I've been an FM nut for almost 20 years, but now have VERY little time to play, and of course each incarnation of the game is deeper and more involved which = even MORE time required to dedicate to the game.
I had been finding that with such limited time to play it from week to week, that I could never get "into" each save game enough - a season would take a month or two to play, and by then I'd be bored of the game and want to start a new one ("second season syndrome", where I'd slog through the first season, only to get to the start of the second season, and be overwhelmed by the thought of another two months to complete a 60 game season, and lose all enthusiasm).
So... thanks to the magic of the new competition editor, I created something I had been meaning to for a while... a one-round Premier League competition (instead of 2 rounds). What this means is that the premier league season is only 19 games.
I also ditched the League Cup, and created a revised FA Cup, with substantially larger prize money on offer. I also injected a lot more TV money and competition money into the premier league.
I also removed entirely the transfer windows, allowed 7 subs on the bench in all games, and made a requirement of 3 under-21 players in a match day squad.
These changes only took 20 minutes in the editor (I also made championship, league 1 & 2 one-round competitions also).
This is obviously heniously unrealistic, however I think it's rejuvenated my enthusiasm for the game - a season for a premier league team will only be 20-25 games (maybe a few more if in champions league etc).
I've started a new game as Sunderland, and have made a terrible start to the season - maybe my worst ever! - with one win in 9 games. All of a sudden, I'm halfway through the season, in an immediate fight to get out of the relegation battle. It's all very intense. With the extra money, all other Premier clubs are buying some quality players (including heaps of youngsters), which is really going to make things tough.
There will probably be some issues along the way with the changes I've made - ie, even though I've shorted the season by a month or two, most games are spaced out by one to two weeks, meaning a different approach to fitness levels etc. But I'm really enjoying it so far.
As cultured as Che Bunce's left foot and as profilic as John Lammers