The return of the forgotten child...[FM11]

Well its been a long time off the boards for me. Only recently have I rediscovered an urge to get a good FM file going again and after a dabble in Romania (to absolutely no success) I've decided that a career game would be the kind of casually updated, sauntering kind of journey I'd like to share.

First off - the main intention is to ENJOY the game. I still have plenty to learn with FM11 and am by no means a great player these days. Therefore expect trophies to be in short supply, relegation more likely than title wins and some odd jobs. If I'm not enjoying my current position, I will seek pastures new. As mentioned, this will be a very casual file but one I hope anyone that reads will enjoy.

The low down:

Leagues:

Denmark

Germany

France

Holland

Portugal

Russia

Ukraine

Argentina

The idea:

My persona is an ex semi-professional Ukrainian footballer by the name of Maxim Dymoschyuk. I have taken over Vorskla Poltava in the Ukrainian Premier League (predicted 6th) to give myself a reasonable platform to launch my career. The idea in my head is to experience every nation loaded and to make gradual steps to bigger reputation clubs. It could of course go horribly and I may be stuck with the paupers of the managerial game. We shall see.

So an introduction to my first club:

Vorskla Poltava

Club was formed in 1955 but renamed in 1984 after the Vorskla river that runs through the city of Poltava. The club's highest finish was 3rd in 96/97, their debut season in the top flight. They also won the Ukrainian Cup in 08/09.

Their rivals are all currently top flight teams - Illichivets, Metalist and Tavria.

The stadium is a 25,000 all seater - not too shabby - but we have just £12k to spend on transfers. I guess this will be my first test.

Here is the stadium:

Wish me luck guys, hope you enjoy the ride

good luck mate

Wahey, a new Iacovone save!

Nice selection of countries. I'm sure that it will be an interesting journey.

Good luck!

Cheers guys

Pre-season has seen wholesome changes from top to bottom of the club. An entirely fresh backroom contingent have joined and replaced the old hands. Agents have offered players and I'm investigating their worth as I type. Other than that I'm transfer listing a lot of dead wood as well as scouting a number of interesting looking free transfers.

Also managed to negotiate the transfer budget to £240k so we have some room to manoeuvre in the market. I'll upload some screenshots of my key players before the season starts.

Good luck, should be an interesting read

Looks promising, good luck with the save.

Long time no see Iacovone. Hope the save goes well.

Good luck sir!

Good luck, hope everything starts well for you!

Iacovone careers are always a good read. Good luck, I will be following.

good luck. hope it goes well

Pre Season 2010/11 Showcase

Ok so with a fairly active first month or so in charge I've now identified a selection of players I feel will be key through this first season. I'll keep it brief but the first 4 are new signings and the last 3 current squad members.

Newbies:

Dymytro Gololobov - gives us real presence in midfield.

Julio Cesar - needed a left sided pacey player, he was the answer.

Sergiy Voronin - needed a left back option, welcome Voronin.

Soares - bought for two reasons...needed a striker and offers some friendly Brazilian banter for Julio Cesar.

Originals

Jovan Markoski - a wanted man but we need him for now.

Maxym Ilchysh - very promising young centre back - will be a back up mainly this year.

Roman Bezus - real talent in this boy, look forward to seeing how he does as an impact sub.

Everything else has gone well pre season and we open up with a match against rivals Tavria. I will keep you posted on how the season begins.

Thanks for the comments too, I will try to keep this as updated as I can

An awful start to the season sees us in the relegation zone after 4 games! 2 draws, 2 losses, 4 scored, 11 conceded

Worrying

3 games later and we've taken a point at Shakthar (huge result given we lost 5-0 at home to Dinamo Kiev!) and followed it up with a win over Metalurg Zp in the league and a win in the cup over a 2nd division side. Things are finally coming together.

Tough start, hopefully things will pick up for you.

Good luck for the season ahead - think you may need it!

Mid Season Update - 2010/11 - Vorskla Poltava

Ok then. We are now exactly halfway through my first season in charge at Vorskla and I can confirm performances have improved after an alarming start! 15 league games in and we're pretty much following expectations, sitting in 9th. The goal difference of -4 is the only disappointment so far.

Best player would be between Roman Bezus and Volodymyr Chesnakov both of whom have excelled. Bezus is our shining light of a prospect up front and is certainly a wanted man whilst Chesnakov has been surprisingly good at the back.

Away from the league performance, we have gone on a little cup run! Having knocked out two 2nd division sides away from home (1 on penalties) we went away (again) to Illichivets from our division and triumphed 1-0 to set up a cup semi final appearance against one of Shakhtar (hope not), Tavria or Metalurg D. The last 2 will suit me just fine. To still be in with a chance of silverware in my first season is rather nice really!

Woot haven't seen many careers in Ukraine other than my own. Good luck iacovone!

You've had a career in the Ukraine?! Right, must go take a look old boy!

You've had a career in the Ukraine?! Right, must go take a look old boy!

That's with Shakhtar though. You'll need a different approach with Vorskla.

god look bud i be following

There's a 3 month winter break in the Ukraine. Not so surprising I guess!

Its meant I've been able to sign a leader of a DM to go straight into the side and a pacy, flair Brazilian left winger called Paulinho. Pretty pleased with both signings - it should enable us to move up the league in the 2nd half of the season

Just to give you a visual on the 3 main signings in the January window, here they are:

Paulinho - still need to work out his best position but he should be a very able member of the first team.

Valentyn Slyusar - the experienced central midfielder we'd been craving this year. If I can keep him fully fit he should be a great influence on the rest of the team. Has more than just a good attitude though, he's a fine footballer too. Bonus!

Stanislav Bogush - Dynamo Kiev (presumably feeling generous after putting 10 goals past us in 2 league games) decided to offer Bogush on loan. I jumped at the chance as, although our 36 year old player/GK coach was adequate, there was always room for improvement. He is, at least on paper, the best keeper at the club.

2nd stage of the season is just starting (March 2011) so we have 11 games to push on from 11th and achieve at least the predicted finish of 9th. I'd be disappointed if we finish lower tbh.

solid first half to the season there mate. hopefully you can maintain that form and maybe sneak a cup final appearance...

Its as if you knew

We defeated Tavria 2-0 in the semi final to set up a date with Shakhtar in the final. Strangely, though we massively struggle against Dinamo Kiev, we have done very well against Shakhtar - drawing 2-2 away and beating them 2-0 at home. Could I secure the cup in my first season!? Time will tell...

Well its all gone a bit wrong really...

Went on a dreadful run of results that were as much attributable to our injury list as it were to plain sloppy defending. We were never in any danger of relegation but did actually drop to one place (but 8 points) off the bottom two! Awful.

Fortunately we have just secured our first win in a while and have just one home game to see out the league season before heading to the cup final. As mentioned though, injuries have been awful and we're going to be missing some major names for the game against Shakhtar.

Along the way I've also had to go to my board and use the old 'its my first job in football give me more time' line. It worked. Phew. I've since had a number of fringe players come to me for a chat about the club underachieving. The majority accepted my bold statement that we'd turn it around, the other 2 were put on the transfer list. There will be a major upheaval of this squad in the summer I can tell already. That's if I get there of course

End of Season Round Up - Vorskla Poltava - Season 2010/11

So my first job in football as we know began at Vorskla in the Ukrainian Premier League. The media had us down to finish 9th which I thought would be attainable. The hope for the season was to gauge the strength of my squad and begin an overhaul I expected to take at least a year to complete, whilst sticking to the target of a mid-table finish.

The round up

We began well enough, reaching the winter break in a slightly below par 11th place. However with a couple of signings I felt improved the overall quality of the squad (namely Paulinho and Slyusar) I felt we'd be able to push on in the run in and take 9th or higher.

Unfortunately a pretty savage run of injuries to key players put paid to that hope and we really did struggle to see off my first season in charge.

When it was all said and done we finished 12th.

This poor run meant I had to engage my board of directors and ask for more time as boss - using the "first year in management" line. It worked and I was given a reprieve from what had become pretty staunch media derision. Whilst this was all going on, we had embarked on a lovely little cup run in the nation's equivalent to the FA Cup. After disposing of two 2nd division sides early on, we defeated Illichivets and Tavria to claim a place in the final against the mighty Shakhtar.

Now Shakhtar were a story themselves this year. Our first tussle resulted in a superb 2-2 draw at their ground resulting in a volley of abuse stemming from their coach Lucescu. I have no idea why he disliked me, perhaps as I took a point off them? Either way, battle lines had been drawn and whilst the other Ukrainian powerhouse Dinamo Kiev leant words of kindness my way, Lucescu saw any opportunity to use the media against the club as a chance not to be missed.

The second clash with Shakhtar came at a pivotal stage in their season. They'd just been dumped out of the Champions League Quarter Finals and were locked equal on points with Kiev in the race for the domestic championship. They came to our place with a number of injuries and were trounced 2-0. That was our result of the season, and again, something I thought would help us kick on. If anything, it led to a run of 5 losses and 2 draws in the league. Bizarre.

Nonetheless, this all added a bit of spice to the cup final. Fortunately we received an extra weeks rest before the game as Shakhtar ultimately had to compete a playoff with Kiev for the title - they won 1-0. In hindsight, this probably gave them the confidence to take the final to us, and sadly we did get trounced. We were missing a couple of key men, as they were, but for a club of our size it hurt us more so. Final score: 3-1.

Strangely, following this match, Lucescu praised the style of football I'd pushed on my team and from there on compliments were thrown back and forth. Its nice to think that after 3 tough games over the course of the season, I'd turned a managerial legend's opinion around . This could be the making of me as a manager in this country...

The nitty gritty

Results 1|Results 2

My player of the year would be Voldymyr Chesnakov who was constantly praised in press conferences and did a sterling job at the back. He did fade a little but he's young and has shown promise. Honourable mentions go to new boy Valentyn Slyusar and Sergiy Voronin.

Notice no strikers. This was the major problem all season - goals. My main focus in the summer will be signing a new and improved goalkeeper, selling on the majority of the strikers I have, and finding a couple of decent finishers.

We have the makings of a good team here and I'm excited to undertake my second year at the club.

Of course we also have the bonus of playing in the Europa League next year by virtue of runner up in the cup . If we can get through the qualifying rounds, we should muster some cash together and forge a semi-decent reputation.

Next Season

Need to build on 12th and finish off the squad I am building. This is still a project I am enthusiastic about.

Pah! The Ukrainian League generates £39m of sponsorship money, of which £31.5m is to Shakhtar!! May be tough to topple them for quite a few years...we earn £500k in comparison

Well got given a new 3 year contract so the board must think I'm doing something right! I'm having a pretty large clear out of players I prefer to term "complete crap". Managed to secure a couple of interesting strikers so I'm pretty pleased. We have the Europa League 2nd Qualifying Round coming up in a couple of weeks so that will be a big tie. In terms of transfer funds, I was given a very tidy £1.3m which I have turned into £1.8m now. I'm still looking for the perfect bargains rather than spending a big chunk on one player but I may have to bite the bullet on a goalkeeper.

Full season preview to come.

Pre Season Update

The briefing over the summer was to shift on as much dead wood as I could and find suitably good replacements. Before a ball has been kicked, I feel I've improved the squad. See what you think as we delve into iacovone's top 5 summer signings

In no particular order...

1) Cristiano - lively looking Brazilian striker who joins with a superb goalscoring record, albeit in Malta (hence the reason I signed him!)

2) Maxym Basanets - young keeper who may not have a choice but to be thrown in as number 1...what do we think of him?

3) David Lafata - probably the best signing of the summer, a striker that can actually finish ! Excited to see how he performs this year.

4) Marek Mintal - some may remember him for having a phenomenal goalscoring record IRL for Nurnberg from AMC. Well I hope he can reproduce this. Getting on a bit, but quality is still there.

5) Nened Djordjevic - another well known signing in the Serb CB. He should add some needed steel to the back line and I'm very pleased he's joined.

Signings alone I've definitely improved the 1st XI. I just need to be sure the keeping situation is ok. As for the predicted finish of 11th - if I don't beat that prediction I will leave the club in the summer!!

Good luck iacovone in season 2. Not bad at all, Kubok Ukraini (cup) finalists.

Not a bad first season, European football to look forward to next year too

Hopefully, next season you'll get a regular goalscorer firing and you'll push for that top-half position you're aspiring for.

unlucky in the way your league form tailed off with injuries, and also in the cup final defeat but to get there was an achievement in itself. in terms of your signings, i think you should definately be able to push on this season. i think the keeper looks a decent prospect who only needs games to improve his mental stats and maybe also beef up a little? that will come with age. i like the look of Lafata a lot too. fingers crossedfor you mate. i'm going to stcik my neck out and say you'll finish in the top 6...

Predictions are what make great threads!

rlipscombe - already looking like top 6 is fantasy. Our European performances so far have been wonderful but having taken Ujbest of Hungary and Neman Grodno of Belarus out, we have the very daunting tie with Galatasaray to contend. It's the last qualifying round before the group stages but I have a feeling we may not get that far

This is turning into a really strange season

0-0-6 in the league.

One foot in the group stages of Europa League. That may just save me from the sack tbh

Never a dull moment with you Iacovone!

Its bizarre Crouchy. In Europe we basically don't concede. In the league we haven't conceded less than 2 a game for 7 matches now! Just lost 4-2 to Dinamo Kiev. We have the return game against Gala and then two away league games. If we lose those I reckon I'll get the boot

Very strange form.

What system are you playing, out of interest?

I had been playing a very standard 4-4-2 but have switched to a 4-1-2-2-1/4-3-3 style formation. It's first game was vs Galatasaray so I may be onto something.

Right we negotiated the 2nd leg well, winning 1-0 to complete a 4-0 aggregate win over Galatasaray and safely negotiate our way to the group stages. The draw isn't the kindest - Lille, Zenit and Rapid Bucharest. We got a nice payday though of £870k. Still, I need to focus on our league form over the European calendar and ensure I keep my job! Pleased to say we are now 1-0-7 in the league, the win coming against fellow strugglers Illichevets.

Might have to start calling you West Ham or Birmingham.

Might have to start calling you West Ham or Birmingham.

Please don't! We're staging a revival anyway, call us West Brom instead? Boing boing!

This is great! Lovely to see someone at Vorskla - I've got a save on the go - finally managed to win the league in 2020 - Metalist are my main rivals and Shakhtar and Kiev aren't very good any more... on FM10 though...

This is great! Lovely to see someone at Vorskla - I've got a save on the go - finally managed to win the league in 2020 - Metalist are my main rivals and Shakhtar and Kiev aren't very good any more... on FM10 though...

Very interesting Richey! Metalist are decent but nothing more on my game. Its all about Shakhtar and Kiev with Dnipro as 3rd best. You must have a fairly strong side in 2020 then?

I had been playing a very standard 4-4-2 but have switched to a 4-1-2-2-1/4-3-3 style formation. It's first game was vs Galatasaray so I may be onto something.

I just wondered if maybe it was a case of something that suits Europe but doesn't do well domestically.

Plus, I know what you're like with your three at the back experiments!

Very interesting Richey! Metalist are decent but nothing more on my game. Its all about Shakhtar and Kiev with Dnipro as 3rd best. You must have a fairly strong side in 2020 then?

Yeah, well i took over in 2016 - they had low expectations but a massive 14m budget, due to selling some god like striker to Shakhtar. I bought a load of promising Ukrainians and a Uruguayan, scraped midtable for a few years before i guess they all matured, clicked and unexpectedly won a title (by 1 point on the last day). I managed to field a totally Ukrainian team six times in my winning season, all poached from teams around me. Now i'm going to try and focus on my own youth development. It's pretty fun up there in Poltava (in my reality!)

Mid Season Report - 2011/12

Ok so as you can probably tell, its been a strange season so far. At the winter break we sit a slightly disappointing 10th. Its hard to pinpoint what went wrong but we lost our first 7 league games of the season . Looking back and knowing what I changed, it had to be the formation, because the players are definitely good enough.

The highlights player-wise have been the discovery of two goalscorers. One, Roman Bezus was already at the club, but has begun developing as I'd hoped. The other, Paulinho has been a revelation from the AML position.

The change in tactic was really the key though - 4-1-2-2-1 suiting my squad much better.

The Ukrainian Cup that we performed so well in last year dealt a swift blow this year as we lost to 2nd Division side Metalurg Zp to a penalty. Annoying but we'd have struggled with even more games than we already had. The Europa League was a super journey - defeating Turkish giants Galatasaray along the way. The group stage was a step too far though as we bowed out in 3rd place as Zenit and Lille took the qualifying spaces.

So its now all about focussing on the league with the final 11 games of the season. The target is to finish 8th or higher. It should be achievable.

A good recovery there Iacovone. So you've picked up 21 points from 12 games since that disasterous start. Lets hope you can keep it going and push into the top half!

End of Season Report - Vorskla Poltava - Season 2011/12

The round up

Season number two in the hot seat at Vorskla came with relatively similar predictions as my first year at the club. We were expected to finish 10th this year as opposed to 9th the year previous. This gave me the chance to continue building a squad I hoped would exceed expectations.

Clearly the biggest test of the team this year was to be our flirt with Europe via the Europa League. Although wonderful for a club of our side to be in Europe - it caused huge headaches with team selection given the size and indeed strength (or lack of it) of the squad.

This was represented through our utterly horrible start to the season. 7 straight league losses had me seriously concerned about my job security. Thankfully, our Europa League qualifying campaign went well, culminating in an historic victory over Turkish giants Galatasaray. This pretty much deflected attention away from the sloppy start in the league.

It was at this stage I switched my formation. I'd hoped to develop a fluid 4-4-2 but we were getting torn apart far too often for my liking and whether it was or wasn't the main reason for our form I moved to a 4-1-2-2-1. This coincided with a change in fortunes in the league and we began a steady march up the league.

The Europa League continued and we were in the groups to enjoy the experience more than anything. A win against Rapid Bucharest and a draw with Zenit made it look as though we had a good chance of progressing. However 4 consecutive losses followed and we bowed out with a bit of pride still intact.

The league form became the main priority (and probably should have been from the off really) but it is clear that there is a divide between the top 5/6 teams and the rest of the league. This is going to be my next challenge as Vorskla boss. Catching Karparty and Metalurg Donetsk will be the first step in closing the gap.

I was very pleased with our end to the season as we beat pretty much every side down and around us to move up to a comfortable final position of 9th.

The nitty gritty

Europa League Results

League Fixtures 1|League Fixtures 2

The Ukrainian Cup didn't produce anything like last year's run to the final as we were knocked out by Metalurg Zp in the 1st round we competed in.

Over the course of the season, three main players came to the fore. Paulinho would be my choice for player of the season but it could equally be the young jewel in our team Roman Bezus. My 3rd player of note is left back Sergiy Voronin who has been an absolute rock for us since I signed him for £45k in my first year. Good player.

The Finances are looking pretty good and we've made money this year largely in part to the Europa League prize money.

Next season

I still retain a lot of interest in doing a job here in the Ukraine. I don't think my reputation would have improved much being here so it makes no sense looking for another job. I'm happy with the progress we're making as a club but we must now really make strides up the league and try and finish top half next year.