Gundo's FM11 European Adventure Challenge™

[Gundo]

Gundo's FM11 European Adventure Challenge™

Welcome to Gundo's challenge for FM11, with the introduction of Dynamic League Reputation changes, it certainly gives this challenge a fresh different outlook than past versions.

The History
Gundo's European Adventure Challenge was first introduced as an alternative to the dafuge challenge back on FM06 after I had a brainwave one evening. It is essentially a 'small club to big club challenge' but just has a different name, I like to be different you see. It has unearthed some true diamonds - player-wise over the years, to name just one - the Swedish/Polish youngster Patrik Burda was just magical for many of us on FM06 and 07. In truth it's the participants of the challenge that make it what it is, with stories of success and some of failure. Hopefully the challenge will be around for many more versions yet.

The Aim
To take a small club who where previously unplayable in the game from the lower leagues to their Domestic League Title and Champions League crown (doesn't have to be in the same season). I realize it's not an easy challenge, but should be a lot of fun trying.

The Set-up
European Leagues you can't use: England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Turkey and *Scotland.

League reputations - Eligible nations below the line:

England          185
Spain            183
Italy            172
Germany          170
France           160
Russia           145
Turkey           145
Portugal         145
--------------------
Greece           142
Netherlands      140
Ukraine          135
Belgium          130
Switzerland      122
*Scotland         122
Romania          120
Austria          120
Israel           115
Denmark          115
Serbia           114
Norway           110
Poland           110
Czech Republic   105
Croatia          105
Slovenia         100
Slovakia         100
Hungary          100
Sweden           100
Finland          98
Belarus          92
Iceland          90
Bulgaria         85
Ireland          60
N. Ireland       50
Wales            35

Getting started
Load a game with all the available divisions within the nation you have selected; only one nation is allowed.

NEW You are free to use a Large, Medium or Small a database and you are permitted to load all players from your chosen nation however No additional players from any other nation should be loaded.

Attribute masking should be enabled.

The extra levels of detail that you can change while in the game are up to you, as they shouldn't make a difference.

Add yourself as an unemployed Manager (hol_man); the details are not important at all.

Then go on holiday until the new seasons teams are generated (each country will be different). An example: Norway's is: 20th January. (Hint - saving the day before on 19th January for Norway, should give you a better choice of teams by being able to quit and reloading the game). This shouldn't take that long either. A list of rough dates for your relevant nation will be listed below.

League re-set dates

Austria - 23rd June.
Belarus - 14th February.
Belgium - 30th June.
Bulgaria - 29th June.
Croatia - 20th June.
CzechRepublic - 30th June.
Denmark - 5th July.
Finland - 7th January.
Greece - 19th June.
Holland - 7th July.
Hungary - 20th June.
Iceland - 5th January.
Ireland - 5th January.
Israel - 20th June.
N.Ireland - 19th June.
Norway - 20th January.
Poland - 30th June.
Romania - 1st July.
Serbia - 9th July.
Slovakia- 1st July.
Slovenia - 1st July.
Sweden - 1st December.
Switzerland -20th June.
Ukraine - 18th June.
Wales - 20th June.

* These dates are taken from FM10, dates underlined have been confirmed as being correct for FM11 by other Users.

Then retire your original manager profile.

Add a new manager, the options/details are up to you but 'past experience' must be set as 'Sunday League Footballer' or if that reputation isn't available then you must then select 'Automatic'.
I understand that choosing your nationality may have an effect later on, but I trust people will be sensible with this, I would expect people to use their own nationalities/second nationalities.

Take over one of the newly promoted clubs to the lowest playable division within your selected nation. If you are not sure about which clubs have been promoted simply check last seasons league table and the new clubs will obviously be the clubs not in it. To make completely sure that the club is eligible, check the club's history of league positions, it should be blank for the previous season.

It is completely up to you which club you choose, although please appreciate that some clubs may be easier to manage than others. example; Some clubs will have a full squad of players and staff, while others won't. Also some will have higher reputations than others making it easier to sign players ect. So choose wisely. The nation you've chosen to manage in will affect difficulty too.

It is now up to you to manage your chosen club to their domestic title and to win the UEFA Champions League.

You are not permitted to move between clubs unless you are sacked; whereby then you can either take over a newly promoted club to the lowest playable division next time the reset date comes round or simply quit your current save and start over.

Any form of international management is not allowed, until you have completed the challenge.

There are no restrictions on assigning feeder/parent clubs.

Scouting Guidelines
You can only sign players that you are able to scout or trial at the club first, so in short the player must have the 'Get scout report' button on his profile screen. The one exception to this is when you ask a current squad member to recommend a new signing, It is then ok to sign him as the player who recommended him knows of him anyway. NEW. If an agent offers you a player, it is ok to sign the player.

No external utilities such as FMScout should be used and the database should be un-edited. Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed. It is advised that people should update using the latest patches as they are released.

Rules for this Thread
Player naming is allowed. (This is a warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)

Discussion on tactics is allowed. (This is another warning for those of you who do not wish to see this)

Screenshots for anything in-game are encouraged, as are youtube clips of matches ect. I will advise you to put video clips as links only though and not as a direct click and play type.This will keep the thread fairly clutter free and make browsing it quicker.

When you join the challenge, could you post a screenshot of your manager's Personal screen on the date you take control at your new club.

Progress of your club should be documented using this thread. We want to hear the story of your club all the way through (success or failure). So please keep us updated, even if you are doing really badly.

At the end of every season, could everyone post some kind of season review, including the minimum of a screenshot of the league table. If you give this a title in bold it makes it a bit easier for others to pick out.

How to Post a Screenshot

1. While in FM, press the 'Prt Sc' button (usually next to F12 on your keyboard).

2. Open an image editing program such as Paint and paste the image

3. Save the file as a JPEG

4. Upload the image to an image hosting website such as Photobucket or Imageshack

5. Post the direct Url to the image here.

Thanks for everyone's input recently, muchly apreciated.

Good luck on your European Adventure!


*Courtesy of Quackje you can now play Gundo's FM11 Challenge™ - Bonus Leagues Edition, sponsored by Quackje.

[mag man]

Nice one

Have decided to go with Switzerland. Have reloaded a few times but couldnt get the team I wanted. Have got my second choice so will probably go with them.

[Fitzaay]

Thanks again for running this Gundo I'm jumping straight into it up in Northern Ireland. Holidaying the season now

[Quackje]

Word of warning for Bulgaria.

I'm not sure if this is only Bulgaria because theres another bug report of a similar thing that isn't related to any nations. I get this every time I try to continue crump. Which happened just after I broke a load of records for biggest win, games won in a row etc... (someone else reported a crash dump continuing after this) and just after Bulgarian cup draw, I don't know which it is but I'm stuck which is annoying as you can see how well it was going.

Also Gundo, one change to the rules you should add for signing players. I was offered a Zambian guy by his agent who seemed pretty decent, kinda along the lines of staff members recommending players that was new last year.

[qwerty52]

Nice one mate, will try and start tonight. I'll be going for Switzerland I believe.

[Ohanzee]

Looking good.

I'll definitely be trying this one sometime this year. The addition of Holland is especially interesting. That is if the promotion system for that league works from the start now. If dynamic league reputation works well I'd be tempted to try one of the really low rep. leagues to at some point.

Good luck all!

[B.W.G]

I've got some unfinished business to do in Wales.

So I will be Starting as Bridgend Town. Here is the Managers Profile

Bridgend's Information Overview and Facilities

[spartans5]

I am looking at starting this challenge in Wales, holidaying now, hopefully I can stay with a save for long enough to get somewhere here.

[rigbyscafe]

Gundo quick question, i saw in the Editors -Hideout a file for welsh league to lvl 5 http://community.sigames.com/showthr...e-s-to-Level-5 . would this be allowed to use it in your'e challenge to make it more interesting and maybe more challenging?

[Fitzaay]

Lower Maze FC's rise to dominance begins

[spartans5]

Lawrence Lazewski sits here as the new manager at Afan Lido. They have adequate facilities and an incredibly small squad and have no staff at all.

[qwerty52]

Ok then here I am, the proud new manager of SC Young Fellows Juventus in the Swiss Challenge League. We play in the black and white stripes of our giant Italian namesakes and at the Utogrund with a capacity of 2850 (600 seated).

My chairman has kindly provided me with just over £5K for transfers and allowed me around £300 a week leeway in the wage budget. work to be done.

Good luck all!

[cookie15]

Let's get the party started! (After going to a fireworks party with the kids )

[crouchaldinho]

Good luck everyone.

[B.W.G]

Bridgend Town - Principality Welsh Premier - 2011/12

Transfers - The original team needed a total overhaul. Think I may have gone a bit overboard, there was one extra signing not shown on the screenshot.

Competitions

League - Table - To come 2nd in my 1st seasion was quite remarkable and was in the title hunt right up till the last game of the season, if the team didn't have to gel as much at the start of the season then we may have won. Euro Cup will do for a tester in Europe.

League Cup - 1st Round - I was outclassed, it was a deserved loss so I hope I can perform better in the league cup next season.

Welsh Cup - Runners Up - I was unlucky, I literally threw everything including the kitchen sink but I couldn't muster a equalizer.

Players/Awards

I won Manager of the Year

Calvin Davies was top scorer with 13 goals for the season.

Craig Garside had most assists with 11.

Jack Abraham won fans player of the Year.

The youth prospect for next season is Neil Jones who has the potential to be a decent player in the Welsh Premier but there are better players in his position so it will be hard for him to get games unless there is an injury crisis.

Expectations

To continually improve domestically and don't perform too badly in the Euro Cup.

The stadium is having a terracing installed which will give the club 4320 seats but this has put us in debt and now have a loan of £160k which is being paid £1.5k a month.

For the new season, no transfer budget and same wage budget but have got a couple of players in the weakest positions but looking for similar results.

Season     League         Cup              Euro    Achievements
2011/12    2nd           Runners Up         N/A    Euro Cup Qualifcation

[Gundo]

So are we saying it's ok to sign a player that has been recommended to you by an agent or not? What's peoples views on this?

[B.W.G]

I think if we can scout the player then it should be ok, although I have not had any interaction with agents.

[Icelander83]

I'd say that's okay, surely it can work like that in real life? I know some Icelandic teams do this, at least get the players in on trial based only on recommendations.

Btw, confirmed in the other thread that the reset date is still january 5th I've started, will work on getting some screenshots up sometime next week as I'm not playing until then

[Gundo]

Gundo quick question, i saw in the Editors -Hideout a file for welsh league to lvl 5 http://community.sigames.com/showthr...e-s-to-Level-5 . would this be allowed to use it in your'e challenge to make it more interesting and maybe more challenging?

No edited leagues allowed.

[Gundo]

*Added

NEW. If an agent offers you a player, it is ok to sign the player.

[mag man]

mag man takes charge at USV Eschen/Mauren in the Swiss Challenge League

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USV_Eschen/Mauren

Manager Profile

Manager Personal

Not the team I wanted but interestingly they are from Liechtenstein and so it could mean I have some interesting your prospects over the years. Pretty short opening post but I will write up something more detailed next week.

[Gundo]

That's pretty unique that there from Liechtenstein, cool logo too.

Best of Luck.

[Quackje]

I'm not entirely sure the challenge is possible with Eschen/Mauren. I looked into before and I'm sure they coded it so that you couldn't get into champions league via Swiss places with Vaduz (part of the real life arrangement Vaduz had when they were promoted to the superleague). I'm not sure if they extended the hard coding to all Liechtenstein clubs but its likely they did.

[mag man]

Need to check that out then :s

[mag man]

On further research it looks like Vaduz are in the Europa League even though they are in the challenge league, I guess this is because of the Liechtenstein cup which isnt in the game that gives them access.

Would be gutted to never be able to play in the champions league but I think I am going to crack on with it.

[Quackje]

The Europa league spot is the Liechtenstein one yes, in the last fm I often saw teams other than Vaduz get it though, no idea what was used to decide it.

[mag man]

Am going to go ahead with Eschen and if they cant get into the Champions League hopefully I can get FC Baulmes to come up.

[kabajingai]

You can't qualify for the CL with Eschen/Mauren they are from Liechtenstein - I wouldn't risk it.

[B.W.G]

Bridgend Town - Principality Welsh Premier League - 2012/13

Transfers - I didn't have much wage budget to work with so I decided on strengthing the full back positions which were weaknesses the season before.

Competitions

League - Table - We won the league but not before messing it up in the last few games, I needed 1 win from 3 games to secure title but 2 draws ended up being enough. Next season I want to secure it better but its start and hope I can start making money from the champions league.

Euro Cup - 2nd Qualifying Round - I was out of my depth alot but I kept it below 10 and managed to score twice so it wasn't too bad.

Welsh Cup - Winners - I should have won it more comfortably but a win is a win at the end of the day.

League Cup - Winners - A tough battle and managed to sneak it, always feels good getting one over the full timers.

Players/Awards

I won Manager of the year for the 2nd year running.

Calvin Davies was top scorer with 20 goals (14 league goals).

Jack Abraham collected most Assists with 17. He had a brilliant season overall as he collected Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year as well as Fans Player of the Year. Long may it continue

Previous youth Prospect Neil Jones made 1 appearance in the cup but ended up getting injured for 4 months. He is now rated at 1.5*/4*.

New prospect is Nathan Thomas - he will go in straight as my number 2 keeper for the season. He is currently rated at 0.5 */3 *. This is mainly due to lack of wage budget again.

Expectations

Same domestically and enjoy the experience of the champions league.

I need to do well overall as the Welsh League has dropped to 282nd in the rankings and is now rated ar 0.5* but the other teams seem to be weaker as well so it looks like its up to me.

No money to upgrade the facilities, so maybe a few years down the line I will be able to.

Season     League         Cup              Euro    Achievements
2011/12    2nd           Runners Up        N/A     Euro Cup Qualifcation
2012/13    1st           Winners           2nd Ql  Domestic Treble

[Quackje]

Damn you're flying through the seasons.

[Twellman24]

How in the hell...?

[Twellman24]

OK, so Paco Salillas takes over Belarussian...Belaruss...the team from Belarus, Livadia Dzerzhinsk, the only semi-pro team in the Second Division. A full squad and 180k Euro in the bank (less than 10% of that for signings), but no staff whatsoever and a 1,000 fans stadium.

So, we'll see how it goes. For the purpose of this challenge, I've attached a link of where the Belorussian (thanks Google) league stands as of today.

Also, kind of annoying that the league runs from April to November; if/when we get to Europe, that will most likely play a huge part in how we do.

Oh well. Here we go!

[Quackje]

The denonym is belarusian (1 s), good luck

[Twellman24]

Cheers Quack!

So, my best player is a 39 year old striker. And I just told the press I was bringing sexy football back to the team. Great.

Edit: And his name is Sergey Sergei.

And my keeper is the only one who can throw free kicks. So he is going to do a lot of running back to goal. Good luck with a speed of 2 and pace of 3.

[Twellman24]

Pre-season about to end; two things!

1. First goal of the team...by no other than Sergey, the 39 year old...it seems as he still knows how to dribble!





2. ...Are we sure this is Belarus' 2nd division...? WOW!

[Twellman24]

Ia it OK to post videos of goals now that we're able and it is faster to do so? Just wondering. I won't do it often, but I feel this one needs to be addressed!

So my goalkeeper, the on;y one who can throw the free kicks in the team (with an amazing 10 in free kicks), did this in our last friendly against a first divison:



Hail Kostyukevich! And against his old team!

[Marky Mark!]

Alright, given I completed Dafuge's and the San Marino Double Challenge in '07, and Dafuge's again in 09 as well as setting records in the Give Youth a Chance Challenge (although didn't complete it as my computer was stolen!) in 09, it's time for another challenge, and whilst Wales has the lowest reputation 'main league' I coudln't resist Nth Ireland's super low reputation Second Division, which makes the Blue Square N/S look like the EPL!

Now just to pick a team, let's see what the lowest rep, lowest facilities club I can find is... wish me luck!

[Fastbasher]

Back in the game.

Meet the new manager of Szeged in the Hungarian division II East.

The team has just turned semi pro, so all the players are currently on amateur contracts. So, with no players contracted, and no staff, it gives a chance to build from the start.
I decided to sign four of them, and found this promising youngster in the youth team.

Have a Ł3900 pw wage budget, a Ł7500 transfer budget and an 8000 capacity stadium. Let the challenge begin.

[TIR669]

Staring in Belarus. This oughta be fun.

I'll post an update with screenies when I get to Feb of 2011.

[Tomaldinho]

Dumb question:

Does 'load all players from your chosen nation' mean load the players of that nationality or players who play in that country? Need a dunce emoticon /o\

[Gilbster]

This is driving me mad, just cant decide what country to go with. MY first bit of a season over in Germany wasnt keeping me gripped, and I really want to come back to this challenge, but 3 diff countries are all pulling me in this year!

[Gundo]

Players who are based in that nation.

[Quackje]

My view on posting goal videos is I think its best if you put the link to the video, same with screenshots so this page stays quite clean and quick. I'm all in favour of there being videos in updates, it can help tell the story.

[TIR669]

Gundo, just wanted to let you know that Belarus League reset date is February 14th (as stated in the first post).

Here is my holidayed save:
Intro
- small database, loaded all players from Belarus (3000 players total)
- holidayed until February 13th, 2011
- LINK.

FC GORODEYA

Matković takes Gorodeya hot-seat as they start their adventure. The three year old club is definetely No.1 favorite for relegation this season, can the Croatian manager save them from it?

[qwerty52]

Just a quick update after finishing up my transfer business and playing my first game:

Picked up a few bargains and released a good amount of deadwood, quite happy with my squad now really though truthfully I have no idea if they are good enough to compete in this league . My ass man seems to think so anyway. . .

After my first game in charge, I'm not quite convinced.

We were absolutely crap and were turned over at home with ease. Hopefully thats just a team gelling issue. . .

[B.W.G]

Bridgend Town - Welsh Principality Premier League - 2013/14

Transfers- This was to continue to strengthen the team so I can have a better impact on European competition. George Evans is also one for the future as he has 5* PA which means he could become a leading forward in the Welsh premier.

Competitions

Welsh Premier League-Table - This is becoming easier as the other teams bar the full timers are becoming weaker. Unfortunately the semi-pro teams are relying on the players coming through the academy mainly.

Champions League - 2nd Qualifying - All I can say is Ouch!! We were demolished 5-0 in the 1st leg but we were much better in the 2nd losing 3-2.

Welsh Cup - Winners - Tough game but a win is a win, especially with TNS having 2 of the top 3 scorers in the league.

Welsh League Cup - Winners - Easier then expected, but winning is always a plus no matter what the situation is.

Players/Awards

I wonManager of the Year for the third year running.

George Evans was top scorer with 12.

Jack Abraham had most assists with 15 and won Fans Player of the Year for the 3rd season running.

Jeff Williams won Young Player of the Year

The youth prospect for the new season is Mark James.. I am going to look at training him to play left midfield as I don't use wing backs. He has 2.5* pa so he can become decent.

Next Season

Get better quality players in, continue to win domestically and improve performances in Europe. (Welsh Prem is ranked 417th)

I have a £6 transfer budget and a £3.3k wage budget to work with.

Financially, Bridgend are £166,388 in debt so could do with the champions league money to get me in the black or better yet a chairman with a bit of money who has the same ambition as me.

Season     League         Cup              Euro    Achievements
2011/12    2nd           Runners Up        N/A     Euro Cup Qualifcation
2012/13    1st           Winners           2nd Ql  Domestic Treble
2013/14    1st           Winners           2nd QL  Domestic Treble

[Quackje]

Thats enough for a couple of sandwiches there!

Looks quite simple to be the best in Wales, now is the hard bit. Which isn't a surprise when I look at some of your players, I struggle to find anything good about your midfielders except they have ok physical. I agree, that guy is a winger hes delusional to think he can defend

[B.W.G]

It is simple to be the best in wales . Only good midfielder I have came from the youth system and that was Jeff Williams, he is the best I have so that doesn't really say much for the others.

[greenwhitearmy]

How the hell do you get through seasons so quick B.W.G?

[Quackje]

An update on the status of my Bulgarian crash dump, after uploading it to their ftp; Okay thanks for this, I've managed to get it to reproduce internally and I'll pass it onto our coding team.

[B.W.G]

How the hell do you get through seasons so quick B.W.G?

Welsh league is a short season even with cups and I broke my ankle at the start of the week and being in a soft cast till next week, I can barely move

[greenwhitearmy]

do you holiday the matches cause even still that is really really quick?

[B.W.G]

Have it on only commetary and no replays, let the ass man deal with friendlies and press conferences as well as ignoring what the other managers say. Saves me plenty of time, it also seems to be much quicker during the matches then it was last year as well.

[Tomaldinho]

Gundo, just to confirm the reset date for the Czech Republic is indeed the 30th June

[Tomaldinho]

25 year old Englishman Tomaldinho takes control of Bohemians Prague with immediate effect.

Media prediction is 11th so just outside the relegation spots, but interestingly the Chairman is willing to listen to offers for the club so changes could be coming. Exciting times.

[B.W.G]

Good Luck Tomaldinho

[Gilbster]

Almost found the reset date for Holland and then had to come out. So won't be home for a few hours. However B.W.Gs fast progress is making me think I want to go back to flying through seasons too, so I really can't decide where to go.

My choices are Holland (have enjoyed in past, relegation means will get a bit of a challenge in first few seasons), Wales (really fast, but only 1 playable league), Iceland (never touched it, always tell myself I will go there at some point) and Rep of Ireland (looks quite fast, could be diff, enjoyed Northern Ireland the other year).

Please tell me which one you think I should use, and when I get home/tomorrow morning, I will start playing in the most popular of those choices! I apparently get more and more indecisive each year, and may even just go for the 1 reload and take a team from that!

[Tomaldinho]

Thanks B.W.G., I'm also housebound for a week so hope to get through a few seasons as you have done (but with a lot less success!)

Just realised the profile above doesn't contain the personal profile, so here it is.

[Gundo]

Decided to settle in Norway again, hopefully I can complete it this version.

[Azeryk-]

BWG - Have you found that the Welsh league reputation has improved yet?

[B.W.G]

Its gotten worse, it starts off at 1* but its currently rated at 0.5*. The Welsh prem is currently rated at 417th, i've not figured out why its dropped from 282nd in one season.

[Quackje]

I don't know when the game will be fixed so I can play my Bulgarian game so I searched long and hard and reloaded about 20 times on 5th January 2012 until my kakkonen team of choice was promoted. I give you;

FC Santa Claus

Profile - Team

Also if someone can make that picture into logos I will be very happy

[Oxslow]

Almost found the reset date for Holland and then had to come out. So won't be home for a few hours. However B.W.Gs fast progress is making me think I want to go back to flying through seasons too, so I really can't decide where to go.

My choices are Holland (have enjoyed in past, relegation means will get a bit of a challenge in first few seasons), Wales (really fast, but only 1 playable league), Iceland (never touched it, always tell myself I will go there at some point) and Rep of Ireland (looks quite fast, could be diff, enjoyed Northern Ireland the other year).

Please tell me which one you think I should use, and when I get home/tomorrow morning, I will start playing in the most popular of those choices! I apparently get more and more indecisive each year, and may even just go for the 1 reload and take a team from that!

Good to see you back Gilbster. I am having the same problem I just dont know where to start. The only thing that would put me off Holland is that they already have a fairly high rep and I want to see the dynamic league rep in operation.

[TIR669]

A rocky start in Belarus. Only 4 wins in 12 official games. 5/6 games won in preseason friendies. Changing the tactic now though, hope we can improve. First win in five games now after a penalty in 90+4. Transfer window is open now, starting a search for a striker.

[B.W.G]

Good luck Quackje

Bridgend Town - Welsh Principality Premier League - 2014/15

Transfers - wasn't much movement as I was happy overall, the players later signed were recommended by scouts going round the UK.

Competitions

League - Table - Easiest season yet, but with Airbus being taken over at the end of the season by a consortium, it will be more interesting especially with TNS continually signing stronger players.

Champions League - 2nd Qualifying Round - With Welsh teams now playing in the 1st qualifying round, we beat HB 4-2 on agg, we drew the home leg with Basel in a record attendance of 4320 before bareley being beaten in the 2nd leg. The boys did well.

Welsh Cup - Winners - Left it late but the two players who scored both came from Bridgends youth academy

League Cup - Winners - I personally think this was easier then expected as Airbus were going through the takeover during this period so the manager may have been distracted. A couple weeks later, he was replaced by Daniel Gabbidon like the media said he would be.

Players/Awards

I won Manager of the Year.

Jason Mitchell was a free signing in the 13/14 season but ended up injured for the rest of the season in his 6th game. He repaid my faith by being the Top Scorer in the league and hit 29 in 37 overall. His goal scoring exploits also helped him to win Fans Player of the Year.

Jeff Williams won 2 awards this season, they were Young Player of the Year and Welsh Young Player of the Year. He also contributed with most assists with 16 which was on short of the current record.

There are 2 hot prospects that have come through this season, they are David Stewart (CA 1* PA 5*) and David Hughes (CA 1* PA 5*). The ass man rated David Stewart as the brightest prospect to have come through.

Expectations

Youth facilites are being improved so hopefully I can have more graduates from the academy.

Continue to be domestically strong and Continue to improve in Europe. This may suffer a bit due to the overhauling of the squad and getting rid of the expensive deadwood and trying to get better quality players on cheaper wages.

To try and help raise the reputation of the Welsh Premier as it is now ranked 482nd in Europe.

Season     League    Cup              Euro       Achievements
2011/12    2nd      Runners Up        N/A        Euro Cup Qualifcation
2012/13    1st      Winners           2nd Ql     Domestic Treble
2013/14    1st      Winners           2nd QL     Domestic Treble
2014/15    1st      Winners           2nd QL     Domestic Treble.

[Mr_Demus]

I think that this year I'll join in. I just have to pick a league...

[j.hillard]

BWG, what have your attendance figures been like? Are they increasing?

[B.W.G]

The average attendances have been a bit weird, for the 4 seasons I've finished they have been 66,164,122 and 356. The 356 is mainly down to having two capacity crowds in the champions league. The average attendance in the league has been increasing as well, last season was the 1st season where it was above 100.

[cookie15]

Decided to settle in Norway again, hopefully I can complete it this version.

Who you managing? I'm in Norway too!
I'll put my profile up soon and all associated screenshots.

[Suggy33]

I've just set up my save, Slovenian League's running, will holiday over the next hour or so and then fully update you (including the league reset date).

[Mr_Demus]

I am now the manager of Swedish side Friska Viljor. Mainly beacuse of their awesome name, that means something like "Fresh minds"

Profile

[B.W.G]

Good luck Gundo,Cookie,Suggy and Mr Demus

[Suggy33]

My team are NK Livar Ivancna Gorica or Livar for short, and they play in the Slovenian 2nd Division (now anyway). Here is my manager profile.

The reset date is not the 28th of June, but as a simple click of continue took me to the 3rd of July, I can say it's somewhere between those dates, most likely the 1st July.

I have been given a healthy £120k budget, but on a small db with only Slovenian players loaded, it might not be much help.

[Gilbster]

Announcing the newest manager of Volsungur in Iceland.

They have a 800 capacity stadium, and appear to have turned Semi-Pro with this promotion. All the staff and players are currently on amateur contracts.

My first tasks will be to get some scouts, and try and get the better players onto real contracts.

Profile
Personal

[Twellman24]

Well OK, 2 points out of the first 30, sacked from Belarus. I guess i have to try again.

Man, I suck in all FMs, but in this one I am particularly horrible. I am already turned off playing. I haven't won a game in 14 hours of play.

[Quackje]

Wow, that is quite a poor record. It didn't go as planned clearly.

[Twellman24]

I know, I suck. Majorly. But I refuse to plug a foreign tactic. Maybe that's why I've never won anything in FM.

I think I'll give Greece a go.

[Gilbster]

Well in my first Upper League Cup, Volsungur finished bottom of the group with 2 points from 7 games. A complete disaster and since the whole group was made of teams in the same division, I am not overly hopeful of survival.

[Twellman24]

OK then. Same guy, different country. Panachaiki just got promoted to the B division in Greece, yet they expect them to make mid table. We'll see if at least I can finish the season this time.

Edit: The club is already -200.000 euros a year over the salary budget. FML.

[BWZ_Tomek]

Decided to give this challenge a go in order to get into FM properly again - and concurrently check out the new dynamic league rep feature. As a Pole, the choice of leagues, for me, was obvious.

So I decided to take over OKS Start Otwock in the First Division.

Profile

The start date for Poland isn't the same as FM 10. It's actually June 30th, so if you want the option of reloading, you'll need to save on the 29th.

I know Polish names are often difficult to pronounce, so I've taken the liberty of linking a guide as to the club name's pronunciation for all the readers here.

I've got an overloaded squad on my hands, with 26 players making up the ranks and a 3000 capacity stadium (1000 seated). I guess my first task, then, is assembling a staff, as I have none, and sifting through the players, deciding who to keep and who to throw on the scrap heap.

Really looking forward to the challenge, it's gonna be great fun - I can't imagine how difficult it's going to be to topple Europe's elite. Can't wait.

[Fastbasher]

Gundo, will you run a table again on this one showing who is managing where and how far they have got?

ie. What league level and how far in Europe?

[TIR669]

Well OK, 2 points out of the first 30, sacked from Belarus. I guess i have to try again.

Man, I suck in all FMs, but in this one I am particularly horrible. I am already turned off playing. I haven't won a game in 14 hours of play.

That was pretty quick. I could put money on the fact that managing in Belarus is harder than in some other countries. Not just for this; I played with Mihashevichi (or something like that) on FM2008, and I couldn't get promoted in 6 or 7 seasons. Not forgetting the fact that I managed a Croatian 4th level club and won First division with them in less than 6 seasons. Last year, played with Siggiewi from Malta and got promoted from 4th to 1st season in 5 seasons I believe. True, I did make my own tactic for every club from nothing and here I used default 4-4-2 for 10 league games. But then again, I didn't buy more than two players before or now. My conclusion? Belarus is harder...

[Spleen!]

I've gone for Croatia, and I'm managing NK Belišće (for the 3rd time!).



I managed them when they were a second division club on FM08, and got into Europe, and then as part of this challenge on FM09, not managing to complete it. Hopefully this time will be different.

I'm through the 1st season already, I'll post an update when I have time later today.

[Gundo]

Originally Posted by cookie15
Who you managing? I'm in Norway too!
I'll put my profile up soon and all associated screenshots.

As ever I've managed to find another Stavanger based club that came up, it's a club called Brodd IL.

Did you find a new club or will it be a blast from the past?

[Gundo]

Gundo, will you run a table again on this one showing who is managing where and how far they have got?

ie. What league level and how far in Europe?

I won't be unfortunately, I don't have the time anymore.

If anyone is willing to take the job on, that's fine by me.

[Azeryk-]

BWG - It's strange that it's dropped so much in just a couple seasons, it could make doing Wales juch harder if it takes years just to get a semi-good league rep.

[B.W.G]

BWG - It's strange that it's dropped so much in just a couple seasons, it could make doing Wales juch harder if it takes years just to get a semi-good league rep.

Well with being 482nd at the moment, it will be interesting to see what will happen at the end of the season due to my performances in Europe. If it drops after this season then it will be much harder then I thought.

[Fastbasher]

Szeged - Hungarian Division II East - 2011/12 season review

Well, new edition, same old story. Started off well and after 11 games were only 4 points off the lead. Then went on a horror run without a win for 9 games. We still looked comfortably midtable through most of the season, and I though this time I might get it right first time (instead of the usual 2-3 relegations before gaining momentum).

After a few more poor results, we dropped down the table sitting 13th going into the final round. Teams in 14th to 16th get relegated. I was still confident though as the two teams that could have overtaken us were much poorer than we were. Of course we lost though, and one of them won, sending us back down to Hungarian 3rd tier after just one season.

2011/12 League table

I signed 29 players in total. Many of them passed 30, and perhaps I overdid it a bit. The finances plunged from 49k in the black to 189k in the red.

Our player of the season was a talented Brazilian by the name of Moreira. But even his goals were not enough to secure safety and he immediately asked for a transfer to 'further his career'. I cant blame him, I'm about to do the same.

Let's see who wants a manager with one seasons experience and one relegation on his CV for 2012. Believe it or not, I think there'll be options.

[Spleen!]

NK Belišće - 2011/12 Review

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Croatian Second Division: 3rd (Media prediction 16th)
Croatian Cup: Not entered

A good first season in the Second Division for Crveni, as we surpassed all expectations and came close to securing a play off place. Predicted to finish last of 16, I had no aspirations of finishing anywhere near the top, especially as there were 5 relegated teams from the First Division last season. However, despite an opening day defeat at home to Dragovoljac, we were on course for the play off for the majority of the season, sitting in 2nd, behind perennial leaders Istra 1961.

Things went wrong with 7 games to go. A combination of injuries and suspensions left us with only 2 senior defenders, and without our 2 first choice strikers, for 2 important home games. We lost both, and with it basically lost a chance of promotion. A win at Zagreb in the penultimate game would have seen us leapfrog them into 2nd, but still hit by injuries, we went down 1-0.

Despite the disappointment of missing out on 2nd, it was a highly successful 1st season, and should put us in a good position to challenge at the top again next season.

Finances

There's not a lot of money in this league. We lost money every month, not helped by an average attendance of 322 (actually 7th highest in the division!) EDIT: Just been given £420k for finishing 3rd, that will keep us in the black for a while.

Marin Pejovski
Signed on a free at the start of the season, the 30 year old right winger provided 3 goals and 19 assists in 27 games.
Tomisalv Lukasek
Top goalscorer, though only with 9 goals from 18 games. Injuries reduced his game time, to the detriment of our chances.

The reputation of the First Division has gone up, from 58th to 38th in Europe, while the Second Division is up to 77th from 111th.

Season	Division	MP	Finish	Cup	Europe Notes
2011/12	Second Division	16th	3rd	n/a	n/a

[kabajingai]

Fastbasher if I can give you some advice, you shouldn't be spending that much on players wages. Often they will highball their requests. Use the scout function to see what figure you should be offering them. I've never had anyone come in with demands equal to what I expect.

[Fastbasher]

Fastbasher if I can give you some advice, you shouldn't be spending that much on players wages. Often they will highball their requests. Use the scout function to see what figure you should be offering them. I've never had anyone come in with demands equal to what I expect.

That Brazilian was the exception and he seemed worth it based on performances. Most of the first teamers were on Ł65 per week. I think there were only four that got more than Ł100 pw, and about four that were below Ł65 pw.

Ł65 pw seemed the magic figure that was the lowest most of them would accept. Anyone accepting less was an utter rubbish player.

[Fastbasher]

Eger - Hungarian Division II East - 2012/13 preview

Well, I was out of a job for exactely four days before newly promoted Eger offered me a contract. I was also offered a job from Soroksár, but Eger is a nice town to base myself in.

I found myself in a similar position as last year, although this time the club had 14 players contracted, but still no staff. I was again given a Ł7500 transfer budget and Ł3900 pw wage budget.

I immediately put advertisements up in the job centre, and approached the best players from my former club. None of them wanted to join however.
Hopefully my new scouts can pull a rabbit or two out of the hat.

Media expectations: 16th (of 16)
My expectations: Too early to say. Will depend on the summer signings

Time for another nailbiting slog through the season

[Mr_Demus]

Turns out that I made a huge f-up in my Friska Viljor save, as I forgot to untick the "ultimate retain players" DDT. So I will have to start again. This time not in Sweden though

[Fitzaay]

Really struggling so far with Lower Maze in N.I. 2 losses from 2 games and out of the league cup. So many new players though it's going to take time for them to gel, patience I guess

[Gilbster]

Gilbster - Volsungur - Icelandic First Divsion - 2011

What a tough season. Our performance in the Upper League cup needs to be forgotten as soon as possible, not a single win. Fans weren't happy with that at all. We did though make it to the second round of the Icelandic Cup.

I brought in practically a whole new team, and well they dont' lose too much. The problem is they don;t win huge amounts either. Draws get a bit boring after a while, but we have done enough to ensure survival and a second season.

Table

My aims for the new season are to find a few more players to strengthen the squad, cut a few of my bad players and hopefully perform slightly better.

[Nightowl]

For some strange reason, I've always wanted to try a game in Iceland, and since someone else is already trying FC Sanata Claus, let's give it a try now, with Vikingur Olafsvik (there's some accents in there too ).

Profile
Overview
Facilities
Squad

Oddly, it's a much more international squad than I would have expected from a lower league Icelandic team, but what do I know? They do seem to be among my better players, although at this level, it seems better just means slightly less likely to trip over the ball.

After telling the team I can avoid relegation, I've been given a transfer budget of £10k and a wage budget of £245k p/a. Our current wage budget is only £53,144 p/a, so I have some money to hand out, but will anyone want it? We'll see!

[TIR669]

What happened to the team from the start of the season? 5 wins in friendly games, one draw and 2 wins in first two league games. Twenty games later, it's relegation battle for FK Gorodeya. I hope we can stay up. We're 12th after 26 games played, 15th and 16th get relegated. Hope is the only thing that's left.

[Quackje]

Santa Claus 2012

Santa spent all his money on presents and gave them away so I didn't have a transfer budget and wage budget of £2100 a week. I bought in a bunch of free players, the odd one with talent like Hungarian international Tamás Udvari that my scout found in Hungary and gave 5 stars.

I wasn't happy with the team I had but thats what I had, things started badly and got worse with injuries. The only bright being goal of the season (in my opinion) from the most unlikely of sources, backup DM Harri Aaltonen (now thrown out the club for being rubbish). In the second half the season I hit some form though at one point winning manager of the month with 3 wins in a row. The last game of the season saw us needing to avoid defeat at home to the gay play-boys of Joensuu (Thats really what the full name of JIPPO can be translated to) in order to avoid relegation. Naturally we were 1-0 down after 49 seconds but won it 3-1 in the end.

League: 7th
Squad: Crappy
Best Player: Tamás Udvari
Best Finn: Jari Gröhn
Top Scorer: Antonio Correia (Who I don't like, requested transfer, hates every other player, been sold)

Next season: I've already played through most the preseason and I'm feeling a lot happier about the players I've managed to bring in (for free) this season.

Year | League  | Position | Finnish Cup | Europe
-------------------------------------------------
2012 | Ykkönen | 7th      | 3rd Round   | N/A

[Quackje]

I've managed Víkingur Ólafsvík before Nightowl, they have a Serbian manager in real life which is why they have a bunch of foreign players. Some were pretty decent too in the FM version I played on.

[BWZ_Tomek]

Quackje, that was a cracking goal. Extraordinary. You had quite a good season, next season should be even better as you consolidate.

Start Otwock - Polish First Division - 2011 Preseason

My preparations for the upcoming season couldn't have gone any better, really. From the start, we played some excellent, imaginative and clinical football, which absolutely shocked me. It seems that the team has already gelled pretty well and have a good understanding of one another. Granted, I wasn't exactly playing upper echelon competition, but the manner in which we did play was impressive.

To wit, one of the greatest goals I've ever seen in FM.

Summary: beat the reserves 4-0, Kaszubia 5-1 away, Baltyk Gdynia 3-0 at home, and then dismantled BKS Bielsko 7-1 away.

I can only hope we kick on and carry on that same winning mentality + style of play into the season. Something tells me we won't, though...