Random Rant Ahoy

Argh. Why are the board so utterly uncaring and/or demanding? My minimum expectation is to reach the final of, or win, absolutely everything, no quarter given. Except the League Cup and Charity Shield.

Which is fine, in a way, albeit a way that one feels is slightly ridiculous. Of course I understand that, as the largest club in England and thusly The FM World, we should be trying to win all our competitions. However I don't think anyone isn't trying to win all their games. Even more galling my Chairman, a certain Mr Levy, isn't exactly the Roman Abramovich of impatience and expectation. But I'm fine with this, because generally I do win everything.

What does irritate me though is those lesser competitions that my board don't care about. Sure I understand the Charity Shield is basically a glorified friendly and so I treat it with the contempt they do. But the League Cup. Even if they don't expect me to win it, a tiny "oh by the way we know we didn't give two hoots about it, nonetheless we're pleased you actually won it" would be nice. Even if we can't have something as specific as "We're really pleased at the depth you've brought to the squad, because your reserves and u18s managed to lift the League Cup despite every other team seeming to consider it a diamond trophy and play their first team, every time, all the time". Shall we not even bother with some open top parade? Do we send up the mascot to collect it? "No need to cheer, fans, or players, or anyone. My board don't care and this bunch of u18s clearly demonstrate I don't either".

Whilst I'm on the subject of a woefully blasé and yet highly expectant board, please, for the love of my sanity, stop telling me to 'focus of future challenges'. I've won everything there is to win, for the last four years, including managing to Moonlight as the England manager and win Euro 2016. There are no future challenges. Unless a team of twelve legged aliens appear, we're likely to be the dominant force for the foreseeable future, largely thanks to those reserves and u18 players that you fail to notice have managed to win the League Cup.

Here endeth the rant.

VB

I'm sorry i wasn't listening. What was that again?

Oh and I appreciate that yes, managing the Red Lion second XI in the Upper Mboto third tier is a greater challenge etc etc. I'm not gloating about my success, merely pointing out that reward for the aforementioned success should actually exist in some way other than a pithy "future challenge" thing.

It would be nice to have a bit more interaction with the board in terms of setting goals and suchlike, as discussed in another thread recently (which I can't find now). The ability to effectively negotiate expectations so you can exchange, say, a title challenge for reducing the average age of the squad (rebuilding) or sacrifice being expected to win the Hungarian Cup to instead focus on progressing in the Champions League.

LOL while im not blessed with quite that level of success I totally get where your coming from with frankly disdainful board comments. Im playing Ajax, first year expectation was to challenge for the league and cup (won both comfortably) and reach the group phase of the CL via early rounds, which we also did and narrowly lost out to OM and Chelsea in a tough group came 3rd then went on to go right the way to the Europa Cup final where we beat teams like Roma and Man City and bravely lost to Juventus in the final. At the end of the season the club had made a profit of about 18Mill and they had the audicity to mention the were 'dissapointed' with the 1-1 draw to PSV away from home (one of just 2 draws all season)!!

And actually the fans are just as bad. My team is good but still needs alot of work to be real contenders, its still a very young team atm (average age 22) this season we reached the CL semi final, beating the french champions and Dynamo Kyiv in the knockout phases and played Barca in the semi final. Home leg we narrowly lost 1-0 to a wonderstrike despite sharing about 50/50 of the chances in the game, second leg we lost 3-0 at the nou camp and my fans were 'extremely worried' (or whatever it is) about the loss... I mean really ffs people!

Different chairmen have different personalities and aspirations for their club.

I wouldn't mind a split of the fans and board.

Particularly for matches tbh. I'm fed up of going on a good run when tipped for relegation (but yet I'm top of the table) and the "concerned/upset" pops up when we draw 1-1 to the actual promotion contenders or whatever. Board could be more sensible and go "yeah that's fine" while the fans whinge.

I made the opening point a while back with respect to the board saying that about the league cup even when the club hasn't won anything for 20 years.

Even Arsenal are taking the League Cup seriously now because a trophy is a trophy.

I agree. It's galling after a long season to win something momentous only to be given the dismissive wave and 'focus on future challenges' rubbish. It's even more galling when you win a lot of stuff and still get that message.

You have it easy! My board (Toronto FC) was disappointed in me last season. I was expected to win the MLS Cup but was "only" on track to reach the semi-finals. What? Apparently the fact that I just set the league record for points in a season AND had yet to actually play the opening playoff round was lost on them. Despite winning the past 3 Cups and Continental tournys I suddenly found myself with a job security rating in the 30s thanks to this little oversight...

Well, lookee here...September 2014 Board Confidence update:

Satisfied with the team due to the amazing increase in stature BUT slightly disappointed at the team's performance in MLS...I'm sitting 5 points back of the lead with 2 games in hand!

I think you should be able to have members of the board on your favoured personnel.

Have to agree with the OP here. I get annoyed that the League Cup remains at 50%, whether I get knocked out by Rochdale in round 3 or beat Man Utd 10-0 in the final, still the same on the confidence screen.

I understand that it's less important, but it should carry some importance, and maybe the confidence should go up or down slightly. Maybe it should move between 40% and 60% only. This could be the difference in keeping your job if you are doing badly in other competitions.

As an aside to this point, and forgive if this is common knowledge or a known issue... but does anyone else get the thing where your job security almost seems to reset every new season? I mean it doesnt quite go back to default but as an example, I ended last season as 'Untouchable' on 73% then new season kicks off (metaphorically - we havent played the first game yet) and suddenly it drops back to 57% and just 'okay' ?? Is that normal to prevent people remaining untouchable forever or is it some glitch or something?? I mean the squad harmony has dropped a little but thats to be expected with arrivals/departures in terms of my team, but I dont know why I go from being a living god in the eyes of the board and fans to being just 'meh' cause its a new season?

As an aside to this point, and forgive if this is common knowledge or a known issue... but does anyone else get the thing where your job security almost seems to reset every new season? I mean it doesnt quite go back to default but as an example, I ended last season as 'Untouchable' on 73% then new season kicks off (metaphorically - we havent played the first game yet) and suddenly it drops back to 57% and just 'okay' ?? Is that normal to prevent people remaining untouchable forever or is it some glitch or something?? I mean the squad harmony has dropped a little but thats to be expected with arrivals/departures in terms of my team, but I dont know why I go from being a living god in the eyes of the board and fans to being just 'meh' cause its a new season?

Well the overall confidence is based on a combination of all the smaller bars, so naturally if you finish a season winning all trophies, then the competitions bar will be extremely high, but this always goes back to 50% at the start of a new season. Have a look at which bars are dropping, as I can't say for the other ones because I never reall notice.

i was once sacked from Liverpool for just missing out on 4th place in my second season. i wasn't happy.

what really made me laugh was that i finally won the premiership, by beating Arsenal - who were holding top spot at the time - 2-0 in the final game of the season.

after that game they sacked the Arsenal manager. now that was harsh.

IRL they do use there money to keeps these clubs alive so should expect for you to do well. It's the case of how realistic do you want your game to be?