'm not
going to tell you why that is until later in my guide, though, except that it's
shorter than usual. I know this game flies under the radar of most of you, but
I just felt like writing a guide for this obscure game. And now that I've
written a guide for this and for Eric Cantona's Football Challenge, I can show
all you Europeans that there are Americans who can write competently about
European soccer, er, football.

Ultimate Soccer Manager is a game where you control every detail of managing a
soccer team - setting lineups, signing players, running practices, and in some
modes, even setting ticket prices and upgrading grounds. You can even cheat! If
you like arcade-style soccer, this is not the game for you; you can't control
any of the players on the field, even with the extensive power you have over
tactics and strategies. You can select any team in the six major European
leagues, and there are even more teams in existence for purposes of UEFA
competitions and the transfer market. Unlike many other games of this type, all
the leagues - not just your team's league - run concurrently, so there's plenty
of interaction among them. The graphics are good enough for a game of this
sort, although the graphics during the matches are kind of scaled-down. I love
the background music, which works very well for this game, and the sounds are
impressive as well. The announcer knows how to say the names of every player,
team, and venue in the game, and the quality is always crisp (though not quite
CD-quality). Getting used to all of the things you can do with the game may
take a little while, but most of the features are fairly intuitive. Ultimate
Soccer Manager also gets high marks in the challenge department, as you can
manage your team for as many seasons as you want (unless you get fired), and
there's pretty good replay value if you want to start a new game with a
different team or a higher difficulty level. Management mode adds a whole new
dimension to play as you address concerns like ticket prices, stadium
maintenance, and hooliganism and crowd violence. The rosters are accurate as of
summer 1997, although the game wasn't released until 1998. Rosters are very
detailed and usually quite accurate, although there are a small number of
errors (mostly typos and mistakes about nationalities). Fortunately, though,
you can fix those with the Statistics Editor, although doing so won't affect
seasons in progress. Overall, Ultimate Soccer Manager is a fun, engrossing
title, but it won't be of much appeal to people who don't know much about
soccer or for those who prefer to be able to actually control the players on
the field. Also, there have been games released since where you can also manage
soccer teams, and those games have newer rosters (although most of those were
released only in Europe). And while you can control eight teams simultaneously
on the same save file, there's no way to play online.

===============================================================================
Strategies                                                           [STRAT]
===============================================================================
First, the game's manual should help you understand most of the basics. The
rest of the interface can be figured out on your own -feel free to tinker with
all of the features and graphs and player listings. If you ever do something
bad, just re-load your game from the last save point.

The first time you play this game, you would be wise to play on the Coach
level, where the responsibilities (and powers) are less than they are on the
Manager level. As a Manager, you'll deal with the financial element of the game
much more than a Coach will. It's also recommended that you play on one of the
lower difficulty levels, so you'll have more money to spend initially. Lastly,
you might want to pick a middle-of-the-road team instead of a big-bucks
superpower or a struggling team in relegation danger.

The most important thing to consider when playing Ultimate Soccer Manager is
the randomness factor involved in almost everything that takes place. If you
try to sign a player and get turned down, you can just re-load your game and
try again. If you get upset in a big match, again, you can restart and try
again. For this reason, you should save your game frequently, especially before
playing a match. Of course, there are limits to the random factor; if you've
just taken over Luton Town, there's little point in playing your FA Cup match
against Manchester United 200 times in the hope of fortune allowing you an
inexplicable victory. Yet even still, strange things can and do happen in such
games.

Use caution with spending! Even if you have enough funds to sign a player,
remember you still have to pay him. And signing even a superstar won't always
increase attendance and sponsorship enough to compensate for the increase in
wages.

If you're managing a fairly weak club, a good way to build your team is by
signing a lot of young (16-20 years old) players. Your roster can hold up to 30
players, and these upstarts will not demand too much in the way of wages or
playing time. Train them rigorously, and begin by giving them a chance to play
as a substitute when you're down 3-0 sometime. Their abilities should improve
rapidly, and it won't be long before you can either give them a chance to start
regularly or transfer them to some other team. Lastly, remember that investing
in good assistant coaches will help players improve more quickly and to a
higher level.

If you're in control of a bigger team like Manchester United or Real Madrid,
you'll have a lot more in terms of resources and talent, but you'll also face
unique difficulties. There will be a lot more pressure on you from fans and
boards, and it won't take much of a slump for them to begin calling for the
sack. And even though you might have enough stars to field two all-star teams,
you'll also be dealing with their all-star egos, which will not be content with
low salaries and too much time on the bench.

Remember: If your team plays too badly for too long, or if you mismanage money
or get caught cheating (bribing opponents, etc.), you'll lose your job.

Visit your Chairman every once in a while and be sure to take notice of what he
has to say. Don't forget to check other forms of communication, too.

The Morale ratings for players are, from best to worst, Delighted, Very Happy,
Pleased, Content, Satisfied, Unsettled, Restless, Unhappy, Very Unhappy, and
Distressed. If anyone drops below "Pleased," be prepared to take steps to
change the player's morale, like transferring him to another club, raising his
salary, or giving him more playing time. Also, training a player too hard in a
particular area for too long will severely damage his morale.

By the way, I've never actually played this game personally, but I remember
watching my brother play this game a lot from about 1998 to 2003, especially in
the middle part of those years. He kept pretty complicated records (logs of
every game, regular printouts of team rosters), and while you don't need to do
that, you might want to. He often played the game in "real time" (for example,
one or two games a week, as per the fixtures), but that's going to be a bit
slow, especially once your team is well-established.

That's all I've got. If you have any more tips to contribute, please e-mail me,
and if they're any good, I'll be sure to add them to a future update.

===============================================================================
Cheats                                                               [CHEAT]
===============================================================================
Enter your manager's name as MAKE BELIEVE and any time during the game you can
hit the following keys to make the following events happen:

+   Increase your team's funds by 100,000 pounds
E   Takes you directly to a penalty kick shootout
F   Gives away a foul
G   Awards a goal to the last player to pass the ball
1   Ends the match instantly with a 1-0 score
2   Ends the match instantly with a 2-0 score
3   Ends the match instantly with a 3-0 score
4   Ends the match instantly with a 0-1 score
5   Ends the match instantly with a 0-2 score
6   Ends the match instantly with a 0-3 score

Also, in some versions of the game, if you hire an assistant coach and pay him
the maximum possible salary, he'll pay YOU money!

===============================================================================
Version History                                                      [VERSN]
===============================================================================
Date    | Version | Size |
--------|---------|------|-----------------------------------------------------
7-21-09 |  0.9    | 11KB | Began - and basically finished - guide.
7-27-09 |  1.0    | 12KB | Added some stuff after reviewing the manual.
8-18-09 |  1.1    | 14KB | Added cheats.

===============================================================================
Copyright                                                            [COPYR]
===============================================================================
(c) 2009 Vinny Hamilton. All rights reserved.

All copyrights mentioned in this guide are property of their respective
holders.

 * You can print this guide out for your personal use.
 * You can download this guide to your computer for your personal use.
 * You can post this guide on your Web site as long as you give proper credit
AND you don't change a single letter, number, or symbol (not even an tilde).
 * Remember that the latest version will always be available at GameFAQs.com,
but don't count on there being frequent (if any) updates.
 * You can translate this guide into a foreign language (British, Southern,
Australian, and New Yorker are not considered foreign languages) as long as you
ask permission first.
 * You can't post this guide on your Web site and then say you wrote the guide
yourself.
 * You can't post this guide on Web sites that contain (or have links to sites
that contain) explicit depictions of unclothed humans (also known as
pornography), racism, gambling, or flattery of totalitarian regimes.
 * You can't post this guide on your Web site if you're going to change
anything in this guide that took me so many hours to write.

If you don't comply with these guidelines, your hard drive will be reformatted
inexplicably and you will suffer from constipation for the rest of your life.
Heed this warning.

===============================================================================
Contact Information                                                  [CONTC]
===============================================================================
If you have any questions or comments about this guide, please send an e-mail
to [email protected]. That's zero-zero-two, by the way. Remember that not
all e-mail messages will be read. Please follow these guidelines:

 * Do include "Ultimate Soccer Manager" in the subject line.
 * Do send polite suggestions for ways to make this walkthrough better.
 * Do tell me about any errors or omissions you find in this guide.
 * Do send information about any glitches, tricks, or codes you discover in
this game.
 * Do ask any questions you have about Ultimate Soccer Manager gameplay. I will
respond eventually if you follow all of these rules.
 * Do make a reasonable effort to use decent spelling, grammar, usage,
punctuation, and capitalization so I can understand what you're trying to say.
 * Do use patience. I check my e-mail quite sporadically.
 * Do not send spam, pornography, chain letters, "flaming," or anything that
contains profanity or vulgarity. Again, violating this rule will result in
deletion of the message and permanent constipation.

And lastly, a public service message: Fight for and affirm the rights of all
humans, regardless of race, age, or creed! And... Don't smoke or use tobacco
products. No one's likely going to read this, anyway.