RomaRulez

They did say they were going to take steps in light of the earthquakes in Turkey by removing people who perished and also by changing the Turkish leagues so that teams that elect not to play the rest of the season don't get relegated. The former shouldn't be too hard to do but I imagine changing the leagues in FM in that manner may take some trial and error on SI's part. They do have some history with that though when the 2020 seasons were stopped due to Covid so I assume they have some idea how to do it. But I suspect this is the reason for the delay.

Well this is what I get for using mods I guess. I've used databases in the past that had more leagues and teams than the default, but this one isn't working for me. Beyond the fact that it appears that the players aren't real and the schedules are made up, I'm also seeing teams that have no facilities. While my career may be "fictional" I don't want everything to be fictional. So I'm going to end this "career" here and find something new to start. Maybe the same theme but with Red Star or Paris 13 Atletico? At least I know that I can trust that SI got everything accurate in the leagues and teams they released in their game (I hope). Thanks for reading. Look for another career story soon from me....

Pre-story disclaimer: I realize Lois Leca is not the chairperson for the real Chantilly. Since this is a fictional narrative anyway I will always use the names of people according to what's inside Football Manager 23, not the real world people NOTE: If anyone is interested I'm using the @Tlmo@ French database to enable the lower league teams in France. I also have lower league databases for Italy, England, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland enabled. So here we go then..... Wednesday, June 1st 2022 - 9am The telephone rings. Could it be one of the football clubs I submitted applications to manage? Paul: "Hello" Caller: "Is this Paul Honnete?" Paul: "Yes it is. How can I help you?" Caller: "Paul, it's Lois Leca, Chairperson for US Chantilly. We'd like you to come in tomorrow to interview for our vacant managerial position. 9am work for you?" Paul: "Yes, I can be there at 9am." Lois: "Do you have the address?" Paul: "3 rte des Bourgognes?" Lois: "Yes, that's correct. See you tomorrow then". Thursday, June 2nd 2022 - 730am I mapped the drive up the A4 from my flat south of Paris to the offices and ground for US Chantilly. Looks to be about an hour drive. I'm leaving more time. I knew this part of France was "horse country" but it sure is remote. Is the stadium in a forest? What have I gotten myself into? Well, if the opportunity is right then it's the right move is what I tell myself. The address given for the club is right around the corner. Looks like they have a nice team bus at least, so that's good! Are those the "training facilities"? Looks more like a trailer. This is certainly going to be an interesting experience. Well, this is the address but it's just a gate? Are those the club offices right there? Does the club HAVE offices? How do I get in? I dial the club's phone from my cell... Paul: "Hello? I'm at the gate. Can someone let me in?" Gruff voice: "Be right there" A gentleman shuffles out from the small building and walks up to the gate. He stands there and glares out at me for a moment, then the gate swings open. I drive in, park, and exit the vehicle. Paul: "Salut! I'm Paul Honnete. I'm here to interview for the manager's position." Man: "Hrmmmph! Martin Ekani. I'm the team's technical director. The board is waiting in here" as he motions to the small building next to the gate. A tehcnical director? For such a small club? I hope they're not paying this guy a lot? Regardless, we'll probably relieve him of his duties if the club hires me. I walk into the room, straightening my tie as I enter. Woman: "Paul? It's a pleasure to meet you! I'm Lois. We spoke on the phone. These are the rest of the board members. Please make yourself comfortable". Lois and the board are seated around a small rectangular wooden table. The only empty chair is at the head. I take a seat and open my briefcase, turning on my laptop and bringing up my tactical plan. Paul: "Is there a way to project from my laptop? I have some tacitcal plans to illustrate." Lois: "No, I'm sorry. Just show us the laptop. It's a small table. We can all follow along" I make the diagrams full screen, shift in my seat, and make direct eye contact with each member of the board. Paul: "Fine. I'm ready to begin in that case." Lois: "Splendid! Can you ease our concerns about the fact that you've never managed before?" Paul: "Well, I just retired from a 15 year career as a central defender for Le Mans, Red Star, and Paris 13. But I'm sure you know that already. So what I will tell you is that I've studied tactics for many years. I earned my National A license in record time. I'm ready to manage my first team." Board Member B: "Our goal for the next season is to avoid relegation. Can you deliver that goal?" Paul: "I'm confident we can avoid relegation. My concern is for the future. What vision does the bord have beyond the '22-'23 season?" Lois: "Today, since you've never managed before, we're only willing to consider this upcoming season. Should you do well we can certainly discuss future seasons". Paul: "Fair enough." Board Member C: "When our previous manager left his entire staff left with him. Currently the only staff member we have employed is Monsieur Ekani, who I believe you met when you arrived. Should you be hired, would you want a staff to be in place? Would you want Monsieur Ekani to help you find a staff? Also, would you require the club hire a director of football?" Paul: "I don't need a staff to be in place, and I don't feel the need to be assisted. I'm sure Monsieur Ekani has been a dedicated servant to the club but I don't envision retaining his services. I would be interested in working with a director of football if a suitable candidate can be found, but it's not a requirement." Lois: "The club doesn't have a lot of money. We can offer a nominal wage budget but no transfer budget at this time. Ideally we'd like to you find ways to raise money for use in procuring players in the future, should the need arise. There is a squad under contract currently, but we realize there are some positions you will need to fill. How would you propose doing so?" Paul: "Well, the most obvoius path would be to secure loans from larger clubs. Does Chantilly have affiliations with any other clubs?" Lois: "Not currently, no." Paul: "Would the board consider attempting to find a parent club?" Lois: "Perhaps in the future but probably not at the beginning." Paul: "Then we'll have to look for free loans that are available on the market. The other path would be to try to shed some current salary in order to free up money to sign other players. Are there any currently contracted players who are transfer listed? Any bigger clubs interested in anyone currently under contract? Do we have anyone out on loan?" Board Member D: "Unfortunately none of those situations exist currently. But you would be welcome to work through the transfer market however you see fit, budget allowing of course." Paul: "Certainly. I understand. Tell me about the facilities available to the club?" Lois: "Stade de Chantilly, built in 2016 is our home ground. The pitch was just recently relaid. Let me show it to you." We walk outside and the board members start pointing out various facilities on the grounds, until we reach the stadium. "The pitch looks very good" I remark as we enter the playing area. "Where are the training failities?" I ask. Lois: "Did you see the team bus when you arrived? Those buildings behind it are the team weight room and physio office. The coaching and recruiting staff work out of the office we were just meeting in." 'I wanted to start from the bottom', I tell myself 'and you can't get more bottom than this!' Paul: "This all looks fine to me. I'm ready to start whenever the board wants me." Lois: "We only have one other question for you. Can you give us an idea of your salary demands?" Paul: "Look, I relize this club doesn't have a huge amount of money. I made plenty of money in my playing career. I'm looking to start my managerial career and in order to do so I'm willing to start at the minium salary with no bonsues or clauses. If we see success on the pitch we can talk about future compensation." Lois: "Excellent! Thank you for coming Paul." Paul: "It was my pleasure. I look forward to getting started. I think this club would be my preferred choice." Monday, June 6th 2022 - 9am As France and the rest of the world commemorate the anniversary of the Normandy invasions in World War 2, I'm beginning to become concerned that US Chantilly has chosen to hire a different candidate. 'They're probably just doing their due diligence, looking into my background and interviewing other candidates', I keep telling myself.... Wednesday, June 8th 2022 - 11am The phone rings... Paul: "BonJur?" Lois: "Salut Paul! It's Lois. On behalf of US Chantilly, our board, and our fans, we are pleased to offer you the position of Manager of our football club!" Paul: "Excellent! Have you prepared a contract proposal?" Lois: "You indicated that you would be willing to start at a minimum salary with no bonsues or contract clauses. We've just emailed you a contract offer along those lines." I check my email...... Paul: "Just one season? I'm working for peanuts! Can't you offer two or three seasons?" Lois: "Given your lack of managerial history, the board are only willing to offer one season. Should it become clear that you are exceeding expectations we would be willing to discuss a longer term deal." Paul: "Not ideal but I really want to manage this club so I guess it'll have to do. I agree. When would you like me to start?" Lois: "EXCELLENT! We are so pleased to have you onboard! Can you begin Friday morning, 9am?" Paul: "Yes. See you then." Friday, June 10th 2022 - 9am - US Chantilly - Day One Club introduction coming next update.....

Thank you for the suggestion. I'm going to try Imagur but I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks very much! I appreciate it. I'll give that a shot. Next update will probably be tomorrow. Was planning to get this career going today but something came up.

Hello and thanks for reading my career story. This is the first time I'm trying to write one of these however I spent many years in an online league for Out Of The Park Baseball and it was a "writing league", which meant we had to post regular updates about our teams, transactions, goals, and much more. Plus we were encouraged to write feature articles as well. Also, back many years ago I played Eastside Hockey Manager and wrote multiple career stories for that game as well. So I'm well versed on how to write these types of career stories. A bit about me....I'm an American who lives in California. I'd say if I have a real world football team it's probably AS Roma (hence my forum username) however I follow many of the teams that I've managed in Football Manager over the years. I've been a dedicated FM plyaer since FM 2015, regularly clocking around 1000 hours played in each version. I've manged dozens of teams over the various versions of FM, with varying success. I'm still learning how tactics work. I think I have a pretty good grasp on them now but it's still a learning process. In previous versions of FM I've led numerous teams to promotions and none of my teams have ever been relegated. I've led Norwich to an FA Cup victory in FM19. I led Manchester City to multiple EPL and UCL titles in FM20. I just finished my first save in FM23, taking over my personal fav team Roma for 5 seasons before reaching a self imposed deadline to either 'win or move on". In 5 seasons we made the UCL Quarterfinals 3 times and finished in the top 3 in the Serie A 3 times, along with a Coppa Italia Final in my 5th season. But since for various reasons I was never able to earn a trophy at Roma, it was time to move on to a new save. Which brings me to the start of this save and this career update thread! First a little background story that I've created for myself going into this save. I've decided that my "manager" is a 37 year old guy named Paul Honnete who was born in Paris and played professional football at a "local" level. I matched his coaching badge to the career badge, so I'm starting the save with a National A license. My ultimate goal is to end up at a Parisian team and lead them to glory, becoming the "OTHER" team in Paris! Whether that ends up bieng Paris FC, Red Star, Paris 13 Atletico, or some other team that plays its games in Paris remains to be seen? I want to knock off PSG and win a Ligue 1 title at a diferent club in Paris. If I can do that the save will end. Given my fictional history I decided that as a recently retired professional footballer with a "local" reputation, I'd only even know about available managerial jobs in France. The one thing I didn't specify in my personal fictional history was what team I played for as a professional footballer, so therefore I'd be "known locally" in whatever city I ended up at my first managerial job. In other words if I took a job for a team near Orleans or Marseille, I could say to myself "Well, ok, I played football professionally near Orleans (or near Marseille)". I started my save in early June, 2022 and applied for a number of vacant managerial posts. Since I'm using an expanded database for France, I had access to teams in lower leagues in France than the default game. I was interviewed by 6 teams, all in the Championnat National 3, and was offered 5 different manager posts. The teams who approached me were US Chantilly, Jarville JF, USM Saran, AS Quetigny, and FC Drouais. I ended up choosing the Chantilly job for 4 reasons. First, Chantilly is a suburb of Paris, so this fits my fictional narrative the best. Secondly, of the 5 teams Chantilly had the biggest stadium capacity (3,000 in the game with 430 seats). Chantilly had the most players on its roster compared to the other 4 clubs (When I take over on June 10th there are 14 players on the roster). And lastly because of the 4 clubs the pitch at Chantilly was the only one listed as being in "very good" condition, so I figure that will help minimize injuries (hopefully). So come along on this journey(man) with me as I try to help a club become the "other" team in Paris! PS: Can someone advise please how to embed images into these posts? I want to be able to include images in my story but I'm not seeing an obious way to do that? If I have screenshots saved on my PC how do I embed them into these posts? Thanks.

It may be difficult to implement but shouldn't managers be able to interview candidates for key jobs, those probably being GM, Assistant Coach, Chief Scout, Technical Manager, Loan Manager, and Head Physio? Maybe revamp the way the whole staff hiring system works and have all staff attributes and preferred formations hidden. Then when you get a job, or wan to replace a staff member, you have to post a job offering or you can reach out to people you know. Then once you have candidates you would have to interview them, just like you had to be interviewed to get the job. You would be offered a list of questions to ask the candidate, and to tell them what tactic and style you want to play, and gaugue their suitability for the job based on their respones, which would then "reveal" their attributes and preferred formation. Their reputation and previous job history would be the only thing you could see before the interview. Just seems to me that you should be able to interview those guys.