How hard could it be to start your own club? A FM2012 Story

Info about the game and story: I'm going to make this topic like a story, but I want to use screenshots so I had to open it here, plus I like this part of the forums better and enjoy reading so this will be an interesting experience for me. I edited an unplayable club from the Turkish 4th division to Suadiye Sports Club. Suadiye is the name of the district I live in Istanbul. I didn't edit much, I cleared the squad and although I ticked the add key staff box, I guess because the team wasn't playable at the beginning of the game, there is not a single staff at the club. I made the chairman my mum, as part of the story lol, and made her an underwriter sugardaddy in case things go crazily wrong. However, I won't abuse my budget with 48 months transfer payments and stuff, we have only 170k pounds in the bank and we're predicted to be 17th. I also tweaked the fans to fit the actual profile of the people I live in, to fit the story. You'll see. So, moving on to the story..

The story begins:

My history, and the club's: I was born in May 27th, 1986, to a family of doctors. My mother, Funda Sağın, was one of the best doctors in Turkey. She was the doctor of the rich, she new powerful people. When I was starting college, she decided to make an investment,. She started her own hospital, and with the high-profile patients who she treated before, and who stayed loyal to her, the hospital growed quite fast. She has become one of the rich people she used to treat, well she still treats them but now she doesn't have to talk too formally. Due to our financial status, and my mother's love for the district, we live in Suadiye, a district of rich people, on Baghdat Avenue, which is basically the territory of Fenerbahçe. I on the other hand, was a die hard Galatasaray fan, I hated Fenerbahçe, so did my mum. So she pulled a few strings, and talked to the other rich neighbors about a grand investment. A football club. One that will grow to be a true rival of Fenerbahçe, and perhaps one day, become a major club in Europe. They were ambitious, and they were rich enough. On May 27th, 2011, as my birthday and graduation gift (I graduated from a business school), my mum started the club. We hired (that's like buying in Turkey because the government never takes back a stadium from a team) a stadium of 5500 people, with 5000 seats and 500 terraces, for a meager 7% of the gate receipts. And since my mum knows some powerful people, she managed to put the club directly to the 4th division of the Turkish league system. The plan was for me to study abroad for a year, half of it on a course for Sports Club Management and the second half, taking my license as a football manager. By the time I returned, we were promoted to the 3rd division. Thus, in June 21st, 2012 my story began.

Present day:

Here I am, sitting at my new office, which is basically the old cantina of the lousy used training facilities we've bought. Mum had to cut down on these stuff because although the board was pretty rich, they weren't filthy rich so I was left with this filthy place. I'm looking at the club information page on the FA's web site. Thinking at the same time. My squad. My squad sucks so bad that even in the 3rd division, our aim is to avoid relegation. I can't tell you how much that hurts the feelings of an ambitious guy. But like I said, I'm ambitious. I'm a bit concerned about our facilities too. They definitely need some investment but we don't have the money. Yet thankfully, the league begins at September so we have plenty of time to play friendly games against major clubs to generate the much needed funds.

Mum gave me a transfer budget of 17k pounds and a wage budget of 625k pounds and our current wage bill is 125k pounds. So my priority is to find some good free agents and pay them as much as I can. I've already talked to her about a parent club for loaning players but she didn't like the idea because she wanted to rely on our own players instead of loaned ones. What she said was reasonable but carrying the club to higher levels as soon as possible and success means more income, therefore it will enable us to buy better players of our own. And to upgrade our youthe facilities of course. So she accepted my request and the board started working on finding a parent club. I also offered a contract to my highschool PE teacher, who coached our football team, to be my assistant manager. I'm waiting for his answer.

Season         Division               Media Prediction      Actual Finish          Turkish Cup    UEFA EURO League     UEFA Champions League
2012/2013       Spor Toto 2. Lig           17th                  6th               3rd Round             N/A                        N/A                    
2013/2014       Spor Toto 2. Lig           10th                  1st               3rd Round             N/A                        N/A                  
2014/2015       Bank Asya 1. Lig           17th                  1st                Winners              N/A                        N/A                   
2015/2016       Spor Toto Süper Lig        18th                  5th               Winners          First Knockout Round            N/A  

Top tip. No matter how hard it gets stick with it! At least until you get the sack

Good luck with the save.

To post a pic you need to have then [\url] round the link (http// etc). Hope that helps.

thank you, I'll try that when posting a pic the next time. As soon as I get my assistant manager that is

Good news, my highschool teacher has accepted my offer of assisting me in this migthy endeavour. I asked him to prepare me a team report for me and here are the results:

So I couldn't put the image again, still gives me the invalid URL error. Here's the report

I only misjudged 2 players for my first team but their potentials far exceed the ones on his list according to him, so it was a simple preferation of potential over experience.

I also tried to sign a scout for the club but for some reason, mum doesn't let me pay enough. I can't even sign an obscure scout who isn't known by anyone in the business. This sucks but I trust my teacher to scout some players for me when I need him to.

I've also 8 friendlies from which we'll probably earn about 50k

Good luck egesagin everythings looking very good and detailed so far, I agree with ron, even if things are looking bad, things can always turn around

Thanks If I manage to avoid relegation, I'll upgrade my youth facilities and we'll see how that works out. I've got 4-5 youth prospects already and the average age of my squad is 20

Oh btw, I couldn't change the club logo. If anyone would make a logo for me to use, with the colours on the kit and the name of the club of course, I'd be so so so glad. It would make my gameplay experience at least two times better, seriously ^^

As a Turk and a Galatasaray fan myself, I will be following. Hope you give the Fenerli what they deserve

Hahaha, thanks! Hopefully in a few seasons I'll do exactly that!

I knew that free transfers were really important for the club. We've signed two very experienced players with great quality for our division. Both of them have played for at least 10 years in the top division. Zafer Özgültekin and Murat Bölükbaş...

Benefits of having a feeder club.. We've signed a magnificent winger, just what I needed. Thanks to Bursaspor who offered him for a very low price. I've put my entire transfer budget on him but since he was wanted by the second division clubs, he was worth it. If all goes well, he will take us to the next level.

We've won almost all of our friendly games against the top clubs of Turkey. I should say that I did not expect this. These lads are capable of interesting things. However, it really bugs me that although we scored about 15 goals in the friendlies, our new signing Murat Bölükbaş didn't score a single goal. Hopefully, when it comes to league games, he'll find his form

First game of the season and we were up against another relegation candidate, Afyonkarahisarspor, at home. A mistake from their goalkeeper allowed my young right midfielder prospect to score the first goal. Later on, one of our crosses hit a defender and went in. We won the game 2-0. I can't say that I'm too pleased with the performance but it was better than I feared. And it's always a good thing to start the league with a win. Hopefully, we'll build onto that and make sure that we don't get relegated

Second game and we made an amazing comeback of 3-1 against a much stronger side. Or their predicted standing is much higher than ours so to speak. We lost our midfielder in the match. Poor lad was butchered by the opponent midfielder and I seriously don't think that a red card and a couple games' ban isn't enough for a punishment.

There's something wrong with our finances though. I think mum doesn't know anything about accounting because I don't think we can actually earn enough money to pay our wages but the wage budget is twice the wage bill. Either I'm underestimating our future income, or mum is seriously wrong but I favour the second choice because we only have 500 pounds left in the bank and that won't stay there for long..

The first derby in our clubs history. And boy, what a game! Against all odds, my boys beat our local rivals Pendikspor 3-0 at home. It was a joy to behold! We've won all of our first 4 games and we're sitting right at the top of the league, nobody expected that, not even me. Let's see how long this good form will keep going..

Looks like you're off to a great start, keep it up!

Edit: Have put some thoughts in my thread, thought it'd look a bit weird just wading in with advice in here

I'm just about to read them, thanks. Btw, we are in the red and I'm quite sure that neither the prize money nor the sponsorship money will be enough to pay for the wages. It sucks that the board gave me a budget they simply can't afford

Great derby win.

Thanks But things haven't been going well lately. After the first 4 games that we won, we managed to get only a signle point in the next 4. Playing against 2 of the top teams of the division, we had a tough beating. It looks like the lads lost their confidence. We need a win, and we need it fast.

Apparently, watching Al Pacino movies DO help with football management. After 5 games without a win, and just a single point in those 5 games, I decided that I needed to motivate the guys. So there we were, in the middle of the training pitch, with me shouting stuff that I don't even remember now. But after we were done, they all looked inspired. Then I talked to them about tactics a bit. We gave up on the offside trap and zonal marking. I thought they were too complicated for them to perform and they looked relieved. Plus, I told my wingers to play more offensively, because that's how they're actually used to play. So basically we turned to a 4-2-4 but it turned out great. We won our game against a relegation candidate, though we were playing away and we were underdogs. The game ended 2-0 and if only you could see their faces..

We have an easier looking fixture ahead of us but still, it's going to be tough. However, things are looking good as we're sitting at the top half of the table.

Excellent turnaround.

These last three fixtures were quite frustrating. We were up against w of the best teams in the division, and one was still a good team with playoff expectations. We played amazingly well, totally dominated all three games, but our finishing was extremely poor and we conceded a 90th minute goal in all three of them. My tactics are working great, the team is playing well but the strikers just don't do it. The experienced big name signing is horrendous. He is already in the bench and his days in the club are almost over due to his high pay and poor performance. He only managed to score one goal in about 18 hours of football. We're lying at tenth place, only 4 points above the relegation zone. The league is incredibly competitive. And our next two fixtures are against two teams with playoff expectations so I'm hoping to get at least a point but I'm pretty pissed off.

All in all, these lads have been playing fantastic and I seem to understand the team and the league better, which means I am much more capable with my tactics now. The only problem is finding a decent striker. I have one on my shortlist but we can't afford him, I'll try to loan him, hopefully he'll join our cause and be the leader we're looking for

At those 2 fixtures, we managed to win 4 points, and the third game was against the third placed team and we won that game too! The 17th and final game of the first half of the season put us away against a weak relegation candidate. Sadly, it was snowing and the pitch was terrible. This made us pretty incapable since we play a short passing game. We shocked the pundits by losing 2-0 to them and missed the chance to get on level terms with the last playoff place team. So here we are mid-season, a comfortable mid-table place, only 3 points behind the playoff zone. If I manage to loan a quality striker, I believe we can make it to the playoffs, against all odds. Still, I'm quite happy with the performance.

Great news! Once again, we shocked everybody by causing an upset in the Turkish Cup! We beat a club from 2nd division and we're off to the 3rd round. This means money ^^

Looks like it was a cracking game too!

Yeah they kept pulling level I've found an amazing right back btw, I'm going to buy him even though we're in debt because he is top division quality. He really tortured me during contract negotiations but I managed to make him an acceptable offer without destroying my finances. Will put screenshots as soon as he signs

edit: He signed! This is my old right back.

And here's the new guy:

He's quite excellent! And his dead ball ability will be incredibly useful.

I certainly hope that he will win us points. And we almost made it to the quarter final by causing another upset but lost at the shootout. We dominated the freakin' game. Take a look at the stats and see for yourselves:

Everything was going great until we faced the leaders. They're 10 points ahead of the closest teams and simply too powerful for this level. We fought well, and we almost scored a late equaliser when their defender simply decided to take our striker down from behind, just before he reached the penalty box. We lost 3-2. Then we were up against another strong club and we lost 2-1. Furthermore, our best striker and top scorer got injured for 8 weeks. I was so sure that we were going to make it into the playoffs. Now it seems impossible.

On the bright side though, look who showed up on the youth candidates day:

Pity that u21 players need to be registered in Turkey and I'll have to wait till next season to play him. He could have been so useful now that our top scorer is injured. He is already the best striker in the club and his determination shows that he will be much much better in no time, since he'll probably reach his full potential

edit: He is touted as the next Lefter Küçükandonyadis so this guy may as well be a wonderkid. Turns out, junior coaching really does work.

Definitely looks a star.

Turkish lower leagues, not something you see every day. You've made a good start too.

Not sure I'd want my mother as chairman though!

haha I'll give up on the role-play side though. As for the form, it dropped so bad after that striker injured, it hurt my eyes. I guess he was not only the striker but the playmaker too

Turkish lower leagues, not something you see every day. You've made a good start too.

Not sure I'd want my mother as chairman though!

Rather your own than the in-law.

Turkish lower leagues, not something you see every day. You've made a good start too.

Not sure I'd want my mother as chairman though!

You can have mine, she's always going on about how she'd love to live in Turkey!

Strange world...

Such an unlucky way to end the season.. Our top striker returned from his injury and the team found it's potential again, winning all of the 5 games left. However, left out of the playoff zone with just 2 points. They expected us to finish 17th so this is quite impressive but it really hurts. If our striker didn't get injured, we would have finished 3rd probably.. I'll prepare a season summary tomorrow, for now, a moment of silence for my brave but unlucky boys:

Suadiye 2012/2013 Season Summary

League Table

A pretty good season overall since we were expected to finish 17th. However, disappointing too since we really had the chance to make it into the playoffs. Uğur Çanak's 8 week injury cost us the playoff spot. Apparently, the team can't play the beautiful football they're capable of, when he isn't playing. He may be giving them confidence or perhaps his good runs and passes are the reason this team can attack so well. He isn't the best striker in the team ability-wise, but he sure took the team to a new level. Our humble stadium of 5,5k was almost always full but we don't have the money to expand it.

Turkish Cup:

We weren't expected to do any good at the cup but we managed to make it to the 3rd round by knocking out a Bank Asya 1. Lig side. At the 3rd round we were up against another Bank Asya side and we dominated the whole game, but couldn't score and we lost at a very dramatic penalty shootout.

Key Players:

3) Atahan Menekşe: Bought for a hefty fee of 35k pounds, and earning even more in a year, this right back is too good for this level. He was bought in January and contributed 3 goals and 10 assists in 15 appearences.

2) Serkan Gasi: Bought for an even heftier fee of 50k pounds, this centre back surely earned his money. He played 30 games in the league and finished with an average rating of 7.17 but that doesn't give enough credit to his performance since he single-handedly stopped countless attacks with his inch perfect tackles.

1) Uğur Çanak: He is the man! His abilities are so limited yet he was the best performer after Atahan. Not only that, he was the key player like I said above, without him, we couldn't play. Although I'm thinking about putting him in the bench next season, that can change quite fast if he can play like this year. 15 goals and 6 assists in 27 appearences.

2013/2014 Season Preview:

Well there isn't much to say really. We signed 3 players. A central defender, since our key man's partners were poor. A left back, because we had problems at that part but he suffered from an achille tendon problem in training and he will miss the first 4 months of the season, he wasn't injury prone too. Our last signing is a right winger. Our right winger was pretty good but inconsistent. He was almost a key man last season but his inconsistency cost us in the last quarter of the season. So we signed a new guy but this one is injury prone. That's the problem with Turkish players. Almost 70% of them are either injury prone or inconsistent. Well we'll hope that our initial right winger will perform good when our new signing is injured. We only payed 4k for the left back and the others were free signings btw.

I also promoted 2 players from the youth team. The mighty wonderkid striker who barely turned 16 and already performing well in the u20 world cup right now, and he is wanted by Fenerbahçe too but luckily he is a Suadiye fan and hates Fenerbahçe. It'll be tough to keep him but I'm confident. Worst that can happen is we sell him for 5 times our overall club value

The second kid promoted is an attacking midfielder who will play central midfielder whenever necessary or when I feel like the game is won and decide to give him a chance. He has potential and we lack quality in the middle so hopefully he'll manage to solve that next season.

2 other youth prospects to mention are a central defender and a right winger. The central defender is the second most talented player after the wonderkid but not good enough for a first team spot and due to his age, I just can't trust him to be the sub for now too. He'll have to work hard in training and get ready for next season. The right winger will surely surpass our current right winger but again he wasn't ready for the first team. Yet if our new signing gets injured, he'll make it to the bench and if our current players form drops again due to inconsistency, he might get a chance too.

Media prediction: 10th

Board expectation: Mid-table finish

My expectation: Playoff place (2nd-5th)

Turkish cup: Board just wants to gain experience but I want to make it to the 4th round this time.

did you create the players yourself?

Nope, I erased the squad. I think the game created the players according to the club reputation which is regional. Our squad was, and still is very poor. But fitting tactics and a few key players allowed us to perform well above expectations. The wonderkid was generated March 8th 2013 at youth candidates day. I don't know if junior coaching affects the potential of the players you get, I thought that was youth network, but it is excellent now and we're lucky to have him. Our club value is 1.2 million pounds and the media already suggests that he may be sold for 10m. But I won't settle for anything less than 25m

ok cool i might do this sort of thing and add my mates in but im looking how to randomise ca/pa

Put -9 -8 -7 or sth as PA so it will be random, as for CA I don't have any idea. And how do you plan on keeping your squad of friends together? Bigger clubs may be interested, etc. Cuz I thought about doing that too but thought that it would be really hard to keep them if they were good

Rather your own than the in-law.

Christ, that would be even worse!

2013/2014 Mid Season Update:

So, things are going well. My wonderkid striker didn't score any goals in the first 5 games and he missed quite a lot of chances. So I talked to him and told him that he should begin turning those chances into goals or he won't be in the first team. He agreed that his form was unacceptable and boy did he change! He's been magnificent since that chat and has been the main hero of our succesful run.

Uğur Çanak, last year's hero striker is once again my first choice as Murat (wonderkid) Tiryaki's partner. The other strong striker with better attributes weren't playing well and I gave him a chance. He scored almost as much as Murat. His abilities are pretty bad but despite them, he somehow knows where to be and how to hit the ball to score goals. He reminds me of Filippo Inzaghi.

Before the season began, I bought a new centre-midfielder at the last minute. He is playing really well and now my main man in the midfield.

All in all, just as I expected, good transfers for the needed spots have made us a much stronger team now and we're sitting comfortably at the top of the table. I didn't expect this sort of performance though. I expected the team to play magnificently for a few weeks but then lose all the important games like last season. Well instead they thrashed whoever came on their way and despite some last minute draws, title looks like a pretty realistic aim now.

We made it to the 3rd round of the turkish cup again, and once again we got knocked out by a Bank Asya division club. It hurt a little since we went ahead, only to get beaten 2-1 and a couple of our shots hit the post but I'm happy with the performance and honestly, I didn't pay much attention to that game. Hopefully, next year we will perform better against those sides so we can have a mid-table finish against all odds.

Here's the league table for now:

What a game!

After losing 2 out of the last 3 games, we were up against our title rivals and they are a much better squad than ours. They were high favourites too. But it turns out, they REALLY wanted us to win. Especially Murat Türkkan. Check it out

So far things are going great,following this.

Fantastic, I like the chap with multiple own goals.

Thanks guys, I won't be updating this for a week I guess since it's a week long holiday and I won't be playing much but we played a few more games and although our form has dropped, so has the competitions so we're maintaining the 10 point gap

Good news! We've guaranteed the title and there are 5 more games left till the end of the season. Great achievement for this new club. I'll put the season summary in an hour or so, after the season is completed

Suadiye 2013/2014 Season Summary

League Table

We had an amazing season thanks to Murat Tiryaki's superhuman performance. Last years hero striker Uğur Çanak was also a major force this year, despite being touted as a substitute for this season, he was Murat's strike partner and helped the team's cause with brilliant performances. Although at the beginning of the second half of the season our form has dropped, our rivals' forms have dropped too so despite losing many points in the first 6 weeks, the 10 point gap didn't change at all. We claimed the title 5 weeks prior to the end of season and I let younger backup players play the last five games so we lost 2 of them but I honestly didn't care. Next year, we're looking for a tough battle but if I can sign a quality goalkeeper, manage to hang on to Murat (or sell him for a huge fee), I see us sitting mid-table at the end of the season.

Turkish Cup

After defeating 2 lower division clubs, we were once again up against a second tier club and they beat us 2-1. We played well but our goalkeeper was, as always, a mess. I didn't care much about that game to be honest, since we were on a great run for the title, I was actually a bit glad that we got the cup out of the way and were now able to concentrate on the league. Next year, I want quarter finals.

Key Players:

3) Can Özdoğan: This left winger was already a good player last season too. However, he stepped up to get this club to a higher level this season, contributing 13 goals and 8 assists. He was always there at our dangerous attacks and was a decisive player in our midfield. The bad thing about him is, he is out for 4 months with a torn hamstring and I'm not sure if he can perform this way again...

2) Uğur Çanak: Yep! Him again. He scored 21 this season and showed everyone that he was still the best striker of last years squad, despite the new signings. He may not be talented, but boy can he score goals! I don't know how long his form will continue but he'll definitely be playing in my starting eleven the next year. (If I don't make a major signing of course)

1) Murat Tiryaki: His stats can do the talking instead of me. He is wanted by a number of clubs, including Real Madrid. And the good thing is, only 17 years and 1 month old and he is going to the World Cup! His first cap will be in the World Cup! And like that wasn't good enough, 3 national strikers are injured so he might start the games too! I'll be attending the games and watching my little boy play. Hopefully he'll do good and I'll offload him for 15 million pounds. That's my acceptable price, for now. And the media says that Real Madrid needs to pay at least 12,5 million so it's not unrealistic too. If I can sell him for that much, a stadium and facilities upgrade, plus a few quality transfers will definitely take this clubs to the next level, faster than his performance will. And our training facilities are only adequate but I want this kid to reach his potential, so it might be best if we sold him.

Well done on going up, hope you survive ok.

I've got a problem. We can pay 150k to players now annualy, and 9k to coaches. But still, we can't pay more than 3.9k to scouts and even the worst ever, clubless, obscure scout won't sign for less than 4.5k. Without scouts, I can't scout players from abroad and this hampers my ability to sign good prospects who are unnoticed by my rivals in the league. But I couldn2t find a way to increase that limit. Is there a way or do I simply have to wait for the chairman to be nice?