Back to FM - Suggestions for choosing team/league for start (FM2011)

Hi all,

I'm about to come back to FM after 2 years break (last played FM09 without any significant success and then just demo of FM10).

Question to experienced players who played in different countries and on various levels: which league would you advise me to start with so it's not too hard or too easy? I don't like to manage top teams but I am not good enough to achieve anything with poor team in a strong league. Tactically I would like to focus on managing team as a whole rather than lot of tweaking for individual players. My preferred countries to play would be: England, Germany, France, Poland or as a second choice Italy or Spain (if someone could point out some benefits/downsides of playing in all these countries that would be great). I am open for other reasonable options in Europe. First I thought I'd try Liverpool but decided it's too tough and time consuming for start so in England I'm only looking at Championship (maybe Portsmouth - any opinions?) or below.

If you have any idea please post it together with short reasoning.

Any suggestions appreciated.

First off I would consider the leagues you want to load.

Personally my recommendation (based on my experience) would be down to the lower leagues in the country you start in then add the top leagues of main European nations, this will give you options later as you climb the leagues and keep a good balance of nationalities available to buy/for national teams.

I've never managed in Poland so can't comment but I would also say consider the Scandinavian leagues (Sweden, Norway, Denmark or Finland) as a starting point as they will be of a similar standard. Once you've decided on a league have a look at the teams and aim for one that has a media prediction of around mid table or slightly lower but not in the relegation places. This should give you a reasonable squad with less pressure to get results straight away. If you want to look deeper also look at the finances and stay away from those with big loans or financial status of less than "Ok"

Thanks for reply, good point about leagues to load. I'd probably make England, Spain, Germany, Italy and maybe France playable (plus the country I'd play in of course). I would also add few leagues for viewing (Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Portugal). That's because in real life they produce many 'better than average' players however I wonder if this affects these countries potential in European competitions after few years (don't really want to see regularly unrealistic CL finals ie. Broendby-IFK Goteborg or so, except occassional successes of similar clubs).

Another question came to my mind: would you say playing ie. in League One/Serie B is tougher (you have stronger opponents) or easier (you have more skilled players) than in BSP/Serie C?