SM have announced the launch of SM Worlds 2.0 next month (September). This follows on from previous announcements in May and June.

In short, what this means is that you will have to upgrade to Gold membership in order to continue to play SM Worlds as you do now - and with the promise of new features and improvements in the months and years to come (assuming the transition is successful financially for SM).

SM announced some incentives to do so (although I don't yet see the new features, and the announcement isn't yet linked on the SM Worlds main page when you login, so presumably this isn't live, but soon will be):

Everyone who logs in throughout August, will receive 7 days free Gold Management (existing GM as well) to try the new features – mainly around transfers. We are also giving a 25% discount to all members on the 12 month Gold Management option for a limited period, bringing the cost down to just over £1/$1.50 a month.

A few weeks ago I messaged all non-Gold managers in Top 100 asking what they planned to do when the updates kick in.

30 said they would definitely upgrade top Gold membership.

8 said they would probably upgrade.

5 were undecided.

5 said they will quit Top 100 and/or SM.

1 said he couldn't afford to buy more than 1 month per year.

1 didn't respond and has since quit Top 100 (replaced by a Gold manager).

The bottom line is that if you don't upgrade to Gold you will not be able to conduct any transfers, effectively becoming a zombie manager.

Firstly, an apology from me. I've not been as active in the last couple of months as I am normally, or as I intended to be. Most obviously (to me), I stopped doing the Back Page headlines after each matchday. I went away for a week at half-term in October, and just couldn't get back into it. I'm not sure why, exactly. It was quite a bit of extra work to do, maybe too much. But I think it's more than that.

A few managers have contacted me privately to apologise for their own lack of activity. And some mentioned that, like me, they have been affected by the horrific events unfolding in Israel and Palestine. So, just to say, it's ok, I understand. And if anyone has personal issues, or anything else that's affecting their activity (and you're worried about getting sacked at the end of the season), let me know.

Tharani joins Admin Team

In other news, I should also have said earlier that Tharani has replaced Beddows on the Admin Team. He's been doing a great job with the World Club Shield, and I'm hoping he may be willing to take on the World Club Cup as well next season, as Gav is taking a break after the culmination of this season's competition.

End of season

The season is drawing to an exciting end for many of us fighting for cups, league titles, promotion, playoffs, survival, or to avoid the sack.

Congratulations already to Andrew at Milan on their Top 100 Cup victory last night against hot favourites and two time winners Juventus. Last season, Milan won the Top 100 Shield and the World Club Cup, so are becoming the cup specialists Juve under DP 91 used to be.
Juve's title push this season has long faded, and their fans will be forgiven for wondering if they were better off winning an occasional cup here and there....

Only Hellas, again, can stop Chelsea it seems. James has turned around his season after a slow start, as has Andre in Verona. On current form, you wouldn't bet against Porto finishing third, another Andre, and another top team finishing strongly after a poor start.

At the bottom of D1, Southampton and Everton look doomed to return to D2, while West Brom will be favourites to join them, although they have found some good form recently. Leicester are in the quick sand currently, while Manchester City, Valencia and Aston Villa will all be looking over their shoulders over the next few games at least.

In D2, it's been a tough old battle at the top, with current leaders Espanyol and second placed Sao Paulo pulling away slightly, leaving Levante, Internacional, Liverpool, Celtic, Manchester United and Udinese fighting for the final promotion and playoff places.

It's squeaky bum time at the bottom, with six points separating Celta Vigo, Hoffenheim, Fenerbahce, Sporting, my Hamburger, Liege and Spurs.

It doesn't look like anyone can stop Koln (also in the Top 100 Shield Final next week) winning D3, although all of the top 3 are currently in poor form. The chasing pack down to 10th place, are all in great form, so there might still be a surprise or two.

Zenit, undergoing a rebuild, look doomed, while Gladbach, Wolfsburg, Ajax, Sampdoria and Swansea all look to be fighting for the other three relegation places.

Flamengo continue to dominate D4, pursued by Malaga, Augsburg and Stuttgart. There's a seven point gap between 7th and 8th place, so it already looks like Montpellier, Dnipro and Fiorentina may already be feeling confident of playoff places.

Things look fairly cut and dried at the other end of D4, too, with AZ looking out of it all together, and Feyenoord (another rebuild) looking too far gone at this stage. That said, all the teams from Torino in 12th down are in poor shape from-wise, so if one of Dynamo or Bordeaux can put a run of results together they could still save themselves.

Santos have pegged back PSV at the top of D5, while Brugge, Napoli, Newcastle and Boca will all fancy grabbing the final promotion place. Marseille, Athletic Club, Chievo and Rubin look set to battle it out for the final playoff place.

Shakhtar are rock bottom with Lyon not far above them trying to replicate their real life league position. Basel, Lazio and Besiktas are all hoping to avoid the final sack spot. A poor league season for Independiente in 15th, but they have a Top 100 Shield Final to look forward to next week.

In the World Club Cup and Shield, and the Youth Cup and Shield, we have semi-finals starting this week. Hats off to Glen at Espanyol, who, as well as leading D2, is in the semis of both the WCC and YC (again).

Good luck to all for the run-in!

New rules next season

Finally, a reminder that from the start of next season, we have two new rules coming into play:

• Player Concerns: all players on Level Three (or higher) concerns must be sold immediately to an external club. No bidding by the selling club on the player when he becomes available.
• No loans in the Youth Cup.

It was a busy few days earlier this month.

New Player Concerns Rule

We had the Player Concerns vote, in which 92 out of 100 managers voted within two days, surely a record turnout.

We used a new voting service called Strawpoll, recommended by Beddows. One of the features of Strawpoll is that you can set it up so that you are guaranteed "one manger, one vote", and that it's anonymous (i.e., a secret ballot). True direct democracy!

The result was 51 managers in favour of a new rule from next season whereby any players reaching Level 3 concerns MUST be sold to an external club. 41 voted against. One manager abstained from voting (he couldn't decide). One manager quit (Partizan). One manager was sick and hadn't been able to login. Of the remaining five, four later told me they would also have voted in favour of the new rule. Only one manager I didn't get a final response from despite repeated efforts.

The result caused quite a bit of controversy. A few people feel very strongly one way or the other. There was a 100 plus comment thread on the newsfeed, although by my reckoning there were contributions from just 12 managers.

At the end of the day, the new rule simply brings forward by two levels the time by which managers need to either start playing unhappy players, or sell them. Which is exactly how player concerns are designed to work, and very similar to how things work in real life football management.

We'll see how it goes next season. If it proves to be controversial in practice, then we can have a second vote at the end of Season 22 to see if we want to continue with this new rule.

New Manager Appointments

While all this was going on, Dan W quit as manager of Barcelona, which also stirred up a lot of controversy. As well as the small matter of appointing a new manager to one of the biggest and the most successful club in Top 100 history. And the knock-on effect of appointing new managers to the clubs that became available after that. Mike T also quit Internacional.

In the end, it was Adam who left Villa to take the Barcelona job. It was a very close vote between Adam and two other managers. Jamie H quit Manchester City shortly after, which meant that we were able to appoint two real life fans to Villa and City - King Kev to Villa and Alex, returning for what must surely be his final chance at City. Paul M left Celta Vigo for Internacional, and Attila left Atalanta for Galatasaray. We appointed three returning Top 100 managers from Top 120 to the vacant posts at Celta, Atalanta and Crystal Palace - welcome back to Walter, Feargal and Greg.

Future Votes

I hope to run more polls with Strawpoll. It's pretty easy to set up. But to use the "one manager, one vote", secure anonymous voting feature really requires me to have every manager's email address, so that I can paste them all into the Strawpoll settings and then it automatically emails everyone with each individual vote. That's why I've asked people to complete a from to be included in what is in effect a new Top 100 Managers' Panel. You don't have to be on it, but if you want a vote on new rules, changes to rules, manager awards, etc. then you need to be.

Back Page Headlines

The last week or so, everyone seems to have settled into the new season, and I for one am loving all the match previews and manager reactions after the results come in on Thursday and Sunday nights (or Friday and Sunday mornings). If you haven't seen it already, I've been using some of these to compile Back Page headlines for each matchday. So keep them coming.

New Blog Updates

Finally, I'm trying to revamp the blog a bit to keep it up to date, lively, and to make it more user friendly and easier to find what you're looking for. And big thanks to Gav for redesigning the Top 100 logo and banner on the blog and on our Facebook page. It will take a while. Any suggestions and contributions are always welcome.

The Clubcall feature is pretty neat. It's like a blog for each team. You can check out updates and history of many (but not all) Top 100 clubs there (e.g., Espanyol). If your club isn't there, or there's not much to see, get posting (and if you need help posting, please ask for help - like most things, it's easy enough when you know how to do it).

Day 1

Enter the office at Top 100 Towers.

Looks like the old admin team left in a hurry.

Lots of still soggy tissues, what looks like ripped up betting slips, some XXX-rated VHS tapes marked "JMcK - for Gav's eyes only", crates of empty beer bottles and empty bourbon bottles stacked against the walls, and a note scrawled in green crayon on the desk which says simply:

"Who ate all the pies?"

Day 2

Have finished tidying up. Notice a door that was previously hidden behind the crates of booze, but it's jammed shut. Something blocking it on the other side. Give it a few more shoves against something solid and then hear a groaning noise.

"48. 49. 51.... Coming! ready or not!"

"Beddows?"

"Stopping pushing that door against my head!"

"What are you doing in there?"

"Eh? Let me out!"

The door opens and a pale, haggard Beddows staggers out clutching handfuls of what look like toy bingo balls.

"What happened?"

Beddows collapses, his tiny numbered balls bouncing all over the place.

Day 3

"I went into the bathroom to do a practice draw for the Youth Cup," Beddows says when he comes round the next day.

"The next thing I remember is waking up next to a tin of Fray Bentos. There was a note attached to it which said, 'When'sa your Dolmio day?".

----------------------------

Ok, Ok. All of this may or may not be true, but it's not why we're here.

What Really Happened

• Beddows handed ownership of the game world back to me (David M).
• The old admin team - Mike T, Gav, Dan - have stepped down, by mutual agreement.
• Gav has agreed to continue running the World Club Cup in his own inimitable style. Hurrah!
• Beddows will continue to run the Youth Cup. Hurrah!
• Beddows will continue as part of the new admin team in an advisory capacity (as he has done throughout Top 100's twenty season history). Haha!
• The new Admin Team is Gyan, Chris M and Hugo, and me.
• Chris M has taken ownership of Top 120 (our main recruitment source for new managers to Top 100) and will run that with Beddows.

We've got a list of suggestions and issues to look at and we're working our way through those.

So far, we've looked at some issues from our Suggestion Box:

• how to improve the process of new appointments, and sackings, and the role of the "secret panel". We want to look at how we can use some more objective achievement and activity criteria to help make decisions on who gets jobs, and who gets sacked. But also to be kinder to those who want to stay with their club.
• the possibility of changes to the squad cap.
• the possibility of new rules to govern loans (for the Youth Cup, Playoffs, and more generally, and in realation to the squad cap).
• the possibility of a new rule for selling players on level three concerns.

We haven't yet really talked about contracts, and I think, for now at least, there's no plan to bring them back in any form.

A couple of things we do want to try to do:

• Be more transparent about any decision-making process. This won't always be possible.
• Have a vote on any big changes.

With the above in mind, here's what we've already done, decided or propose to do:

Malaga, Fenerbahce and Gladbach jobs

We dispensed with the secret panel for these appointments. I wanted to trial using the admin team to discuss the merits of each applicant, using some objective criteria as well as more subjective criteria, too. Also, it was the end of the season and a bank holiday weekend (in the UK), and a brand new admin team.

Beddows had spent hours collating applications and emailing secret panels over the previous several days. He facilitated what certainly felt like the largest turnover of managers I can remember. It's a lot of extra work. No wonder he was looking tired.

In the past, especially when we've got to the last few jobs, we've often got to the stage where there are only one or two managers left who wanted a new job but didn't get one yet. And so we've just appointed whover was left and wanted it. So it's nothing new.

Anyway, we had four very strong applicants, plus one possible returning manager we considered. We chose Mike because he has the best track record by far of winning promotion. We felt Simon deserved a new club, too, and he was happy to take Mike's old job at Fenerbahce.

This meant that we didn't advertise the Fenerbahce job. I apologise to any managers who would have applied had we done so (and thanks to one who messaged me privately to point this out). That said, I don't think it would have changed our decision.

As a result of that, we needed someone to take Simon's old job at Gladbach. Eventually, it went to Ken, who was next in line from Top 120.

Squad Cap and Loans

We propose to have another vote on changes to the squad cap at the end of this season (S21).

Currently, we have a rule that prohibits managers from loaning new players for the knockout stages of the Youth Cup and Shield. I know there are some suggestions to ban loans all together (except to cover injuries, suspensions, youth goalkeepers or other specialist positions) or to ban new loans for the playoffs.

We also count all loan players twice as far as the squad cap goes - so club loaning out the players still counts them as part of its squad, as does the club loaning the players in.

Loans are a normal part of football, and getting the best players you can in on loan, agreeing to loan back a player you've sold, or loaning out players you want to prevent getting concerns, are all part of good management. It's also much harder now than it's ever been, it seems to me, to loan higher rated players, so any impact loaned players have is generally insignificant (and saying that, I know there have been one or two exceptions).

At this time, therefore, on balance, I don't see any reason to change or introduce any new loan rules.

Player Concerns

We propose to hold a vote on introducing a new rule:

• Players on Level 3 concerns must be sold to an external club.

If this rule was voted in, then it would not come into force until the start of S22 at the earliest.

Youth Cup and Shield

There will be a new rule from this season (S21):

• Any team playing an obviously and deliberately weakened team (e.g., to drop into the Shield) will be disqualified.

S20 winners will receive their free new player prizes as promised, and they will be able to choose a new player added to the database from 1 - 15 September, inclusive. This is half the amount of time usually given.

Sadly, it's become apparent that the offer of this kind of prize has contributed to managers exploiting loopholes in the game world rules to gain an unfair advantage.

There will be, therefore, no more free new player prizes for winning the youth competitions from S21.

If Beddows has a record of which managers arranged and played all their fixtures with eligible players, we will organise a random draw to choose one for a prize of a free new player.

We will expand the number of prizes given out to managers chosen at random who arrange and play all their fixtures with eligible players.

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below or you can message me privately.