[FM11] I'd like some air miles - travelling round the world
For my last save I have decided to take a stab at a game wandering around the world hoping to take in some places that generally i haven't dipped my toes into before. Generally I manage in England so have loaded up the following;
Leagues Loaded
England down to Blue Square N/S
Spain down to Division B
Italy down to Serie C
Germany down to Division 3
Romania down to Division 2
Mexico down to Promotion Division
China down to Division 2
Argentina down to Division 2
Total Leagues 26 – tough ask for my laptop
After one day I have the choice of the following jobs;
Guerreros Futball Club in the Promotion Division in Mexico
Solihull Moors in the Blue Square North
Thurrock in the Blue Square South
Bromley in the Blue Square South
After thinking over the offers I have decided to plump for the one in Mexico, purely as they will be paying me the most.
So, as the new manager of Guerreros on £650 per week I took a brief look at my squad. It appears I have inherited a youth team with the age range of the team from 15 to 16. I can see I will have my work cut out
Additionally, the chairman didn’t tell me that we were skint either. Skint = a debt of over £3m by the way
However, two weeks later the chairman restructured the debt and converted it to a loan. I now pay £21k per month for the next 20 years!
The opening window was like something I’ve never experienced before. I had a maximum weekly wage of £10 per week to work within to recruit players. Most of the payers on the free list wanted c£1000 per week so it was an impossible task to get in essence 5-6 new players in. Basically, that ruled me out of almost anyone. I’ve ended up with a bench made up from greyed out players. Hardly ideal!
After two games it is quite clear that a team of 16 year old boys cannot cope in a professional league. The first game was a 0-3 defeat which could have easily been 10. The second game saw the lads 6-0 down at half time. It is clear that this team is not capable of playing and I have decided to resign after the game. I wanted to add the Spanish language to my skill set but I think I might wait to conquer Mexico when i have built up more of a reputation. The match ended up with a 7-0 defeat with 2 red cards in the second half to complete the rout.
So that was Mexico. I never even got a tan!
I didn’t have too long to wait for the next opportunity. In September the Chairman of Nanchang Hengyuen in China offered me another opportunity to dip my toes into management. He is paying me a decent wage too with £1700 per week on the table. I think I will accept.
I was a little more excited when I looked at the squad for Nanchang as according to the initial scout reports I had players for 5 star rating and 5 star potential. I also had over £1m in the bank although that couldnt be spend until next season as my transfer budget is zero.
However, a little look at the Super League table showed me that Nanchang are rooted to the bottom of the league. I basically have 8 games to prevent them from being relegated - something I didn't really want on my cv so soon in my career.
It would be an incredible project but I couldnt see a way to secure a point never mind a win. I would have spent 4 months rooted to the bottom of the table just waiting for the boot to come.
When I looked at Nanchangs squad I thought – great – it looked good on paper. However, when i learnt the rules of the Super League I wondered why they had 6 foreign players when only 3 could play. It reminded me of some of the Italian teams from the early 1990’s when they could select 3 from x players.
We won our first game and then won a second. I wondered why they were bottom of the league prior to me joining the club. A third game resulted in a defeat which gave a little food for thought. However a great run ove the remainding 6 games saw us ease home
Ive never played as any team in China before and was pleased to note Nanchang completed their best ever finishing place of the season.
The squad at the end of the season is the same as the squad when I took over with 8 games to go. Oddly I don't know where to strengthen but I need to have a max of 4 oversees players to save some cash.
I think Guerreos were that bad because the club was disestablished in real life due to financial issues in the 2010/11 season,they played the opening stage but didn't play the closing so that is probably why you only had youth players to select from!
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