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[FM11] Andrew's "Where the hell am I" Euro tour


AndrewFM

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Well after a few failed attempts at some journeymen careers, I have decided to start a game which I haven't tried before, it is a journeyman, but with leagues that are all new to me for Football Manager 2011. They are all fairly low quality nations, league-wise, so any job I get will be a huge task to achieve much outside of the country itself.

I'm hoping this career will really show how off the DLR.

I am starting off unemployed at the start and see what team I end up with. I will be starting in January 2010, Irish League season, so hopefully I can get an Irish team to start off with.

Countries Selected:

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Finland

Hungary

Iceland

Republic of Ireland

Switzerland

Ukraine

Database Size:

Medium

Player Count Approx:

34000

Attribute masking is on

YouTube Channel

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Season Overviews:

2010 - Athlone Town - Sacked mid-season

2011 - Waterford United - 4th in Irish First Division

2012 - Waterford United - 7th in Irish First Division

2013/14 - KSK Hasselt - 5th in Belgian Third Division B

2014/15 - KSK Hasselt - 6th in Belgian Third Division B

2015/16 - KSK Hasselt - 2nd in Belgian Third Division B (Promoted)

2016/17 - KSK Hasselt - 18th in Belgian Second Division (Relegated)

2017/18 - KSK Hasselt - 2nd in Belgian Third Division A

2018/19 - KSK Hasselt - 3rd in Belgian Third Division A (Promoted)

2019/20 - KSK Hasselt - 14th in Belgian Second Division

2020/21 - KSK Hasselt - 13th in Belgian Second Division

2021 - Drogheda United - 10th in Irish Premier Division (Relegated)

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athlonetown.png

Well after just a few days I was offered the managerial position at Athlone Town.

Wiki page

So they are in the First Division, wasn't expecting anything higher anyway, and the squad is semi-decent to say the best. I will need a couple key signings and I will also need new staff, but after a quick look at them just there, they're all on contracts until 2013-15 so it will cost way to much even for mutual terminations.

This will be a tough first season I imagine, my prediction is to finish 9th out of 12, so there isn't too much expected of my team, hopefully I can change that though and get a top half finish in the first season then try push for promotion.

I have organised 4 friendlies before the season starts, all at home to Wigan, Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland. I had to pay each 3k, but I have been told I will get an estimated 20k for each game, this would really boost the clubs finances seeing as I started off with a balance of just 15k.

Wish me luck, this will hopefully be interesting as it's the first time I've done any of these leagues in FM 2011 :)

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Thanks guys, nice to see everyone is paying more attention to the title than the potential of the save :p Ah well, at least it might attract people in to read the thing.

My 5 friendlies against the might of the Premiership and Championship went ok, lost all of them but made myself a nice bit of dosh which will hopefully keep me afloat for the season.

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Thanks for the comments guys :) Unfortunately I forgot how **** Irish football really is haha. It's such a pain getting through it, but I will battle on, halfway through season 1 at the moment and doing................ crap :( It's gonna be a long auld slog

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Nooooooooooo, I have failed!! Sacked after 26 games in charge. To be fair I have been sitting at the foot of the table for the last 2 or 3 games and have been poor. I have a few injuries to key players but the team has been playing poorly. I can't even begin to express how annoyed I am at being fired so early on, vicous Athlone Town FC :p Well time to go and search for a new job, sorry to you guys who have been reading already and maybe expected me to do something decent with Athlone Town but sure here's a little twist for the start of my career, I will bounce back from this and become stronger, make my tactics better I suppose and just try and get a team I can win something with.

Wish me luck on getting a new club with a kinder board :)

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2140369203a7df7818a6.jpg

Well a new job has come around for me almost a year after I was fired. Currently in July 2011 and I have been approached by Waterford United, which I duly accepted as I really wanted to keep on with an Irish team for the moment so I am delighted I have been presented with this oppurtunity.

The team are currently lying 8th in the table and seem to be doing well enough, hopefully I will be able to be the right man to try and guide them to the promotion play-off places, being just 4 points off the cut-off for the play-offs and still with 20 games to go.

The club is spending all of the available wages so I may try and get rid of one or two players and try spice things up a bit but overall the squad isn't too bad, and the club is in a fairly safe financial position with 75k in the bank. I think I may also organise some friendlies against some of the English/Scottish teams to garner some extra income.

Hopefully I can use my year off studying new tactics positively and I'm sure Waterford United hope I can bring some success to them :)

Should be fun.

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Yeah was a handy enough job to be offered, better than my first one with Athlone Town anyway. I just want to finish the season now so I can go through the team and make it my own. Hopefully with some players good enough for the next division up.

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Season Review 2011

Well the season has been completed, and it was so close to being a dream half of a season for me. I finished 4th in the league, 1 place outside the promotion play-off places and only outside due to an inferior goal difference of 3 :( so very close, but it gives me confidence that I can go on and improve on it for next season and hopefully make a real push for promotion.

Here's how I got on in the cups:

League Cup - Knocked out before I joined the club.

Munster Senior Cup - Knocked out before I joined the club.

Senior Challenge Cup - Beat my old team Athlone Town then went out in the next round.

Key Players

Kevin Doherty

Solid centre back that stayed injury free and I will need him to do the same this season to keep my defence solid and try keep those goals out.

Alan Kirby

Used to play for the club from 1998-2001 and I brought him back in the summer, which proved a masterstroke by me as he was ever present in my midfield and key to keep the team ticking over.

Willie John Kiely

Not much else I can say about this guy but a goal machine. He nearly went on a free but I tied him down to a 2-year contract. Hopefully he can keep up the good work.

Facilities and club info:

Manager Profile

Staff

Facilities

Competitions History

Best Eleven

Pre-season 2012

Waterford United 1-5 Sunderland

Waterford United 1-4 Fulham

Waterford United 0-3 Bohemians

Waterford United 0-2 Blackburn

Waterford United 0-3 Wigan

Waterford United 0-4 Everton

Waterford United 0-3 West Brom

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Very, but to be fair I wasn't really in it until the teams above me went AWOL on the last 2 or 3 games and let me get that close, but I knew there would always be one that would get the point needed to keep me out. All in all not a bad first half a season with them.

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The means a lot to me though Nobby, it's just "The" :p to be honest I had "The" in the title thread and wasn't sure on a name so then I went and posted the thread and forgot to add to the title, I can change it but I am enjoying it at the moment :p

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Unlucky on the start with Athlone town and the sacking. They're a load of rubbish in the first season, although not as bad as Salthilll! Wateford United are a much better team. In fact they were a bit of a rival team for my Wexford side in the first few seasons, after inflicting my most humiliating defeat - a 5-2 loss in the cup. You should definitely be able to build upon their team for a promotion bid next season. On a side note, is Mark Farren scoring ridiculous amount of goals on your game for Derry City?

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Yeah they weren't great, but I did get quite unlucky with countless matches being lost even though I had more clear cut chances. Farren has 20 in 27 and 19 in 32 for the last two seasons and he has 3 in 9 so far this season. He a monster in your game?

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Farren has been top scorer every season, 32 in 27 in the first season, with 17 in 30 being his lowest scoring season. He is an absolute monster, and I still can't work out why he's scoring so many. Sure he has good finishing and penalty taking but he isn't that good. I'm not letting the fact that he just scored a brace against me bias my opinion obviously. :mad: Oh and he was top scorer with 27 goals this season as well. Saying he is a thorn in my side is an understatement.

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Season Review 2012

Well, the ups and downs of football management. I have more bad news to bring to you my friends, the kind people of Waterford United have decided it would be best not to renew my contract, which I think is very unfair on me. Ok, the league was a bit of a disaster finishing 12 points from play-off places, which was mainly due to switching tactics throughout the season and finding the right one too late in the season. But my reasons for thinking it was unfair is that I had a squad there capable of challenging for the title and had brought in some youths from the Under 20's into the squad and they were all developing well, all pushing for starting places. Then I had a super performance in the cup which saw me lose 1-0 to Shamrock Rovers in a replay of the final, drew 2-2 in the original final. This great cup run led to me to qualifying for Europe for next season, Euro Cup, and what do they do to me? Don't offer me a new contract, and wouldn't listen to me when I requested a new one saying I still had to prove myself, which was difficult seeing as I had no games left!! I also brought their bank balance up to 750k which is a hell of a lot of money for an Irish team, especially after they only had 75k when I took over.

Anyway here's some of the stats:

League Table

Senior Challenge Cup

Munster Senior Cup

League Cup

Key Players:

Vinny Sullivan

Seamus Long

Kevin Waters

Joe Purcell

Gary Murphy

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After 6 months contemplating his next move, Irish manager Andrew O'Rourke has decided to take his next step in management at Belgian 3rd Division club, KSK Hasselt.

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Well I've never managed an amateur club before so this should be an interesting challenge, hopefully I can make a career out of this save because I don't seem to be doing to well and this is a step back for me really. But I'll give it a go anyway and try my hardest as I always do :)

Wish me luck.

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Season Review 2013/14

Well it was a successful enough season, finished off quite strongly which allowed me finish so high in the table, just one place off the top, but I still finished 18 points from the place ahead of me so that's going to be a huge gap to try and close for next season. Being an amateur club I find it hard to keep hold of my best players, with many gone out in the close season. But with that I can also bring in some good players for nothing as well. And my scouts have quite good judging potential so they are usually spot on with the quality of players I scout.

League Table

Belgian Cup

Key Players:

Claude Mobitang

Kevin Oris

Vitaly Zherebtsov

Club Info & Facilities

Manager Overview

Staff

Information Overview

Best Eleven

Facilities

Competition History

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Yeah they did well not to lose, will still be a tough auld catch up though seeing as my team isn't the strongest. I'm playing a 4-1-2-3 with a DM 2 CM's and 3 ST's but I may revert to a 4-1-2-2-1 with wingers for the tough away games, might help me keep the defence a bit tighter. Although it does mean I will now have to go out and sign some wingers.

Just got knocked out of the cup by a team in the division higher, could have been a different story. But won my first league game 4-0 so hopefully that's a sign of things to come.

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I keep changing my tactics for the wrong games :p When I change to the wingers and concede 2 then I change to the 4-3-3 and score 1 but always too late, and vice versa haha. Oh the fun of tactics. Still though, some nice results so far this season and I'm getting closer to the promotion play-off places.

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Good luck in Belgium. Amateur clubs are quite a challeng, at least you've got 300 season ticket holders though, and a decent sized stadium. That's a lot of positives for an amateur side!

Not too keen on the green kits tbh. Looks like something a jockey would wear!

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5th is a good finish with an amateur team.

Are you planning to take them to semi-pro status/promotion etc, or moving on to a better club asap?

yeah the plan is to take them up at least one division anyway, try and get some stability as a semi-pro club and maybe push for professional, but it is a journeyman save so who knows where I may end up :p. Hopefully I can have some success with Hasselt first anyway, then see where I go.

Good luck in Belgium. Amateur clubs are quite a challeng, at least you've got 300 season ticket holders though, and a decent sized stadium. That's a lot of positives for an amateur side!

Not too keen on the green kits tbh. Looks like something a jockey would wear!

Yeah they have a decent bit of cash, I just keep getting about 25k for my good players, so if I could make it to semi-pro status there is cash there for some contracts and then that would help me keep the better players, which is proving very difficult seeing as I am playing well.

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Just secured a play-off place due the 3 period system they have. I topped the table in the 2nd period so that's a huge weight off my shoulders for the rest of the season to have that guaranteed, but it won't stop me from pushing for the top spot as I don't like play-offs, nerves can't handle it :p

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Season Review 2014/15

Well, another close call but couldn't push all the way to a play-off place unfortunately. It was always going to be a tough task trying to get into promotion places and I came close on securing a place through the period system but alas nothing come of it and I am left to have another go in the 3rd division.

League Table

Belgian Cup

Club Info and Facilities

Best Eleven

Competition History

Facilities

Information Overview

Staff

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Season Review 2015/16

Well, well, well, would you look at who just got promoted :) I ended up finishing 2nd in the league, an agonising one point from the top of the table, but I got promoted through the play-offs, which I hate because they are too nerve wrecking for my liking :p But we made it through anyway and can now look forward to being in the Second Division and also look forward to being able to sign people on part-time contracts due to us becoming semi-professional, which is a huge boost for the club as we can finally tie down our better players. And hopefully these better will bring their friends, sure who wouldn't want to play under the Third Division B Manager of the Season :).

It will be a tough ask to stay up in the Second Division but hopefully I can give it a good go, it would be massively disappointing if I ended up going straight back down, it will be a very important season for me and for the club itself.

League Table

Play-off Final

Belgian Cup

Club Info & Facilities

Information Overview

Manager Overview

Staff

Facilities

Best Eleven

Competition History

Euro 2016

Group Stage A-C

Group Stage D-F

Second Round

Quarter-final

Semi-final

Final

So England winning the Euro's, who'd have thunk it? :p

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Congrats on the promotion! And yes, going semi-pro is helpful, you will enjoy the continuity. You'll also get to enjoy demands for higher wages from players who aren't worth them. :D

Thanks, yeh I have already enjoyed signing some quality players on proper contracts and have also told a few where the door was when they were looking for ridiculous money, especially a couple of staff looking for €1600 a week haha

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Thanks, yeh I have already enjoyed signing some quality players on proper contracts and have also told a few where the door was when they were looking for ridiculous money, especially a couple of staff looking for €1600 a week haha

the greedy b*****ds :D

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I think relegation is a serious possibility this season :( not going well for me at all

I've been switching between the 4-3-3 and a 4-5-1 formation and neither seem to be working for me, even though the team is able to play with both. Might switch to a flat 4-4-2 and try that way, difficult decisions to be made because I'm not sure with 14 games to go changing to a new formation is the right thing to do.

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Season Review 2016/17

Bad news guys, relegation happened, it happened hard :(. I just for the life of me could not get a result, which was shown big time when I lost 10 games in a row, yes 10! Although I finished bottom of the table, I did think I was a little unlucky, while I may not have been able to stay up I could have made more of a challenge to try and stay up in my own opinion anyway. My tactics were't working in the Second Division and I'm down to the Division 3 A, I was in B before I was promoted so hopefully the teams are easier in this league :p.

Here's a look at the league table, it doesn't make for good reading believe me :p.

The Belgian Cup was again a little bit disappointing as I would like to be able to have a decent run in the future, maybe 6th round.

Alas, my stay in the Second Division was not to be and hopefully I can go and stay as a semi-pro club because if I don't my whole team will be gone, along with my staff who have proved to be quite useful for me, especially my assistant manager and scouts. Anyway, if I can keep my usual starting 11 from this season I should be able to give promotion another push in the Third Division. Wish me luck, again ;).

Club Info & Facilities:

Information Overview

Manager Overview

Staff

Facilities

Best Eleven

Competition History

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Ended up staying semi-pro :D It is such a huge boost for me and I can see myself possibly going straight back up.

I just deleted all the tactics I had made, 5 of them, and have started a fresh, hopefully my pre-season friendlies can sort it out for me.

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