Journeyman Career

I've been playing football manager since 2010 now, still pretty new to the series. I have never started a journeyman career with a lower league club and worked my way up. I've always played with a Tottenham or ManCity and tried to take them to many championships and achievements. But reading about some of the careers people have going, it seems very interesting and fun.

Wanted to know if anyone could give me some advice on going about this career. Was thinking of starting with a low level english club and trying to work my way up to a Champions League level team. Any suggestions on what team to start with? What are some of the major differences in running these lower league teams? Any strategies I should be using in signing/loaning etc.? Any help is appreciated!

LLM is a different beast then top flgith clubs. keep your tactics simple and focus your singings from the back forward. get good scouts and keep bugging the board to increase your scouting range. pick a team you like and give it a go

If you're going to start in the lower leagues, don't expect to much from your players. Play a simple 4-4-2 and keep everything basic. Don't be scared about losing money as that always happens at Blue Square North/South level and you probably won't ever make a profit until you get to the Premier League, if you stay with them. Don't offer too much in terms of wages. There are lots of players who will be interested in joining you, so if player A won't join because you won't offer him £300 a week, don't worry as player B will probably only ask for £200 a week. With the contracts, never give to what they want. Try and have a set offer for the player and just keep offering him it until he either accepts or rejects. Look for determined players as well. You'll find that anyone can beat anyone so don't be suprised about hammering one team 4-0 and then getting smashed 6-0 yourself. There are alot of factors at lower league which contribute to this, such as poor pitch condition, players being tired. Look to sign players who can play in mutliple positions. Your budget will be quite small, and with this you won't be able to sign as many players. I'd look to have a squad of 20 which would include a player who could at least play in midfield and defence. You can only sign two long-term loans a season and eight short term loans. I'd look at trying to get your long-term loans in at the start of the season and then save the eight short term loans until January.

Well loans are a BIG must. The kind of clubs you typically loan off don't require any contribution to wages (typically, which it will tell you when you come to loan somebody in), which is of great benefit when filling a gap without taking up any wages. Also try not to clog your club. The first thing a lot of people try and do is bring in LOADS of players, but actually, that just wastes your budget and means half your squad end up playing football and half don't, then you can't shift them.

IT's the most fun to just start unemployed with sunday league experience and see what you get offered, instead of cherry picking a team. Gives you a nice challenge then in learning the players, style etc. of that club.

Thanks for the help everyone! Any suggestions as to what club to start with?

Start unemployed. If you want to stick with England, I don't think there are any clubs without managers to start off with, but come November time there could be a few jobs about.

What other leagues and players from nations do you plan on loading, if any?

like forrest says - unemployed is the most fun because you get to choose between just a few teams and make the best of the situation to slowly build yourself up. Going to europe is often very fun as well, with a view to making your way across to england at a later point in time. Some fun leagues out there!

I recommend Sheffield United as a fun first team to try and take to Champions League glory! The team you start with can easily dominate league one, and with a few shrewd signings can hold their own in the Championship, It is also possible to have them promoted to Premiership at the first time of asking.

They have a great facilities, and decent stadium, and by the second season will be financially sound.

Another option, which I am enjoying at the moment, is to start with Sollihul Moors in the Blue Square North. The reason being, is that they were only formed in 2007 and have ZERO competition history, so you have a blank canvas to work with!

Always choose past experience as "sunday league footballer" for more of a challenge

I'm using a database add-on and currently i'm residing in my first season in the Evo Stick Prem with Arlesey town. Needless to say, all my players were on free's and have stats that resemble a 5 year old!

Thanks for all the help and advice. Im excited to start this over my Thanksgiving break.

I am currently doing something similar myself and started in Blue Square Bet Premier with Forest Green Rovers. Is difficult but really helps you learn to get the most from your scouts and i find attended other games in BSN or BSS helps as you can pick up quality players from there.

I have put up a thread titled 'stay or go...help'. Although that may not help you with this it shows the clubs i have managed and may also give you an insight into how much im loving this particular save.

i started in bundesliga 3 with Munster....my god im really struggling at the moment in the bottom 3 but good fun..also never knew that i must have 4 under 23's in the matchday squad for league games!!!..makes it even harder...dont know if the rule applies in the bundesliga top division??

i started in bundesliga 3 with Munster....my god im really struggling at the moment in the bottom 3 but good fun..also never knew that i must have 4 under 23's in the matchday squad for league games!!!..makes it even harder...dont know if the rule applies in the bundesliga top division??

You can check the rules of any league in the rules tab of the competition if you have it loaded.