Uneventful saves you enjoyed

Have you ever played a save in which you won nothing, achieved little but still enjoyed the thrill of the chase? Or is success the entire point of the game?

One of my most memorable saves was with Stranraer on, I think, CM 99/00. We were ambling along in, I think again, the Scottish Second Division, playing unglamorous opponents in front of minuscule crowds. However, I become tremendously fond of that squad. The jinky young winger Allan Jenkins who was destined for better things, the redoubtable captain Duncan George - a classic take-no-prisoners lower-league centre-half, my most exotic freebie signing Isaac Asare, who was doing great at right-back until he missed the guts of a season for throwing the ball at a referee.

Best of all were my strikers, Paul Ronald and Jason Young, still the most symbiotic partnership I've ever had in the game. Young was genuinely overrated in the DB, and could be developed into a fine player. On a later save, with Santa Clara, I brought him over to Portugal and eventually got him capped for Scotland.

I did eventually enjoy some success, scraping into the SPL after about five or six seasons. But Ronald had retired due to a serious injury, and I gave up on the save after a 1-0 victory over Celtic. Somehow, it just didn't feel right. I've never understood people who enjoy winning ten consecutive Champions Leagues with Stalybridge Celtic. Surely the point of the game (simulation) goes out the window at that juncture? Although, given Hamilton Academical's performance this season, maybe I was being premature...

How do the rest of you feel? Have you ever wallowed in underachievement and mediocrity, and enjoyed yourself?

I get bored when the RL players start retiring and the game fills with regens. It starts to lose something.

Many iterations ago I managed a Danish team, I think called Jetsmark once. We did nothing apart from sit in the middle for about 13 years and kept our noses fractionally above water in terms of finances the whole time. I quite enjoyed it because it was the antithesis of what I normally did back then.

I played in an online game on FM13 where I managed Truro. Managed to scrape a playoff place in the Conference South after a few seasons and win promotion then spent about 10 seasons achieving nothing but mid-table mediocrity at best in the Conference Premier. Really enjoyed it though. Was on a shoestring budget and it was a big challenge for me to rebuild the squad every season just to try and finish in the same mid-table position. Never even got close to the playoffs before the game finished. I'm sure I would've been challenging if it had carried on another 10 seasons

Had won just about everything on FM 11 and 12 so it was a bit of a shock to suddenly find myself struggling to do anything. Never managed to crack FM 13. Struggled in my offline game too. Didn't enjoy struggling offline quite as much as I enjoyed my online challenge..

I get bored when the RL players start retiring and the game fills with regens. It starts to lose something.

That's when it gets more interesting.

My best save was around 35 seasons with Newcastle Town. Took them from tier 8 to one season in the Premier League, where we got relegated.

Think it was on FM13 I took over Ceuta in the Spanish B4 divisions. We were predicted to finish 5th in the first season. All season we were in and around the play off spots which we managed to achieve (got the last play off spot I believe) before losing in the semi finals I think it was. Was disappointed at how close we came to the play off final but of course very pleased with how the season had gone, living up to the media's predictions for us.

So going into the second season I was looking to push on and maybe achieve an automatic promotion spot but at the very least maintain what we had achieved the previous season with a few astute signings. Another very good league season saw us miss out on automatic promotion but taking a place in the play offs once again. (Missed out on automatic promotion by a few points IIRC) Once again we fell short in the play offs.

So into the third season and I was as determined as ever to get promoted either via the play offs or automatically. Some more deals were done in the transfer window and I had assembled a strong and compact defence for the season ahead. This time we were in the top 2-3 for the majority of the season. Memory of this is a little vague now but I believe we led the league by 11 points with 11 games to go, was delighted with this and thought that there was little chance of us messing this up..... ..... yep, we messed it up alright. Won just two out of the last eleven league games to drop from 1st to third and into the play offs.

Gutted that we had not managed to hold onto the first place, or even second at the very least we entered the play offs for the third straight season, we really had to make it this time. Despite seeing our place at the top of the table slip away I was actually quietly confident going into the play offs. But nope. Once again we fell short of the Liga Adelante and lost in the play offs for the third season in a row.

Never did get that damn promotion either. (Took a break from the save/game and didn't carry it on unfortunately)

Despite all that I really enjoyed that team and save.

Got another story of this sort as well (went a little better than the one above I might add)

In FM 12 I started (as always) unemployed, and got a job at a german 3rd division club. That went to hell, so I got sacked before the season was up and I had to find a new job. Then I got a job at this ****** Scottish 2nd division club who needed a man to save them from relegation. That went to hell.

But then I took a job at Avangard Kursk in the Russian second division. Man I loved that team, and the players. I even loved the Russian league. You have to field a squad of almost all Russian players in the second division except tow or three foreigners, and when I finally got promoted I was allowed to have 5 or 6 foreigners at the club. Played for 10 seasons at least in that club. Won the Russian cup form time to time, participated in he Euro cup at times. But never once won the Russian premier division. I just didnt have the money to compete with the big Russian teams.

But I loved those players that I had there, and I had the best player I`ve ever had on a save to this day. He was my playmaker and captain, set piece maker and my man at the penalty kick. Man was he great!

Yeah, on a previous FM in Germany when the regionals merged to become 3. Liga. I took over St. Pauli as they had no manager at the start IIRC. Scraped into the top half to stay in 2. Liga after the shake up! I did win 2. Liga a couple of seasons later and got promoted to the Bundesliga but despite all the prize money you get there, the board never gave me any real transfer or wage budgets to speak of and I became a solid mid table selling club. Every couple of years we produced a top youth player and were able to sell for decent money to the big boys.

Despite not achieving anything I really enjoyed that save and it was a shame it came to a stop when the next FM came out. It is also the longest save I have had on any FM I think.