[FM11] If there's a fork in the road...take it...iacovone's "Around The World" Career

The arrival of a brand new PC has put me in a position I've not been in before - I have the power to take on a true around the world career game...and this is it.

Nations: 34 (all playable)

Leagues: 74

Players loaded: 124,000 (1,000 under the recommended level)

Leagues Loaded

Initial Profile - He may be familiar to some fellow CSE'ers as the right winger I had on my rather epic Savona save. He was a favourite of mine so lets see what we can do with his name in management!

I've started unemployed with a Sunday League reputation. I've not changed anything else from default other than a large database. Attribute masking is on.

As you'd expect, there are a LOT of jobs available - 46 by my count, so I should have a decent chance of having someone give me a start in football! Lets see...

Good luck iacovone, looking forward to this

Thanks SnakeXe

So I applied for all 46 jobs with the expectation of hearing back from just a handful. After a day of waiting I had offers from 3 South African clubs - African Warriors, Blackburn (SA) and FCAK. Dinamo St Petersburg and Newport County completed the European offers whilst I received potentially the biggest paycheck offer from Guerreros in Mexico.

Tough decisions. My rationale behind my choice are 2 fold: 1) I wanted to manage somewhere obscure first of all. 2) I wanted to be realistic. I didn't think Newport or Dinamo St Petersburg would really offer essentially just a Swedish man off the street a job, so they were rejected. Guerreros had little cash or wage budget (seemingly throwing it all at me) so they were turned away too. That meant the first job lay in South Africa...

Interesting, looking forward to how you get on. What's your aim? Manage in all countries? Or just to get to the top?

So its back to South Africa for you then? Last time I really enjoyed reading about your career with Bidvest Wits so good luck with this one.

A Swede in SA

Job accepted

So first move is to South Africa with the African Warriors! They play in the 2nd tier - the "National First Division Coastal Stream"

The structure itself looks ok from what I can make out. There are 2 divisions in this tier - both with 8 clubs in them. The two first placed play each other in a playoff for the first promotion spot. Then the two 2nd teams playoff against each other before taking on the 2nd bottom side from the Premiership. I think that's correct! I'll update this if, at the end of the season I'm horribly wrong!

Quick rundown on the club:

Founded in 2008, we are new to this game. No trophies to speak of but a large 20,000 capacity stadium! I'll take that. Pleasingly we are also a professional outfit, so not much chance of any gems being poached. Not much chance of any gems come to think about it!

Interesting, looking forward to how you get on. What's your aim? Manage in all countries? Or just to get to the top?

Aim is to enjoy the file, get many many years into it (whilst developing a good knowledge of the top players/managers in that era), manage in new countries and to one day get to the top!

So its back to South Africa for you then? Last time I really enjoyed reading about your career with Bidvest Wits so good luck with this one.

Romanista - good to see you! And what a memory that is! I loved my time at Bidvest Wits, glad you remembered! Lets see what the African Warriors can do...

Should of taken Newport county lol

Good Luck in South Africa

First competitive game has gone nicely. There's a cup for the 2nd tier - the National First Division Cup - and we were drawn away to Witbank Spurs (a side predicted to come 4th in the Inland Division (not our division)). Took the lead through our Swaziland striker Dingaan Metsi before falling behind to firstly an OG by our left back Majola, and secondly a rocket half volley from 30 yards. Still, we fought back and new signing Welcome Mazibuko equalised.

The score stayed at 2-2 all the way to penalties where we triumphed 3-0! So into the next round and a pleasing start to my time at the Warriors.

Initial impressions of the squad are good. I think we'll outdo our media prediction of 5th. The only worry is the size of the squad as it looks like two foreign free transfers won't get work permits. We also sold a whopping 80 season tickets .

I'll do a pre-season transfer update later to give you an idea of the standard of our players. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised!

Great start! I've never managed in South Africa so will be nice to (hopefully) learn a thing or two about it.

I'll do my best to educate then

Any questions just ask!

Seasonal Expectations

NFD Coastal Stream: Safe mid table position

Nedbank Cup: Reach 2nd Round

NFD Cup: Enjoy participation (i.e. couldn't care less )

Balls!!

A kit pack install crashed my game! Fixed it now but that means we're back to the first cup game as I didn't have autosave on for some reason . Oh well, hope I can recreate the penalty drama, or at a minimum win the tie! So frustrating

Ok so fortunately, the first round of the NFD Cup was safely negotiated. 2-0 at home to Inland Stream Division's Carara Kicks. That means we're back to where I had got to with the game before the crash! Hurrah.

good luck mate with this. the thought of a quick computer makes me very jealous. really hope you get a good career from this (although it'd have been better if you were in the Big Euro Nation challenge...

good luck

good luck mate with this. the thought of a quick computer makes me very jealous. really hope you get a good career from this (although it'd have been better if you were in the Big Euro Nation challenge...

good luck

Cheers mate! Sadly won't be over there just yet. Getting into this though!

Into the Semi Finals of the NFD Cup after knocking out Thanda Royal Zulu - one of the favourites for the cup! A 1-0 scoreline did it and we will face Tuks at home in the Semi. With Jomo Cosmos out as well, I think we have a great chance of claiming a first trophy!

In the league its 2 wins from 2 so far - we're looking strong in all areas so far

[video=youtube;EsHCQRRPb2k]

What a way to make the NFD Cup Final! Fringe player Mohlolo Nhlapo came off the bench to win the game in the 86th minute! I smell silverware

EDIT: Can people see the embedded video as I can't for some reason :confused:

Link for the video didnt work for me

Thanks for checking Pezza. I've added a normal link now. Shame - I have no idea why it won't embed. I have the right URL and I put it between [video ] [/video ] tags...anyone got any idea what's happening?!

some winning goal that!!

Good luck with this Iacovone.

some winning goal that!!

Wasn't it just!

Good luck with this Iacovone.

Cheers Crouchy . I should be nice and far into it by the time you're done with your academia

Tasty goal there.

Good luck with the new career.

I'd love to be able to try something like this one day but I'll need to buy a super computer of my own first though!

Well our fantastic start to the season just came to a crashing halt. 4-0 to Bay Utd ended what had been 6 consecutive competitive victories.

I'm not too despondent at this stage though as we could have got something from that game - we just defended woefully (an OG and a penalty conceded didn't help!). Its all about how we react to that defeat - particularly with an impending takeover looming...

We need to bounce back considering we have the NFD Cup Final coming up in a week or so. Lots of injuries so far I should add - I think training may be a little too intense.

NFD Cup Final Heartbreak

[video=youtube;KNQMzoz5Tzo]

League Table at 1/4 of the Season Gone

He'd been the star of our season so far but Josep Ngake has suffered potentially a season (and career) ending hip injury. A real blow for us, given his start to the year. It means someone else is going to have to provide goals from wide now.

Well our fantastic start to the season just came to a crashing halt. 4-0 to Bay Utd ended what had been 6 consecutive competitive victories.

Let me guess...Linos Chalwe did the damage?

Unlucky with the NFD Cup and Ngake's injury

Still, you're doing a great job so far, don't let these setbacks derail you!

Let me guess...Linos Chalwe did the damage?

Good guess - take it you've been on the receiving end too? He has 3 in 2 against me now

Can't deal with the fella at all. He signed for the one of the big boys after the first season though.

Can't deal with the fella at all. He signed for the one of the big boys after the first season though.

Wish he'd sign for one of the big teams on my game too! He's got 15 in 13 this season

Board takeover has just been completed - all went smoothly. No talk about removing me but sadly no increase in transfer funds. Business as usual then.

Hmmm 16 penalties each and we're out of the Nedbank Cup. Annoying as I'd have liked to have earnt a bit of prize money along the way. On the upside it gives us more chance of gaining promotion I suppose

Looks like a game you dominated so you must be gutted to go out like that. Always annoys me going out on pens cause after all that effort you lose and have a squad of players knackered for the next game!

Wow, that's definitely the longest shootout I've seen on FM11! Shame to go out like that

It certainly hurt! We have 8 league games to go and sit 2nd (in the playoff semi final spot) 3 points ahead of Bay Utd. We're 8 behind Thanda Royal Zulu though - they have pretty much walked the league. So it'll be extremely close in the run in. We have to play Thanda Royal Zulu home and away, as well as travel to Bay Utd, so we'll have to really pull out some strong results to get into those playoffs.

Happy to say Josep Ngake has recovered faster than expected and is back to the form that lit up the early rounds of the division. He will be vital.

Been offered a new one year contract

Decided to delay it til the end of the season just to keep the chairman on his toes! Think there's a 95% chance of me staying but if we do go up, you never know who may come calling

Season is finished people, expect a summary tonight

So my debut in management started in the 2nd tier of South African football with mid table side African Warriors. We competed in 1 of 2 divisions in the National First Division (not the Premiership), where the media anticipated us to finish 5th of 8.

I had a reasonable £22k budget to work with and used the cash on two signings. Centre back Chad Botha arrived at the club with the expectation of being our main CB. Overall he was disappointing in the role. The other cash signing was brilliantly named Tornado Mongale for the left wing spot. Unfortunately for him, Josep Ngake secured that role with his stunning start to the season, so 9 months later, I felt it was money wasted.

The league campaign began superbly with 3 consecutive wins. It became apparent (largely through results) fairly early on that there were a couple of other stand out teams to compete with. I'd improved the squad enough to warrant talk of a promotion challenge but always felt we'd be playing catch up on favourites Thanda Royal Zulu and Bay Utd. As it turned out we kept pace for the most part, only succumbing to the tough run in of fixtures to just miss out on the promotion playoffs.

Thanda Royal Zulu ran away with the league in the end so it was a shock (and a blow to next season's aspirations) that they lost to Bay Utd in the playoff final! Next year we'll be joined by Free State Stars, who will be installed as media favourites for the title.

I'll have to continue to improve the squad if we're going to grab promotion and that should be aided by declaring an affiliation to Orlando Pirates over the summer.

The NFD Cup was a fantastic journey, but so disappointing to lose to FCAK from the Inland Stream Division. We should have won it - especially having knocked out Thanda Royal Zulu. Hopefully we can have a good run at it next year.

Aims for Next Year

Has to be promotion. If not it's highly likely I'll look to leave unless of course we unearth a bit of promise. I'll take it as it comes.

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| YEAR  |      CLUB      |   NATION   | LEAGUE | TIER | FINISH | ACHIEVEMENTS | NOTES |
|-------|----------------|------------|--------|------|--------|--------------|-------|
|2010/11|African Warriors|South Africa| NFD/CS |  2nd |   3rd  | NFD Cup R/Up |       |
|-------|----------------|------------|--------|------|--------|--------------|-------|

Start of 2011/12 Update

The NFD Cup draw wasn't kind to us at all. Our season would kick off away to relegated side Vasco de Gama (SA). Added to this tricky tie, we also lost our one and only (slight oversight ) goalkeeper for 6 weeks! So we took to the pitch huge underdogs and with a 16 year old academy goalkeeper. And I use 'goalkeeper' in the loosest sense of the word!

Anyway, on the upside I convinced Calvin Kadi to drop down a division on loan. He's easily one of the top 3 strikers in the league now. And he proved it! What a result!

United FC (runners up in the Inland Stream Division) await us in the Quarter Finals now. We are at home this time though

Shame about missing out on promotion - Kadi looks like an awesome signing to push you the extra bit this season!

solid debut season there mate. lloking forward to the new season.

Seuntjie Motlhajwa! Loved that guy.

Shame about missing out on promotion - Kadi looks like an awesome signing to push you the extra bit this season!

Yeah Kadi should be a regular goalscorer for us. I like him already.

solid debut season there mate. lloking forward to the new season.

Seuntjie Motlhajwa! Loved that guy.

Yeah he's a good winger at this level. Its his pace more than anything that enables him to do well.

In NFD Cup news, we suffered another penalty defeat . This time at home in the Quarter Finals to United FC. At least it means our focus will be solely on promotion

Unlucky on missing out on promotion and with the penalty shoot out defeat in the cup.

Hope your able to get promotion

Good luck on getting promotion iacovone.

Solid first season Reckon you've got a good chance of promotion next season, especially as Kadi looks like he could be a bit of a goal-machine for you.

Well we are top after 4 games but I'm not sure how much that means just yet. This weekend should give me a better idea of whether promotion is realistic or not. I should hope it is!

Glad you made one! Good work last season . Seuntjie Motlhajwa looks absolutely explosive! Haven't had a chance to update mine lately but probably will soon .