Want a new job!

I'm a little surprised I can't seem to find any half decent new club. I've been managing Vitesse in Holland the past 4,5 seasons. Finished 5th, 4th, 6th and 6th respectively. Currently lying in 2nd position. I've reached the semi-finals of the UEFA cup the past season. Won the national cup 2 seasons ago. Established them as a stabile force near the top. Bank balance is 35 million and I'm 1 million a month under my wage budget.

All in all, not amazing results, I didn't win the league or the champions league or anything crazy like that with Vitesse, but more than decent in a realistic way I would think?

I just can't seem to get a break applying for other jobs. West Ham laughs off my interest, I can't get a job in Italy Serie A at for example Genua (not even a major team) or even Feyenoord in Holland isn't interested...

I would say I've done a decent job at Vitesse, or am I just dreaming? Do I really need to win the Champions League before I can sign for a bottom 5 club in Italy??

You would've thought someone would show some interest in you. After all, it only takes one season of exceeding expectations at your club for Liverpool to show interest in real life*. What are your contract terms with Vitesse like? Could it be that you are on a long term, well paid contract, and the compensation is holding you back? Have you tried resigning and seeing if more clubs take your applications seriously? Have you been beaten to these jobs by high profile managers? Have you said negative things in the past against the clubs you've applied for? I don't know if any of this is taken into consideration by the game, but thought it might be an idea to think about these questions as potential explanations/barriers.

*N.B. I think both Hodgson and Rodgers are hugely talented managers, and I'm sure that in both appointments, more was considered than just their previous seasons' achievements.

What is your current reputation, as it may be a factor?

I would have thought that Feyenoord should be interested in hiring you & maybe even West Ham as mid/lower top tier English clubs are always on the look out for overseas managerial prospects, getting no joy from Italian clubs seems fine to me, how many non-Italians manage in Serie A? Same goes for Spain.

The only other country I would expect to offer a viable chance to further your career is Germany with a border town club like Borussia MG, from there you're looking at the sideways or backwards steps offered by Belgium, Portugal (route into Spain), Scotland (route into England).

Edit: Forgot about France, similar to Germany with some of the lesser light clubs possibly looking at you to do for them hat you've done of Vitesse.

I think it just takes time. Clubs are sometimes wary of taking a person from abroad no matter how successful he is. Doubts will be placed such as whether they can adapt and play at a higher level etc.

You should eventually find a job though. I started at Basingstoke and won them promotion 2 times in 3 years into League 2. I then moved to exeter who had just been relegated from league 1 into league 2. I managed promotion with them in my 1st year and then promotion to the Championship in my 4th year.

After 2 seasons in the championship (both finished lower mid table) i resigned. Thinking i'd be able to get a job in the lower Premiership. The rest of the season went by with me applying for jobs such as West Ham and Huddersfield (Both in the premiership) and Reading (top half championship side and my favored club) i was in with a chance in all of them apparantly but no luck.

Eventually i did get a job in spain in the 2nd division with recently relegated Almeria at the start of the season. 10mil transfer budget. I was suprised i got the job as i wasn't considered any chance at all!

anyways. I tried rebuilding the team and was sacked by mid October but keep trying and i'm sure you'll get the job you want!

FM puts too much emphasis on silverware for the development of manager reputations.

However, you haven't achieved something really special, maybe apart from the Euro League semi-final. So I can see that maybe the EPL or Serie A would be a step too high for a manager who has done reasonably well in Holland, but not even reached the CL even once.

However, I agree with Barside in that Feyenoord should have had serious interest in you. Your national reputation should be good enough to be a serious candidate for the top clubs at least.

I've got the same problem but at a higher level. My rep is World Class.

Guided York to the Premier League, won the EPL twice, FA Cup and League Cup once and the Champions League. Decided I wanted a new challenge in a new country, so I resigned the day after winning the CL and applied for the Roma vacancy, didn't get it, they decided on a club legend, fair enough I thought. The I applied for the Bilbao job, they bloody laughed at me despite average finishes in the league. Then Lazio, Villareal...... Still unemployed to this day (Btw whilst at York, I was getting linked to and job offers form the top clubs regulary.)

I find FM12 very poor for this problem, had it several times where I've won the lot with Chelsea aswell as keeping a lid on the finances, got bored and resigned after 2nd reason and was applying for all kinds of jobs and being knocked back. The selections for International managers is also poor, some of the nobodys getting the Scotland job ahead of me when I've won 2 Prems, 2 FA Cups, 1 Carling Cup and the Champions League is just stupid!

What is your current reputation, as it may be a factor?

National. Started with "automatic" on past experience as I like a bit of a challenge. Ah well, guess I'll just keep applying from time to time. I do have my sights set on Italy or Spain. Germany has never appealed to me, and I've already played enough in England... my ultry attacking tactic doesn't seem to do too well there (STL/STC/STR + AMC), and I really want to stick with it. Portugal might be nice, I'll look into that.

In the meantime, I can't really complain about Vitesse, got a great team together so perhaps I'll stick it out.

Just to update. I decided to split my save game and see what would happen. So turns out that PSV who finished 2nd (1 spot above me) last season was hiring. I applied and they immediately offered me a job. So it seems like being a free agent makes a difference.

Still got laughed off by Freiburg and Stoke though, which is a shame as I would've wanted to move abroad.