[FM10] The fool wanders, the wise man travels

Game Setup:

10.2 patch

Large Database

Start Date: Jan 2010

Leagues Loaded: South Africa, South Korea, USA, England, France, Germany, Holland, Scotland, Australia, Argentina (23 leagues loaded)

Welcome to my real career following the demise of my previous attempt (due to too large a game setup). With half the number of leagues loaded this time I am confident in the longevity of this save.

My manager goes by the name Ronnie Vaughan and hails from London, England. He is an ex semi professional footballer and begins as an unemployed 30 year old supporter of Tottenham Hotspur.

I will be playing the game as I usually do, so no ambitious attempt using LLM rules this time.

Career Summary:

Season       Club         GP    W    D    L    GF    GA    DIF    DAYS IN JOB    EARNINGS|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
2010      HMD            15    6    2    7    16    17     -1        225        £14,075 |
2011-12    Dundee         35    12   10   13   50    52     -2        242        £30,925 |
2011-12    Bidvest Wits   3     1    2    0    3     2      +1        ---        £14,000 |
2012-13    Bidvest Wits   33    12   9    11   33    30     +4        ---        £51,000 |
2013-14    Bidvest Wits   41    26   11   5    71    25     +46       ---        £75,000 |
2014-15    Bidvest Wits   45    27   10   10   63    30     +33       ---        £75,000 |
2015-16    Bidvest Wits   51    31   8    15   101   49     +52       ---       £100,000 |
2016-17    Bidvest Wits   18    12   1    5    37    24     +13       1635       £50,000 |
                                    Resigned 11th October 2016                          |
2017-18    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
2018      New York RBs   30    14   4    12   46    41     +5        221       £175,000 |
                                    Resigned 22nd January 2019                          |
2018-19    Kaiserslautern 14    2    8    4    11    14     -3        ---        £75,000 |
2019-20    Kaiserslautern 37    17   13   7    61    39     +22       ---       £275,000 |
2020-21    Kaiserslautern 26    13   9    5    40    20     +20       737       £225,000 |
2020-21    Stuttgart      11    2    1    8    11    21     -10        85       £200,000 |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
TOTAL (includes INT)     384   185  94   105  588   380    +208      3145    £1,300,000 |

Season    Club          |  League      |  Country      | Position (of) |        Achievements         |
------------------------|--------------|---------------|---------------|-----------------------------|
2010     HMD           |  N-League    |  S.Korea      |  6th (14)     |           Sacked            |
2011-12   Dundee        |  Scottish D1 |  Scotland     |  6th (10)     |          Resigned           |
2011-12   Bidvest Wits  |  SA Premier  |  South Africa |  12th (16)    |  Joined with 3 games to go  |
2012-13   Bidvest Wits  |  SA Premier  |  South Africa |  6th (16)     |             n/a             |
2013-14   Bidvest Wits  |  SA Premier  |  South Africa |  2nd (16)     |  Won Knockout Cup & FA Cup  |
2014-15   Bidvest Wits  |  SA Premier  |  South Africa |  3rd (16)     |      Won Knockout Cup       |
2015-16   Bidvest Wits  |  SA Premier  |  South Africa |  5th (16)     |Won FA Cup, Runners Up in ACL|
2016-17   Bidvest Wits  |  SA Premier  |  South Africa |     N/A       | Resigned. Won Charity Cup   |
2017-18   --------------|--------------|---------------|---------------|-----------------------------|
2018     New York RBs  |     MLS      |      USA      |  3rd (7)      |    Joined 20th May 2018     |
2018-19   Kaiserslautern|  German D2   |    Germany    |  15th(18)     |   Joined 7th February 2019  |
2019-20   Kaiserslautern|  German D2   |    Germany    |  3rd (18)     |  Lost in Promotion Playoff  |
2020-21   Stuttgart     |  German D1   |    Germany    |  14th(18)     |     Left for Stuttgart      |

Trophy Cabinet

Season        Team          Country       |  Competition  |
------------------------------------------|---------------|
2013/14     Bidvest Wits    South Africa  |  Knockout Cup |
2013/14     Bidvest Wits    South Africa  |     FA Cup    |
2014/15     Bidvest Wits    South Africa  |  Knockout Cup |
2015/16     Bidvest Wits    South Africa  |     FA Cup    |
2016/17     Bidvest Wits    South Africa  |  Charity Cup  |

International Career

Season       Team      | GP    W    D    L    GF    GA    DIF    Days in Job |   ACHIEVEMENTS   |
-----------------------|-----------------------------------------------------|------------------|
2013-14   Cameroon U21 | 5     3    1    1    3     1     +2         N/A     |   All Friendlies |
                      |           Resigned 1st September 2014               |                  |
2018-20    Cameroon    | 11    5    5    1    17    9     +8         555     | Joined 22nd July |
                      |           Resigned 28th January 2020                |                  |
2020-      Nigeria     | 12    9    2    1    39    11    +28        578     | Joined 16th Feb  |

International Competitions Summary

World Cup Summary

Year  |   Winner   vs   Runner Up   |   3rd Place   |     Hosts     |
------|-----------------------------|---------------|---------------|
2010  |   Brazil 3 - 1  Chile       |     Spain     | South Africa  |
2014  |   Spain  2 - 1  Mexico      |     Brazil    |     Brazil    |
2018  |  Germany 2 - 1  Italy       |     Serbia    |     Spain     |

European Championship Summary

Year  |  Winner     vs   Runner Up   |   3rd Place   |      Hosts     |
------|------------------------------|---------------|----------------|
2012  |  Serbia (P)2 - 2 Spain       |      N/A      | Poland/Ukraine |
2016  |  Germany   4 - 1 Russia      |      N/A      |     Sweden     |
2020  |  France (P)1 - 1 Germany     |      N/A      |     England    |

African Nations

Year  |   Winner   vs   Runner Up   |   3rd Place   |     Hosts     |
------|-----------------------------|---------------|---------------|
2010  |   Tunisia  vs   Mali        |    Nigeria    |     Angola    |
2012  |   Nigeria  vs   Cameroon    |    Morocco    |     Gabon     |
2014  |   Nigeria  vs   Sengegal    |  Ivory Coast  |     Libya     |
2016  |    Ghana   vs   Mali        |   Cameroon    |     Egypt     |
2018  |   Nigeria  vs   Ghana       |     Egypt     |    Tunisia    |
2020  |  Tunisia 3 - 0  Egypt       |     Ghana     |    Nigeria    |

Copa America

Year  |   Winner   vs   Runner Up     |   3rd Place   |     Hosts     |
------|-------------------------------|---------------|---------------|
2011  |   Brazil    vs    Chile       |      Peru     |   Argentina   |
2015  | Argentina   vs    Chile       |     Mexico    |    Bolivia    |
2019  | Argentina  2 - 0  Peru        |     Brazil    |     Brazil    |

blame the leagues loaded on your disastarous managerial escapades, typical

blame the leagues loaded on your disastarous managerial escapades, typical

Haha :o. I was pretty bad to be fair. Hope to have more luck on this save! China is off the agenda though

He doesnt like China so goes all the way to................... South Korea :confused: ffs iacovone

Should takeover Daejeon Citizen and then you could call the thread "Citizen Erased". Good Luck with Hyundai though.

He doesnt like China so goes all the way to................... South Korea :confused: ffs iacovone

Now now, this is an entirely different part of Asia . I think I only didn't take to China because we were getting walloped week in week out!

Gotta start somewhere!

Transfers Feb 2010 - HMD

I'd settled on trying a 5-2-3 formation this season with wing backs and a CM and AMC - it resembles an anchor so will now be known as the 'iacovone anchor' formation.

With our rather large budget and high expectations I got to work within the market to bring in some new faces. My scouts recommended a couple of useful free transfers immediately. So my LWB and GK issues were sorted out very quickly. The keeper Kwon Chan-Soo is excellent for this level and at 35, though aging, should give us a few years service.

A couple of attacking midfielders were also signed for nothing from Kimhae in our division.

The final piece of the puzzle was to sign another striker for my three pronged attack. He came from Changwon City for what eventually became a fairly large £150,000. A former player commented that it was far too much money for a player of his standard so I guess it'll become an barometer of my player judgement!

In terms of outgoings I released 5 pretty hopeless transfer listed players before selling two more to Hummel in our division for free as well.

That was it, my squad is at a good size of 23 as we embark on our task to attain promotion.

Good luck in South Korea iacovone.

Although I would say Changsha are the bigger club. There's no money in the South Korean N-League, and there's only 1 promotion spot to the K-League iirc. And once you get there (well if you there ), there's the likes of Ulsan, Pohang, Daejeon, Busan, and Seongnam to deal with. Pohang won the Asian Champions League this year irl. There's a lot of quality players in S. Korea though so best of luck and hope you have some success.

Well this is certainly interesting...

Apparently there isn't promotion in the N-League as well as no relegation from the K-League!! Guess the objectives have changed. I'm going to use this job to make my mark in Korea. That means I have to win the N-League in the 3 years my contract lasts for. Started well, 3 wins from 3

EDIT: To add to that, we have won this division the last 2 years. Serious pressure on me now!

Nice club badge.

Good luck Iacovone.

How is the speed looking this time and how many stars did you get with this setup out of interest?

C.

Good to see you sticking with Asia iacovone . As rancer said though, it's going to be tough in South Korea due to the competitiveness of the teams he mentioned. I think the set up is similar to Argentina in that there's an opening and closing stage in the N-League but no promotion :confused:. How you're supposed to progress I don't know! As you said, probably best to use your time there to build up your reputation. Good luck though .

Nice club badge.

Good luck Iacovone.

How is the speed looking this time and how many stars did you get with this setup out of interest?

C.

Well I'm at 1 star which is only half a star less than my saves with single nations. It seems to be running much faster so I'm happy with it. Removing Brazil seems to have been the best move there. I think others have mentioned the number of state championships slow the game right down.

The badge is great! We're known as the Dolphins

Good to see you sticking with Asia iacovone . As rancer said though, it's going to be tough in South Korea due to the competitiveness of the teams he mentioned. I think the set up is similar to Argentina in that there's an opening and closing stage in the N-League but no promotion :confused:. How you're supposed to progress I don't know! As you said, probably best to use your time there to build up your reputation. Good luck though.

Thanks Raware. Asia is really interesting so its a good place to start for me. Shame there's no promotion but as you say its all about building a good reputation here before I embark on the serious business. Ideally I'll build it up and then secure a job in the K-League.

Based on the league's past winners it definitely doesn't have a promotion system. But then looking at the schedule there is a 'Playoff Final' so that's just confused me even more :confused:

Someone tried my challenge in South Korea last year, and if there's no changes from last year, there is definitely some kind of promotion/relegation between the K-League and the N-League. I believe if you finish 1st, you should get promotion (or promotion playoff at least) to the K-League. So finish 1st and see what happens...

Well that was the plan

Unfortunately since I mentioned my great start of 3 wins from 3, the forum curse has struck. Badly . I have no idea what has happened to us but we've lost 4 in a row and not won in 5! I've barely changed a thing and yet we can't beat ANYONE

I think I really am rather bad at this game!

Tell us something we didn't know iacovone

Tell us something we didn't know iacovone

Ha, maybe I'll just be one of those crap journeyman managers, always given posts at small clubs only to leave them worse off than when I joined. Certainly looks that way now anyway :o

Stick at it Iacovone.

Maybe try simplifying your tactics a little bit?

Perhaps you're just not suited to managing in Asia.

I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in the end. Doesn't matter if you ruin a few clubs along the way first. Will make for an interesting read regardless.

Regards,

C.

Stick at it Iacovone.

Maybe try simplifying your tactics a little bit?

Perhaps you're just not suited to managing in Asia.

I'm sure you'll get the hang of it in the end. Doesn't matter if you ruin a few clubs along the way first. Will make for an interesting read regardless.

Regards,

C.

That's the spirit!

I've had a complete overhaul and moved to a 4-2-2-2 formation. It worked for the first game and broke our 6 game winless run as we beat Hummel 1-0. However all is not well as my job is already 'very insecure' . The media are claiming that a bad result in the next game against Yesan will signal the end of my tenure .

As you said Crouchy, either way it'll be an interesting read (I hope!)

Oh God, losing 3-1 to ten men away from isn't good is it? In what could be my final team talk I told the players they were an embarassment. They were.

Wonder if the board will allow me 'extra time to rebuild the squad'? My one last desperate throw of the dice!

EDIT: Result, they have said they have faith in me as a manager and will give me time to turn it around! Or is that the dreaded vote of confidence message....

I just lost 3-0 to 10 men I know how you feel. I really need a team talk option of "Now what the f**k was that eh?".

Sounds like you are having a rough time so far iacovone. What's the overall standard of the league like? How about the foreign players? One thing I've found so far in Hong Kong is that there can be a huge difference in quality of players even within the same team so I've had success with focusing on the strong players in my team when setting up my general tactics and the weak opposition players when tweaking before games.

The league standard isn't actually that bad. There are a lot of good players in South Korea, even some in my squad! I've not got a single foreigner in my squad at the moment.

I like how you go about your tactics DodgeeD, I'll look into that as I'm still at a loose end with the tactics in Asia. Still, I'm clinging onto my job with another 1-0 win in the league. Out of the Korean FA Cup though.

Ok so we went away to a team called Hallelujah and got spanked 3-0. Irony anyone?

Anyway this piece of news was awaiting me

Ok so we went away to a team called Hallelujah and got spanked 3-0. Irony anyone?

Anyway this piece of news was awaiting me

Oh dear. Time to find a new team who are crazy enough to take you on as manager then.

C.

I'll tell you who are crazy enough....

After 293 days spent on a 'sabbatical', Ronnie Vaughan has landed the Dundee job . He spent this time applying to purely higher division jobs and despite the long wait, never lost faith in his managerial potential. This is a fantastic opportunity, and a lifeline thrown to a man lost in the East Asian wilderness. Personally I think they are mental even considering me as a manager but chairman Bob Brannan has made the error and I intend to capitalise on it .

Good luck with Dundee iacovone. Please prove everyone that you were the right man for the job.

Good luck with Dundee iacovone. Please prove everyone that you were the right man for the job.

Oh God that sounds like more pressure . You know how I handle pressure

Good luck with Dundee. Sounds like another high pressure job!

Is Bob Brennan a kind soul or a gullible fool? Time will tell.

C.

A kind fool I think

I just lost 3-0 to 10 men I know how you feel. I really need a team talk option of "Now what the f**k was that eh?".

Or one of "Maybe I should just play the U17s in your place, you lazy feckers."

Good luck with Dundee. Sounds like another high pressure job!

Is Bob Brennan a kind soul or a gullible fool? Time will tell.

C.

Maybe Ronnie Vaughn did a Claude Anelka?

Maybe Ronnie Vaughn did a Claude Anelka?

Given that Ronnie Vaughan's career earnings to date are £14,075 I consider that unlikely

Transfers & Players - July 2011

On first impressions it looks as though I've inherited a very good squad. No wonder Scottish critics are predicting 1st place for this Dundee side. We had just £37k to spend so I leant more towards loan signings and free transfers.

In on trial came a whole host of marginal ex-stars of the English/Scottish game. We saw Marlon Harewood, Lee Bowyer, Robbie Earnshaw, Amdy Faye, Robbie Savage and Olivier Kapo all trial at the club.

Of this group, Savage and Faye signed full time contracts immediately. Joining these two on a free transfer was Nigerian Stephen Makinwa from Lazio. He isn't technically gifted but he does have phenomenal physical attributes. I expect him to have a good impact up front. Dundee club legend Rab Douglas issued a warning to the media of Makinwa's past.

My first loan signing came in the guise of young Tottenham central midfielder Dean Parrett, whilst the former manager Jocky Scott had signed Liverpool young striker Alexander N'Doumbou on loan too. Wilson Palacios of Tottenham supported the loan deal for Parrett stating that it should do wonders for his confidence and fitness. My final loan signing solved the problem left back area. Dodo arrived from Arsenal on loan for the season, a deal that pleased Cesc Fabregas.

Beyond signings the squad already contained a 30 year old Francis Jeffers, Ben Alnwick in goal and a very exciting 20 year old striker called Leigh Griffiths.

There was a lack of influence in the dressing room when I joined the club, something I aimed to address. With the experience of determined pros Savage and Faye I feel I've solved that little problem. The squad looks strong enough now, with just a slight worry in defence. But over a 36 game season I think we have the depth to cope with the demands of a promotion challenge.

EDIT: I should add that I found Scottish heart-throb Christian Dailly on a free transfer so he was also signed to bolster our backline. In the outgoing column, the vast majority of my reserves were let go without a fee. I also offered 7 players to clubs for little more than a pound to free up the budget a little more. I probably have two too many attacking midfielders so I imagine I'll get rid of a few of them either in a week or two or in January.

Came 2nd in Manager of the Month for August in what was a fairly good start. We sadly lost the opening league game to St. Johnstone at home 2-0 (after me building up our chances) which didn't look great but since then we've been unstoppable.

We've made progress in both the cups we've entered so far. Ross County are hosting us in the Challenge Cup quarter finals before we host SPL side Aberdeen in the League Cup.

Makinwa missed most of the month through injury but Jeffers and Griffiths did well as a partnership. On loan left back Dodo picked up the player of the month award

Unfortunately Griffiths is making noises about leaving the club whilst one of my better players Gary Haskins has already put in a transfer request. We need the two of them to stay this year, so I'm not going to sell. They have 2 year contracts so with my hopeful promotion they might be convinced to stick around.

Sounds like you've done well after a difficult start there Iacovone. Feeling more at home in Scottish football?

C.

Sounds like you've done well after a difficult start there Iacovone. Feeling more at home in Scottish football?

C.

Very much so. Although I still retain an interest in South Korea, I'd like to move to the K-League at some point as I have to prove I'm at least semi-competent to my East Asian market .

Forum curse has struck . We got torn apart by Raith in the first half at their place and found ourselves 3-0 down! We had so many chances but couldn't score in 90 minutes. Awful result.

3-1 up away at Morton at half time. Declare myself pleased with them. Lose 4-3. This game...

Stormed out of the news conference too

Given that Ronnie Vaughan's career earnings to date are £14,075 I consider that unlikely

In Dundee, that's upper-middle-class.

Interesting move iacovone. Good luck north of the border

I'm underachieving again. Despite a good start we have slipped in recent games and are drawing too many games. Then we lost to Livingston 3-0 away from home.

20 games played and we're 8-6-6 in the league. Fortunately the table is so tight at the moment that we're only 5 points off leaders Inverness CT. However they've not led for long as the promotion contenders are all showing equally erratic form. Its my defence at the moment that is causing the biggest problems. January is fast approaching so drastic action may be required.

January 2012:

Following a dreadful Christmas run which saw us concede 10 in 3 games (losing all 3) I had to dip into the transfer market. My job security has slipped into the 'insecure' area for the first time at Dundee. 5th and 10 points off the one promotion place is clearly not good enough, but I see potential here and want to stay.

Therefore I snapped up a young Spanish CB called Atienza to hopefully give us more strength in a very porous defence. I managed to extend Alexander N'Doumbou's loan (he's been our best player so far) which is a huge bonus. Joining him in the AM position is now Tottenham's John Bostock. He will hopefully make us slightly more creative up front.

The biggest problem still lies with my goalkeeper situation. Both Alnwick and Martin are not good enough. My second problem is the state of my strikers. Makinwa has been rubbish all year. Griffiths began very well but has now hit a wall and can't play well or score. Borrini (signed on a free in October) is struggling to fit in and Jeffers is just crap.

Bottom line is there are too many issues at a club expected to win the league. Whether that is my fault is open to debate . Anyway the second half of the season has to be ours. We must at least mount some form of challenge on top place otherwise I'll be out of the door.

Oh and we're £1m in the red (no fault of mine), all my signings have been free's. We're under the wage budget too but are losing ~£150k per month.

Resignation - 25th February 2012

Well unfortunately the time came for me to hand in my letter of resignation from my Dundee post. After what had been a strong start to the season, my side simply failed on so many levels. I did too, btw, but at least I've taken responsibility for my actions, these poor excuses for professional footballers will continue to earn a wage.

I'd like to say I've left Dundee in a better position than when I arrived but to be frank, I've left them in turmoil. They are £1m in the red, sit 6th out of 10 in a league they're expected to win and have a shambolic misbalance throughout the squad.

Biggest disappointment was Stephen Makinwa who just never got going/got injured. Rubbish. Our defence was pathetically weak willed and often we'd see the most dreadful opposition just waltz through it to score. Too many things were going wrong and I'd really been critical of the players in the media. My job was close to becoming untenuous.

So that was it for me. Career record is updated in the OP's. Wonder who will be mad enough to give me my 3rd job :confused:

Thats unfortunate. Good luck in your next post.

It just gets worse and worse doesn't it

There's another thread called "Story of a terrible manager switching from FM08'

I think I could more or less adopt that just without the 'switching from FM08'.

This is fast turning into a career on how NOT to manage

Hope people are still enjoying the read though.

May 2012

vs Orlando Pirates

A full house greeted my first game in charge and they were not to be disappointed as we came from 1-0 down to go 2-1 up before the Pirates equalized with 20mins to go.

Final Score 2-2

@ Mamelodi Sundowns

A ridiculously one sided match in which I discovered I have a gem of a newgen keeper. Edwin Ndlovu kept the Sundowns at bay (7 shots, 4 CCC's) as well as saving a penalty, the rebound and the rebound from that. A sub broke the deadlock and we somehow came away with a win.

Final Score 1-0

vs Santos F.C.

A dull final game saw both teams fail to trouble the scorers. This suited both teams as safety was secured.

Final Score 0-0

So survival was ensured with an unbeaten first 3 games in charge. I think the players reacted well to my appointment because they really put in Herculean performances against the Pirates and Sundowns.

I'm delighted to note that we have excellent youth facilities, so that could provide some top class talent. We already have Ndlovu in goal and also a young CM called Shane McCarthy.

Its actually an exciting project here in beautiful Johannesburg. With a half-decent squad and a lot of money to spend, next year could mightily exciting. I have to find a new tactic once again, I'll crack these one day