Vanuata Who?

Hi all,

This is my first attempt to share my career with you all, so please go easy on me and I hope you enjoy.

After many months of perfecting and downloading various edits from the helpful and kind people on the Editors Hideaway (in particular thanks to Unknown Hacker, poop and the guys from FM Updates) I believe that I have a bug-free and as realistic as possible set up to run the entire (almost!) footballing world

I am therefore now ready to launch my career from the very bottom of the footballing ladder, to the very top, via a somewhat circuitous route around the world.

I plan to be starting my career in the footballing powerhouse of Vanuata (who, I hear you ask?):

"Vanuatu (Bislama IPA: [vanuaˈtu]; English /ˌvɑːnuːˈɑːtuː/ ( listen) vah-noo-ah-too or /vænˈwɑːtuː/ van-wah-too), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (French: République de Vanuatu, Bislama: Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is some 1,750 kilometres (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 500 kilometres (310 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji, and southeast of the Solomon Islands, near New Guinea"

"Among sports in Vanuatu, association football was the most popular sports in the country during the 1980s, and in 1988, became both a FIFA and OFC member.^[1] Vanuatu has one of the most advanced technical programmes in Oceania, particularly at youth level. The Melanesian nation of around 220,000 inhabitants was chosen as one of six countries globally for a FIFA pilot project whereby players are identified at a young age and selected to train and stay full-time at the national academy. As part of that two-year programme for players aged 15-17, consideration is given to continuing school or vocational education.^[2] The football team has been a really challenging team in the OFC region to powerhouse the New Zealand national football team inflicting many shocking defeats on them, such as beating them in the final of the 2004 OFC Nations Cup, thus eliminating them from the race for qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, while causing another shock in the 2007 South Pacific Games by knocking out the Solomon Islands for bronze medal and also enable to enter the second stage of qualification for the OFC nation Cup and consequently a chance with a playoff for the FIFA world cup in South Africa 2010."

I've managed Vanuatu before, hope you achieve some success with them .

I will be starting my career with one of the 4 team's from Vanuata with the lowest reputation in the game - Ifira Blackbird FC - who play at the 200 seater Port Vila Academy stadium

My aim will initially be to build the Blackbird's into the strongest team in Vanuata, win the league and then make my way across Oceania building my reputation as a manager, winning all of the major competitions and ultimately winning the "O League" - the equivalent of the Champions League for the Oceanic countries.

Once I have achieved this feat I will jump across to another continent to attempt to replicate the feat with other small clubs and countries.

Ultimately of course I will be looking to make it to the big time and the 'normal' leagues, but I want to have a bit of fun first!

Good luck man.

I've had a good game on FM11 I think it was, managing Vanuatu and Tafea. I dominated Oceania at club level but gave up about 20 years in. Taking the national team places is HARD; I managed the OCE Nations Cup but never qualified for the WC.

Good luck mate, and have fun!

I've managed Vanuatu before, hope you achieve some success with them .

came in to post this.

Hope you have fun in Vanuatu

Good luck with this

Looks interesting I will be reading!

Sounds interesting. Good luck!!

Add me to the list of people who've managed Vanuatu (FM 11).

Fashionable place then.

Thanks all for your comments so far - I'm amazed how many of you have managed in Vanuata or managed the national team before.

First off I thought I'd share my career save aims with you; both Short term and Long term:

Aims - Short Term

• Win the TVL Premier League
  
• Qualify for the O League and put in a respectable performance
  
• Move to an alternative Oceanic league and win the top league with a side made up only of youth players
  
• Win the O League
  
• Win the OFC Cup
  
• Manage an Oceanic national team
  
• Win the Pacific Island Games
  
• Win the OFC Nations Cup
  
• Get a decent team kit that fits the players (see below)
  

Aims - Mid/Long Term

• Manage and win in a top-level league in every continent
  
• Win a top-level cup competition in every continent
  
• Take a club from the bottom to the very top in every continent
  
• Take a club from the bottom to the very top using only youth players
  
• Win a continental title in each of the continents
  
• Win the World Club cup with a non-European club
  
• Win an international competition
  
• Win the World Cup
  
• Win the World Cup with an Asian or African (or Oceanic!!!) nation
  
• Manage small and obscure clubs in some of the smallest and most secure countries in the world!
  

Chile_Paul's Career - Season 1 Preview - Ifira Black Birds

Board Expectations:TVL Premier League - Enjoy the experience of participating in the league

My Expectations:

TVL Premier League - Qualify for the Championship series (top 5 out of 8 after the first 14 games)

Budgets:

Transfer: £0

Wages: £0/week (Club is currently Amateur, but there are 3 semi-pro clubs in the League)

Balance: (£65,695) Ouch! Hoping the board will inject some funds over the first season to make this more manageable?

Squad:

Young team made up of mainly 16 and 17 year olds with a few more experienced players. I've bought in 5 more experience players from other clubs in league in order to start building a bit of a spine to the team and to add some experience. Main are of concern is probably up front, where I only have 1 player who I believe will be able to score regularly. Strongest area is the back 4, where I hope to be able to keep tight and build forwards.

Key Men:

Goalkeeper/Defence

Graeme Demas - GK - Currently the No. 1 for the Vanuata national team, his performances will be key to ensure that the larger teams don't blow us away. Previous experience at this level on FM has taught me that goalkeeper's let in more than they keep out. I'll be praying that this guy can keep some out!

George Natuoivi - DRC - The best player when I joined the club, however the Semi-Pro teams are all after him. I've managed to keep hold of him through pre-season, but I imagine if he performs well he'll be offerred semi-pro terms before long and he'll be off.

Midfield

Moise Poida - Plays across the middle of the park. At the age of 33 I've bought him in to bring some well needed experience to a team who's average age was around 17.

Strikers

James Tarimule Salai- ST - The guy I'm looking to to score most of the goals. Quick, and a not disastrous finisher for the level.

Pre-season summary:

The first match was a disaster, resulting in a spanking against a team not even in the League! I was worried, very worried! However we managed to turn it around with some half decent performances. 6 of my team had been called up to either the main squad or the U-19's for the Pacific Games however and only joined us for the last warm up game, so I'm slightly concerned how well they will gel with the rest of the squad.

The fixture draw has not been kind to me with the first match a tough one away to the league holders and the favourites to retain the title. The next 2 are then against the other 2 semi-pro clubs in the league. I need to keep the scoreline respectable and get something out of these 3 games to stop morale from slumping through the floor!

Well, those first 3 games couldn't really have gone any better.

First game against the champions ended in a pulsating 4-4 draw. All my comments about building on a solid back four and relying on my internationally capped goalkeeper were torn to pieces....... Typically the goalie made 2 world class saves in the first 5 minutes - the only problem being that the shots / crosses were heading wide anyway and the save resulted in the ball almost landing at the feet of another Amicale attacker. Luckily we survived this and went up the other end to take the lead, shortly afterwards we were given a penalty and I was hoping to take an ill-deserved 2-0 lead. My penalty expert struck it straight down the middle at the goalie though who didn't move and saved it by default.

They then struck back twice in quick succession to make it 2-1 and we then came back from behind 3 times to rescue a point.

I'd definitely have taken this before the game, but the fact that they only had 4 shots on target and scored 4 times is worrying me! Also the fact we missed the opportunity on the penalty is making me wonder what might have been......

Second game was at home but against equally tough opposition and we managed to scrape a 1-1 draw with a much tighter defensive performance and we've now just taken all the points in a 'snatch and grab' counter attacking win away from home against much stronger opposition.

So, in summary, 3 games down against 3 of the strongest teams in the league and we're sitting pretty in the qualification places for the Championship stage - all is looking good!

However, take a look at the weird points system - 4 pts for a win, 2 pts for a draw and 1 pt for a loss - that is going to take some getting used to!

Well he deserved to be sacked after that run of results:

Bulgaria 2-0 England

England 3-3 Wales

Montenegro 2 - 0 England

A degree of irony and fate that in all my previous save's in FM12 Capello sticks around for ageas as England manager, but it had to be during this week, that he got sacked in the game as well as in real life!

Nice start.

Capello getting sacked, thats brilliant

A degree of irony and fate that in all my previous save's in FM12 Capello sticks around for ageas as England manager, but it had to be during this week, that he got sacked in the game as well as in real life!

He didn't get sacked in real life.

He didn't get sacked in real life.

Sacked, resigned, pushed - I doubt any of us will really know exactly what was said and done in the boardroom? At the end of the day he is no longer manager.......

Midway through the regular season we're establishing ourselves as the draw specialists. Critically we're the only team to remain unbeaten at the halfway stage, but we've missed several opportunities to bag all the points when we should have done. I've ended the last 2 games with only 10 men on the pitch as well, which is a concern.

Overall though we're sitting pretty in the qualification places for the Championship round of the season which was my expectation for the season.

James Tarimule Salai has confirmed his position as the team's star player having scored 5 goals in 7 games and has just earnt his first call up to the national team.

Carlo Ancelotti has been appointed as the new England manager, Alan Shearer has replaced Alan Pardew at Newcastle who are 19th in the Premiership and Steve Kean has been sacked by Blackburn (16th)

Need to get more from all those draws.

I was playing in Fiji, playing in Oceania is very hard, good luck

Need to turn them draws into wins.

I was playing in Fiji' date=' playing in Oceania is very hard, good luck [/quote']

Thanks, think I'll need it!

Well done so far

Cheeky gits! I'm hoping that the take-over might result in the club turning semi-pro, as I'm sick of all my best players being pinched by other teams - that's if they don't sack me!

Wonder how many hundred quid the takeover would cost.

To be fair, they've paid off my outstanding debt so my bank balace is zero. That cost them £20k.

PS. They've deemed that I'm an acceptable manager for the time being, so my career isn't going to start island hopping just yet.........

• All of my best players keep being poached by other teams in the league. I need to build up my club reputation or go semi-pro in order to be able to retain players - otherwise I think it'll be time for me to move on
  
• My star goalkeeper and national team No. 1 has been frankly useless and has been replaced
  
• I've survived a board takeover without losing my job - debts have been paid off, but no new money and the club is still amateur
  
• Despite losing a number of my key players, I've just scraped it through in 4th place into the Championship round of the season - good thing that, otherwise I'd have been looking for a paper round to keep me busy for the rest of the season! As you can see it was a tight run thing, but I was given the luxury going into the last game that the other teams around me had played on the Saturday - so I already new I'd qualified. This helped prevent me from having a heart attack as my team managed to throw the game away against bottom placed Tupuji Imere!
  

Your doing well if you can stay in top 5 you done really well. keep it up

TVL Premier League - 2nd place

An excellent end to the season and delighted to have finished above Tafea, who are a much stronger team in reality and are semi-pro, therefore have a permanent if only part time set of players and staff. They didn't have the same problems that I did of other teams coming and pinching my best players throughout the season. Amicale as you can see ran away with the title and retained it for the 3rd consecutive season. To be honest, I can't see how any of the other teams will be able to compete with them in the near future - especially as they will be benefitting from prize money and improved attendances from competing in the O League again.

Transfers

Almost as many players that came in, went out. With all but 3 of the clubs set as Amateur, and with a relatively small pool of native players to choose from it is a bit of a free-for-all with most players moving several times within the season.

Finances

The finances have improved since the board take over, and we have a balance of £3k with a loan debt of £20k. With a stadium capacity of 200 and no prize money until we reach the O League I can't see any prospects of this improving.

Squad

The squad is ok for what it is, but is in need of strengthening up front. My star striker James Tarimule Salai was one of the players who jumped ship and I haven't really been able to replace him. I will be looking to bring new faces in during the off season but I would expect as many players to be pinched from me as join

My Top 3 Player's:

Ken Russel - Winger who has progressed up through my youth ranks and had a storming end to the season. Hopefully the source of many assists next year

Joel Konofilla - Probably my star player, centre back from the Solomon Islands who joined midway through the regular season. I'm hoping that the fact he is not from Vanuata, will mean that other teams are less likely to come in for him?

Rexley Tarivuti- Really solid performer in the middle of the park, nothing special, but consistently does what is asked of him

Next Season?

To be honest I can't see how we can improve on this season, as there is no way that I can see us overtaking Amicale into the top spot. Whilst I'd love to win this league with the Black Birds, I'll be starting to cast my eye around for other opportunities in Oceania. If nothing comes up, my target will be to win some of the games that we drew this year and at least close the gap to Amicale

[TABLE=class: grid]

[TR]

[TD]Season[/TD]

[TD]Team[/TD]

[TD]League[/TD]

[TD]Country[/TD]

[TD]League Position[/TD]

[TD]Notes[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]2011/12[/TD]

[TD]Ifira Black Birds[/TD]

[TD]TVL Premier League[/TD]

[TD]Vanuata[/TD]

[TD]2nd[/TD]

[TD]N/A[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

UEFA European Championship 2012

After a fantastic performance in the group, where they beat Sweden and France 2-0 and hammered Holland 4-1 in a rematch of the famous 1996 Euro Championship performance, Carlo Ancelotti's England fell at the Quarter Final stage with a 1-0 extra time defeat to Russia. Rooney played well throughout the tournament with 4 goals to his name, but it was probably Tom Cleverley's performances that really stood out with an average rating of 7.50 and 2 goals to his name.

The Irish side also outperformed their expectations, qualifying top of a group containing Ukraine, Portugal and Belarus. They made it through the QF's on penalties after a 2-2 draw with Montenegro, but nobody was surprised when the fell to a 3-0 defeat against Spain in the semi's.

So that left the final to be fought over between Spain and Germany. Whilst Spain were always the favourites going into the match, nobody was predicting this result!

Have to admit this put a smile on my face to see the German's capitulate like this!

Can you write how Poland?

Enjoying this

Even Torres scored 3!

That was some final.

Enjoying this

Thanks!

Even Torres scored 3!

I know, Football Manager is sooooooo unrealistic

Well, I warned in my post season update that I would be starting to look around for new opportunites and when I saw this position advertised on the board I couldn't resist! It might seem a strange choice, but I love playing in the obscure leagues and given that I'd travelled within about 100km of this club when I was travelling in Bolivia on my gap year I couldn't resist the opportunity

Unfortunately the board didn't respond well to me looking elsewhere and asked me for my resignation. A bit cheeky if you ask me, considering I'm only on an amateur contract with no wages!

So, I did the honourable thing and handed in my notice and said my goodbye's to the players, staff and fans.

Unfortunately things didn't quite go to plan when Vaca Diez decided to appoint a recently retired Bolivian ex-international footballer as their new manager. Oh well, down to the dole office for me then!

Well, my first job offer unsurprisingly came from the lower leagues in the English game, but it isn't time for me to go home yet...... despite being offerred a very nice wage packet!

Where you hoping to end up at next?

The next job offer was much more enticing - more of a challenge!

The Pinnacles play in the 4th division of the Canadian league - the Canadian Amateur League and have just finished the season bottom of the table in 20th place.

As per the name of the league all of the clubs within it are Amateur so I'm going to face the same problems that I had in Vanuatu with other clubs being able to pinch all of my star players - however at least all of the clubs in the league will be on a level playing field this time - and given the team finished at the bottom of the league, I'm not sure that there will be many star players to be pinched!

Total Distance travelled: 6,638.2 miles

Now I've just got to find some money to pay for my air fare! My total career earnings at the minute stands at a big fat 0!

Good luck in Canada . Will certainly be a challenge.

Club - Domestic

English Premier League

2011/12 - 1st Arsenal 2nd Man Utd 3rd Man City

FA Cup

2011/12 - Winners Wolves Runners-Up Swansea

League Cup

2011/12 - Winners Man Utd Runners-Up Stoke

La Liga

2011/12 - 1st Barcelona 2nd Real Madrid 3rd Valencia

Bundesliga

2011/12 - 1st Schalke 2nd Dortmund 3rd Wolfsburg

Serie A

2011/12 - 1st Palermo 2nd AC Milan 3rd Lazio

French Ligue 1

2011/12 - 1st Bordeaux 2nd PSG 3rd Lyon

Club - Europe

Champions League

2011/12 - Winners Barcelona Runners-Up AC Milan

Europa League

2011/12 - Winners Real Madrid Runners-Up Tottenham

International

European Championships

2012 - Winners Spain Runners-Up Germany

Leading Transfers

All of the money in world football continues to be concentrated in the English Premier League with 15 of the top 20 transfers resulting in players moving to English clubs. Recession, what recession?

Other News

• Roman Abrahomovic continues to show a lack of patience with poorly performing managers. AVB was sacked in 2011 to be replaced by Louis van Gaal, however van Gaal was only able to lead Chelsea to 6th place, and with the team languishing in 10th place by November in the 2012/13 season van Gaal was dismissed to be replaced by Mick McCarthy. Carlos Queiroz replaces him
  
• Michael Owen shocks United fans with his lack of loyalty by moving into a Youth Coach position with Man City
  
• Blackburn say goodbye to Michael Laudrup whilst in 7th place in the Premier League as he goes off to manage Denmark. Paul Lambert is enticed from Norwich to manage at Ewood Park and Steve Kean completes the managerial triangle to go into the hot seat at Carrow Road
  

Hulk to Man City for under £15m .

I missed that one!

He's mainly been playing from the bench with only 4 starts - 6 goals and a 7.05 av rating

From one obscure club to another.

From one obscure club to another.

That's my aim!

Just managed to put up a more than respectable performance in my first pre-season friendly against Brantford Galaxy - who have just retained the Canadian Soccer League title for the second time. We eventually lost 3-2 after they were awarded a more than dubious last minute penalty, but I'm more than happy with how well the team performed.

I've managed to bring in a few of the faces that I knew from Ifira Black Bird and the rest of the Vanuatan league, to bulk up the numbers in the squad. On average the best players from the amateur clubs from Vanuatu are marginally better than the average players in the lowest league in Canada - they jumped at the chance of a free flight and a work permit to play in Canada, even if they are only on an amateur contract - clearly they're hopeful of being able to pick up some jobs locally on wages much higher than in native Vanuatu!

In addition, my scout and the beast of a Jamaican GK coach that I've managed to bring in have between them identified a number of American and Carribean youngsters on free's who I hope are going to absolutely destroy the opposition this season - if I can keep hold of them for long enough that is!

Preseason update to be posted tomorrow hopefully!

This is a very interesting save - Im especially enjoying reading tidbits about the world as well as your fantastic save Keep it up!