[FM09] Climbing That Long, Long Ladder

Despite being very clued up on the game of football and the tactical side of the game, I've always found it difficult to translate my ideas into the game. This resulted in many, many matches being lost before we've even begun. I have set out on an adventure, from being an unemployed, French Sunday league footballer, to hopefully become a legend in the game. All leagues from England, Italy and Spain are loaded.

Version: FM 2007

Database: 7.0.2

Edits: None

So I embark on my mission, but applying for jobs in foreign lands with no ability to speak the native languages, not being very well known, as well as having no experience, it was never going to be easy to get that first job. 4 months into the game saw me take over struggling, 3rd bottom in the Conference North, Worcester City. A big gamble by the board to hire me in such a situation. With no funds to spend I was stuck with what I had and had to make do. So I had a good look at the team, sorted out the training, transfer-listed the players I knew I wouldn't use and was pretty confident I could get the team out of its dire situation. First game arrived, FA Cup 4th qualifying round game against Tamworth away, lost 1-0. Not a good start. Poor results in the league all the way up to the FA Trophy first round cup game away to Blyth, lost 1-0. Out of both cups, morale at a huge low, and the defeats just keep rolling in, much opposite to the finances. I won just 5 from the next 20 games and with 3 games to go, we looked down and out. 5 points from safety and without a win in 6. It was now or never really. So I took a step back and focused. A 2-1 win against Hyde gave us a glimmer of hope. An away game against fellow struggles Droylsden was the key, 0-0 at h/t but we were getting overrun. A magical team talk turned it around though and the team managed to put in a great second half performance to win the game 3-0 and pull us out of the relegation zone. It wasn't over, we could still go down if we didn't win. And what's worse is that we had play-off chasers Harrogate in our last game, who had to win to guarantee their place for one last chance at promotion. But an inspired performance from the defence, gave the attack the freedom to go on and win the game for the team, 4-0 in the end, which guaranteed our safety by 4 points. Too close for my liking and a clear out of the rest of the crap and bringing in some promising frees, signalled my intention that I wasn't going to go through a repeat of the previous season.

Second season. KO'd in the FA Cup 1st round and FA Trophy 1st round again. But an inspired Keith Thomas, signed on a free from Stoke City in the off-season, scored an incredible 36 goals in 45 games and propelled the team to a 4th place finish in the league, which meant a play off place. In the first encounter, away to Scarborough, we were getting thrashed and were 1-0 down at h/t. Luck and nothing more saw us score 2 goals in 3 mins, in the 82' and 85' minute of the match and saw us take a lucky, but nice lead back home for the second leg. A goal just on half time of the second leg, saw us in a comfortable position and the game looked as good as over. But Scarborough pulled one back, before we hit back immediately with 20 minutes to go. And then the onslaught came, Scarborough completely controlled the game from then, scored again on 84' and I thought we would throw it away. But a soft penalty was given to us, and it was duly converted to send us through to final, 5-3 on aggregate. The final would be played against Gateshead. The two previous league meetings with Gateshead saw two 0-0 draws so I was anticipating another tight game. And tight it was, my goalkeeper keeping our team in it and we barely had a shot to show for it. We hung on for extra time and on 112', the Gateshead defender got sent off, his second bookable offence, for shirt pulling. 3 minutes later, Keith Thomas raced in behind to score and give our team the lead and put us in the unlikely position of actually getting promoted. We still tried to throw it away but my goalkeeper was in fine form and eventually the ref blew for full time, which saw us secure a surprise promotion from the Conference National.

The 3rd season I found it hard to attract players, and only signed 3 during the summer. Lost in the FA Cup 4th qualifying round and the FA Trophy 1st round and league form was dire. Where have I seen this before. Big spells without victories, with the longest streak being 16, left us with no hope of surviving. Winning just 6 games and, considering I'm a coach who prides himself on defence and clean sheets, we conceded a staggering 96 goals. I was sacked to try and keep the team in the Conference National, but a week later, they were relegated.

A month after my sacking I was surprised to be offered a job in the depths of the Italian C2/A league with Lumezzane. With 4 games to go, I had the task of keeping the team up. I swear this board had lost their marbles after the shambles of a season I just had. We stayed up quite comfortably in the end, finishing 11th and easily avoiding the play-out zone. I had no money again, but decided to focus on making the club a profit first and foremost. So in the summer just two players made their way in and 28 on their way out. First full season in charge, and we didn't even get out of the Serie C cup group stage; an emerging pattern I see here. But a tremendous season by already signed centre forward Raffaele Rubinho, scoring an amazing 25 goals in 40, along with 13 assists and 10 MoM performances, propelled us to the top of the league and saw us clinch promotion as champions.

My target of making the club a profit didn't last very long. Losing 100k a month quickly, I had seen the club slip into a big debt. The Italian Cup came round very early as it does in Italy. So in the 1st qualifying round, we draw Serie A team Bologna. An amazing performance defensively saw us win the game 1-0, goal from a corner kick, great result. Next was Serie A team Siena. A deflected 30 yard free kick, and very sturdy performance where it could have been more saw us progress once again to upset the odds. Surely the run couldn't go on. Serie A team Genoa where next on the list. Surely we couldn't do 3 in a row..1st minute of the game and we get an amazing start and go 1-0 up, and then 2-0 up just before half time. Genoa scored in the 86th minute but we hung on due to their poor finishing and progressed to the 1st round of the Italian Cup. Fantastic stuff. Then reality hit again, lost in the Serie C cup qualifying stage after blowing a 3-1 first leg lead to C2/A Bellaria. If you are still reading, I will give you a cookie. But all my eggs were in one basket, to try and conquer the fourth Serie A team in the Cup. It was Lazio we had in the 1st round of the two legged affair and I was confident we could make this a tight game. Lazio did nothing for 44 minutes until my keeper came out for a bouncing ball and headed it straight to their forward who rolled the ball into an empty net. Two more errors from my keeper saw us lose the tie 3-0 and we were as good as out. But one big positive, we made nearly £1.5 million in gate receipts that game, which basically paid for the clubs expenses for the whole season, very rewarding and softened the blow of losing. The return leg much like I expected, the players fighting to put on a show, hopefully to get themselves recognised by bigger teams and although we went 0-1 down which meant we had to score 5 to go through, we hit back 2 minutes later and scored in the 88th minute to beat Serie A Lazio on our home ground, in front of our biggest set of fans to date. A very proud cup run from my players. The league season wasn't so amazing. We stayed out of the play outs by 2 points, finishing 13th, and only because Ravenna threw away a lead to lose on the final day.

Which bring me to my current season, for which I wasn't entered for the Italian Cup for some unknown reason. The result? Debt. Over £500k and rising every week, I have no other way of getting out of this shocking predicament. I was automatically put into the Serie C Cup 1st round, which I lost 3-7 on aggregate, including a 0-6 thrashing away from home to Spezia, it seems like business as usual. This season we've been languishing in the bottom half of the table and was bottom for a scarily long month, where we were 8 points off safety, luckily, we got a few wins here and there and are currently in 14th with 13 games to go. We are only 8 points from 3rd place, but our terrible inconsistencies make it unlikely we will even make the top half of the table. But I'm sure we have enough quality to avoid the play-outs again. I'm just dreading the next season. We will probably be in huge debt and I'll have to let most of my players go. So I am really pushing to get a promotion to Serie B but it's unlikely.

I'll most likely keep this thread updated when I finish each season, but if something amazing happens, like a good cup run (that'll be the day), then I'll most likely do match reports and the like. Medal for you if you read all this.

Leclercq - please send my cookie and my medal to:

Mr Crouchaldinho

Clarence Park

York Road

St Albans

Hertfordshire

AL1 4PL.

Good career so far - plenty of ups and downs.

Look forward to seeing how you get on next season with your financial difficulties.

I take it from your opening statement that you are French? How come you didn't load the French leagues as well then? Just curious.

C.

P.S. I voted maybe.

C.

The French league isn't really one that is entertaining for a long period of time. It'd be easy to dominate once in Ligue 1 and the only challenge would come from the Champions league. I am quite content with the 3 but I don't think my PC could handle more anyway.

Anyway to round off the season, we had an amazing 2nd half of it. A truely remarkable turn of form.

http://i30.tinypic.com/2j2vwh3.jpg

Was struggling really badly but flew up the league and earnt ourselves a play-off place, finally becoming a more consistent team. It was a shock that we manged to sneak in with 2 games to go, and hung on against 6th place Pro Patria, after going 0-1 down, to secure the position. We had to play 2nd place Piacenza in the first leg at home of the semi final play-off. We hadn't lost to them in the previous two meetings, so I was quite confident. And so were the team. We ended up thrashing them 5-0 at home and 0-2 away. So I was very pleased with that, apart from in the second leg were the Piacenza players made no effort to play football and just kicked my palyers at every opportunity, injuring 3 of my players in the process.

The 2 legged final followed shortly after. We had Modena at home in the 1st leg, who we lost to 2-1 earlier on in the season but also beat them 4-0 away from home, so it was a tie that could go either way. We went into the game on a 7 match unbeaten run, where I last defeat was against Modena. The first leg came, and so did chances for us. Infact chance after chance went begging. Raffaele Rubinho, the main player for the season again, got injured in the 5-0 drubbing of Piacenza and missed the first leg. And it's probably were we I went wrong. I started Walter Gaitan and youth product, Maurizio Esposito, but neither are really deadly predators. We had only 1 shot on target in the whole game. But despite us dominating, it was Modena who came closest, when Joelson hit the bar. This game saw our highest attendance ever. The match ended 0-0 and I knew I'd be in for a game in the second leg.

The second leg was a lot more open. I had to win to get promoted and Modena, with their 3-5-2 fromation aren't really the team that sit back and counter. I had a debate to myself wether to start a just-back-from-injury Raffaele Rubinho or stick with Walter Gaitan. I had to go with Rubinho. It was Modena who started the game on top. Dominated from the off and created a host of chances, before finally scoring on the half-hour mark through Joelson. Here we go I thought. But in the 44th minute, we equalised after a scramble in the box fell to Esposito. That didn't last long though, Modena went straight up the other end and scored again, after my most solid defender, Marco Wolf, missed a simple header. Half time came, and Rubinho clearly wasn't having a good game, so that gamble failed. I cut my losses at half time and brought on Gaitan. Modena kept pushing though and kept missing the target. So I made a big tactical switch, making a double sub and swapping Diego Buonanotte into a deeper role, while bringing on Nazzareno Tarrantino for Esposito, and pushing the wingers up, I was going for broke. The switch seemed to work, we got an equaliser, Tarrantino slotting the ball away on 68'. And we should have the momentum now. An we did, but first leg syndrome hit us again, and we missed 3 good cahnces to score. The game made it's way to extra time. A lot of half chances but nothing really clear cut until Gaitan got clear in the box and was about 13 yards out and decided to try and cross it instead of shooting. Modena then went up the other end and missed a sitter. In the end Modena hung on for the draw which saw them get promoted because they finished higher than us.

So a disappointing end to an otherwise suprising season. I'm now getting lots of teams sniffing around for my players and although I need the money, I'm determined to hang onto the better prospects. Contracts have been extended to all apart from my backup keeper and defender. I will bring up a youth keeper who's done very well when he's been in the first team and I'm also bringing in a defender from Murcia on a free transfer. This season is a very big one. The board have already invested nearly £1million to keep the club running and I'm definately going to find it hard to hang onto a lot of my players, a majority who's contract is up in the coming season, so panic negotiations will start very soon I'm sure. But the second half of last season gives me confidence that we can maybe push higher this time and even challenge top spot for that automatic promotion spot.

Good thread

Some bump!