[FM 15] A European journey, with some added South American spice (maybe)

A note of introduction.

This will be my second attempt at documenting a career in this forum. I've been struggling to get into the game lately and haven't managed a single longish term save in FM15, so hoping a thread here will aid in keeping my interest and getting a good journeyman career going. This will be for myself in the main so I won't be having a set structure for updates, mainly because having one in my last years thread proved to be a bit exhausting, which lead to a premature ending of that particular save. I will probably do a season review of some sort and some impromptu updates of events I may find noteworthy or exciting.

The set up.

I've loaded all European countries down to the lowest playable level. In addition to that, both Brazil and Argentina are also included in full. I'm not particularly planning on managing in South America but the reason I added those leagues is that a previous save of mine got flooded with good Brazilian and Argentinian players unable to find a club. The DB size I think is small.

The Manager.

Meet Ondřej Baracnik, a novice Czech manager with no prior experience in professional football.

The start of a journey:

União Desportiva Sousense

Campeonato Nacional de Seniores First Phase Group C

End of first phase

Notes

Decent enough. Started with a great run that included 6 consecutive clean sheets, then a 6 game slump followed by a strong-ish finish. Notable players were Vitor Borges, the team captain putting in captain performances, and Angelo, the ultimate poacher for this level.

Next Up

The promotion stage.

Promotion Stage

Promotion Playoff

Notes

Barely made it into the playoff spot after trying to throw it away (lead the group by 5 points at one stage) but got ourselves together for the playoff tie against Leiria. Vitor Borges kept up his good form, Angelo suffered a series of injuries so had a diminished impact and the other player to note is our set piece specialist left back Salvador, who contributed 8 goals and 5 assists before ripping his calf muscle.

Next Up

We'll see. I'm going to see if I can improve this team before deciding whether to stay or move on. Financially we're in a mess, which seems to be the norm for Portuguese lower league teams and our wage budget is not going to be competitive. This club needs a cash injection to survive.

Oh, and the board have just offered me a new full time contract on £425 p/w over my current £700 p/w part time deal... Erm, how about NO

Segunda Liga

Notes

Started slowly and after the first couple of months we were right down there in the relegation spots, improved thereon though and ended up pretty comfortable. Frustrating though because we had several chances to put really good runs together but always managed to stumble in those supposedly easier games. Still, got to be happy with the final position.

Next up

Just realised I've made a big mistake. Already a month into the new season in Israel when I suddenly remembered reading something about a bug with Israeli leagues. Now I've checked and realised the problem is with transfers. None of the teams in Israel can sell any players. They can still buy from foreign markets but there have been zero money transfers involving two Israeli clubs for two seasons. This coupled with the fact that there are foreign player rules is now seriously putting me off the game. I have a save from right before I left Sousense so I could go back to that and find some other club to move to which I'm kind of leaning towards right now.

So if there's anyone reading this, what would you do in this situation?

Go back to Sousense.

I'd reload seeing as you have the option mate. I had a problem on the previous FM in Albania where I got promoted and bought a load of Albanians only to find there was a rule messed up in there that only 3 non EU players were allowed and of course Albania isn't in the EU so it screwed me over financially. I know it is a bit different to your situation but simple bugs like that ruin a league. Shocked this hasn't been sorted out, is there anything in the bugs section about this? If not i'd report it as it's ridiculous

Go back to Sousense.

Well I wouldn't be going back to them because a) they have no money and will probably cut the wage budget along with the fact that they want me to accept a contract that's worth half the money while demanding twice the commitment (semi pro - pro) and b) it would feel wrong because I had already decided to go. But I do think I will go back and resign again, then look for a new club to hire me. Resigning from Bnei Sakhnin and then looking for a new club is another option. Can just wait for the patch but that could be weeks away.

I'd reload seeing as you have the option mate. I had a problem on the previous FM in Albania where I got promoted and bought a load of Albanians only to find there was a rule messed up in there that only 3 non EU players were allowed and of course Albania isn't in the EU so it screwed me over financially. I know it is a bit different to your situation but simple bugs like that ruin a league. Shocked this hasn't been sorted out, is there anything in the bugs section about this? If not i'd report it as it's ridiculous

Yeah there is a thread, I remembered there being one in GD where the OP was directed to bugs section where there was a long discussion about it involving SI employees.

But thanks for the comments guys, I think I'll go back and see what happens

So here we go..

Moreirense Futebol Clube

Segunda Liga

Jumping into an even worse situation financially as Moreirense are roughly £1m in the red and just been relegated from the Primera Liga. On the other hand, it is a one year contract, the wage budget promised is still 15 times higher than Sousense's and my own wages are 4 times what I was offered back there. The way I look at it I can have a stab at a successful season, maybe a promotion and then move on again if the finances don't improve. A win win.

Table

Cup fixtures

Squad

Notes

A pretty stress free season. The other teams in this league couldn't match the quality of this team on the pitch and the league title seemed like a formality almost right from the start. Monteiro being the key player to provide us with goal scoring and Vitor Gomes perhaps the best all round performer. The cups were more interesting. We beat two Primera teams in the Portuguese cup before being outclassed by Academica. Then there was the league cup thingy which we for some reason never participated in with Sousense (?) The first stage consisted of Segunda teams and we breezed through that, won the qualifying fixture and then had to go against another three Primera sides in the 3rd stage. We put up a fight against two of them getting respectable draws against the likes of Porto, but a horrid second half against Gil Vicente saw us ship 4 goals to lose 4-1 from 1-0 up which put us out of contention. All in all an encouraging showing against teams we'll now have to face regularly in the upcoming season.

Speaking of Sousense, they actually made a step up in the table, albeit with less points collected, which is nice to see. Perhaps I was too hasty in disregarding their chances, but nevertheless, I feel the move made a lot of sense seemingly for both sides.

Next Up

Was offered a contract extension which I happily accepted. The finances are still in the red but the board seems willing to inject enough cash for it to not be a huge problem, at least so far. Have to do a bit of strengthening to cope with the higher standard no doubt but I'm pretty hopeful at the moment that we can at least survive.

Ok, now that I didn't exactly expect.

Why are they expecting us to waltz into the top half? They hardly have the funds to back up these ambitions.

Bit of a landmark as it's my first multi-year contract. On almost double the wages as well. I do wish they would have saved 600 pounds out of that extra hundred grand per year for a coaching course they apparently can't find the funding for.

Now I sort of get why the expectations were this high. This league apart from the top 3 is really poor. We were 4th for long stretches but then pulled an almighty bottle job only for the 'chasing' pack to somehow manage even worse. Apart from Braga who finally managed to wrestle that 4th spot from us by beating us in the last match, but 5th still means Europa League. Top scorer - Diego Sevillano, the other notable performer - Vitor Gomes.

The squad will get a bit of an overhaul as a lot of players are leaving for different reasons (moving to bigger clubs, unhappiness with playing time etc). A couple of key players were also loanees so will have to see if I can get them back or replace them. The finances are in the black though for the first time since I've been here so it's promising at least.

Good effort but in the end well outplayed and beaten by a superior side, even if the scoreline doesn't really show it.

Not sure about that at all. Realistically, a manager on £4500 p/w surely can't turn down £2m p/a. Then again, a manager based in Portugal surely can't simultaneously work with a team half way round the globe. I have no idea how to approach this really. Think I'm going to turn it down and pretend it never happened.

Progress, both on the pitch and in the table. Sadly not in the finances column though. I've had to sell both my main striker and then the guy who stepped in to replace him but we still don't even break even after receiving the prize money. Helped by a nightmare season from Sporting we grab the 3rd spot left open, however, rather devastatingly, it doesn't give us a CL tie. Not too many complaints about the performances though, underlined by some great results including a league double over champions Porto, particularly the 4-1 away win

So who were the key men behind our success?

Vladimir Weiss - a mid season free transfer who took no time to have a huge impact reflective of his pedigree.

Carlos Embalo - our main creative force.

Andre Silva - a really good all round striker who mostly delivered. Leaving to Fenerbache.

Bruno Nascimento - the mainstay at the back.

Vitor Gomes - loyal servant and a consistent performer. Broke his leg the day after signing a contract extension. Talk about being desperately unlucky and pretty damn lucky at the same time.

What next then? Can't see much further progress being really possible because of the finances. Sporting will no doubt get their act together again which, coupled with the decreased CL spots, dooms us to eternal fight for the EL spots, if we're lucky. I think it's time to start exploring a move soon. I'll definitely start applying for some more interesting vacancies and see how the board reacts to it.

Who took Portugal's 3 CL spots? Trying to think what country's strong enough..

Who took Portugal's 3 CL spots? Trying to think what country's strong enough..

Sorry for being a bit dim, but where would I look to find this?

Edit. If this is the right place then it seems like Portugal might have been overtaken by Russia? Not sure why it would happen this season though.

Great posts and good to see a different career path. Look forward to next post!

Great posts and good to see a different career path. Look forward to next post!

Thank you, glad to hear you're enjoying it

I'm not apologizing for testing waters with applications for a couple of richer or bigger reputation clubs, so

So what happened?

Nothing much really. It was my fourth season at Moreirense and whilst we didn't actually start badly it was obvious to me that it was going to be another season battling for the Europa spot. I'm not the most patient of managers (obviously) and I suppose if I was an AI character I would have had a 'slt' concern about wanting a new challenge next to my profile. I applied for a couple of jobs including AZ Alkmaar, who never offered an interview, and this got the Moreirense board up in arms demanding an apology. That was never going to be forthcoming so job hunting I had to go. FK Austria Wien were the first to offer an interview, which proved successful. The club is well set up financially and the team looks strong on paper. Whilst it's a smaller league and a much tougher road to Europe, it's a much more stable starting position than the financially struggling Moreirense and in my view a club with much more potential to grow. So here I am, ready for the new challenge

Not great, not terrible either, considering the fact that they were 6th when I joined. All in all pretty straightforward until this

Huh? What the hell has been going on at this club and how does a cash injection help with FFP anyway? Not that I would complain about a £6m transfer budget, especially as quite a few of the current players are trying to force a move away from the club. This does not look all too normal though. Is it a sugar daddy? If so, why is FFP being cited?

The busiest deadline day I've ever had. Over the last season a group of players in my team had started to become more vocal about various issues, mainly about wanting to join other clubs, but then also whinging about other minor things like selling youth players etc. I had hoped it would all pass at some point when no actual bids were being made for any of them. However, the constant whinging and the same bunch looking to be upset by anything and everything finally made me reach the breaking point when after losing the Europa League qualification playoff tie some of them felt it necessary to complain about my team talks. Each and every player with a concern was transfer listed and offered out and thankfully I found buyers for all of them. This left me short of a first choice left back and goalkeeper as well as lacking depth in the squad so a few last minute buys had to be made. A squad rebuild well and truly on the way now.

Champions! By a landslide as well. Right from the start there was no one to give us a challenge and the title was confirmed with 6 weeks to go. The cup final could have gone better - lost 2-1 after leading at the break. Jose Carlos Monteiro Bossa, on loan from Porto, was the standout player, scoring 25 and assisting 14 goals.

So now it's going to be my first attempt at making the CL group stage. There's no info about which round we enter though. Last year's champions Red Bull Salzburg entered the second qualifying round, however this year Austria have an extra EL spot so maybe the champions can also now skip a round in the CL? Will find out soon enough I guess.

Two second leg turnarounds and what a result against Basel. Really proud of my team.

Not the worst possible group either

Maybe I'm being greedy but hoping to get a couple of points out of that lot.

From the beginning I had my doubts about this when they approached me - I was in the CL group stage with AW, building a pretty good side of my own players. But the Austrian League is a drag and beyond CL games there is nothing to look forward to the rest of the season. Brugge are a very respectable club, were offering over twice the wages and were in the CL themselves. So I accepted.

Big mistake. The moment I arrived I realised what a mess I'd stepped into. The Belgian league has a 6 home grown players in the matchday squad requirement. They had 2 in the whole squad and virtually all of their U21's out on loan. Half their first team were unregistered for the CL for god knows what reason. They were 9th in the league and I was confident I could at least improve on that, but it just didn't happen. A couple of months later we were 11th and not really improving, CL slipping away confirmed by a 4-0 defeat at Schalke and I had lost the dressing room. Partly because of frustration with their performances but mostly because I just didn't feel up for the major rebuild that had to be undertaken and was basically mailing it in. So rather embarrassingly I walked out of there with my tail between my legs.

Luckily I didn't have to wait long for offers, Stade Rennais in Ligue 1 and Heerenveen in Eredivisie being amongst the more interesting ones, but the one that I felt made the most sense in my situation was this

So what's the situation here? Newly relegated, the Eagles had made a huge start in the Championship, winning 9 of their first 11 games. This was followed by something almost inexplicably drastic as they lost 7 of their next 8 and drew the other, which left former manager Mark Warburton out of a job. This is now not an easy task. The board were not very flexible in their demands - nothing short of winning the Championship will suffice. The squad is nice though, well rounded and some top individuals among them. Lots of experience but also some youth and pace. I definitely felt it was worth giving it a go.

Very interesting read so far and you seemed to have excelled at every club.

I was surprised you left Austria Wien but, if you didn't enjoy the league - why stay?

Good luck at Palace

Very interesting read so far and you seemed to have excelled at every club.

I was surprised you left Austria Wien but, if you didn't enjoy the league - why stay?

Good luck at Palace

Didn't excel at Brugge

To be fair I was enjoying the team building in Wien but decided to approach it realistically and the financial side of things was pretty convincing. I had also just played two consecutive derby matches away at Rapid, who were supposed to be one of the strong teams in that league, and won them both with an aggregate score of 9-0. Clearly there wasn't much in the form of a domestic challenge. It was nice to focus on the CL but going far in it was never going to happen either. On paper it made sense to move on. In reality it turned out to be disastrous but that's just how it is sometimes.

Thanks for the good wishes

The fixtures since joining:

I was quietly confident Crystal Palace would turn out to be a really nice situation to land in and so it proved. A professional squad in the main I had little trouble getting them to perform and function in the way I expected them to. Striker Majeed Waris ended up with 27 league goals whilst former Man Utd youth player Graig Healy added 16. Wide forward Mohammed Elyounoussi had an impressive season contributing 13 goals and assists and is being linked with the likes of Atletico Madrid and Manchester United.

What to expect in the Premier League? We're not that well off financially and budgets will have to be kept tight. The team is reasonably strong in key positions though and apart from bolstering the squad and maybe finding a quality bargain or two for the first team I don't expect to be very active in the market. I'd like to think we're strong enough to survive, but then it is my first season in a top European league and I'm sure it will be a tough task.

What a season!

Ignoring your defeat to Fleetwood

Ignoring your defeat to Fleetwood

:o

Led 1-0 as well. 1-1 at the half, then a collapse in the second half. Uncharacteristic, but luckily just a bad day at the office instead of being a sign of things to come.

Looking back at my former clubs, Austria Wien expectedly won their league by a margin, but the more surprising outcome is Club Brugge winning theirs pretty comfortably. Which proves emphatically that the failure there was fully mine and not due to any shortcomings with their personnel. Moreirense finished 5th, which is pretty much a spot they have cemented for themselves looking at their recent history. Sousense however have long since been relegated from Segunda Liga and are fighting for survival on the level below.

Rejected Villa. They're 19th and in financial trouble. Will attend the interview at Sunderland if only to just see what's on offer.

Not bad I think. Could have gone even better and at some point even a CL spot looked like a possibility but a very poor run in the final two months put an end to that. Still, some magical European nights at Selhurst Park to look forward to

On the negative side, I had to sell both of my main goalscorers and another key player. Mohammed Elyounoussi signed for Barcelona () before the start of the season. Majeed Waris instantly hit ridiculous form, scoring 9 goals in 10 appearances before asking for a move to Dynamo Kiev. Then this after the end of the season

£24m was his buyout clause so nothing I could do about it even if I wanted to. This puts me in a bit of a tricky situation with a lot of money available but not that many good established players willing to sign for us. Hopefully the Europa League spot will attract some good talent at some point. Money in the bank is never a bad thing either and hopefully a couple of our younger players will relish the challenge as well.

Are Notts Forest tycoon owned? That seems like a lot of money for them.

Nope. They have not had a takeover and their finances are merely okay, £4.4m in the red in fact. This is going to be their third consecutive season in the Premier League though so I guess they're simply spending what they've earned.

The buyout clauses that at the time, seem a great idea.

The buyout clauses that at the time, seem a great idea.

To be fair, I don't really mind that much. 24 million is huge money for a club like Crystal Palace. Pretty sure I would have accepted even without the clause.

What's the tactical story behind all this?

What's the tactical story behind all this?

Pretty similar to how it was in FM14 tbf, as per the discussion we had back then My principles haven't changed. Still defense first, then find the individual talent to win me matches.

Why do you ask?

Pretty similar to how it was in FM14 tbf, as per the discussion we had back then My principles haven't changed. Still defense first, then find the individual talent to win me matches.

Why do you ask?

I was wondering if you still managed to find a tactic which you never change and just focus on squad building.

I was wondering if you still managed to find a tactic which you never change and just focus on squad building.

Basically, yes Only change if I notice a pattern but no game to game adjustments.

The situation with Crystal Palace is as follows

Napoli offering the option to delay until end of season was a godsend. I couldn't reject the offer. It's my path into big club management and a great opportunity. I've also never ever managed a Serie A club in any version of FM so it's also a new personal challenge. I'll be doing my best to try and give Crystal Palace a place in the next seasons CL, though it will be very tough with the fixtures remaining and the extremely tight situation in the table. It has been a lot of fun though.

Man City away could prove to be a season defining game if the table is similar when you face them!

Not nice viewing until the last two. Looked like we'd bottled it again especially after that 0-5 at Newcastle (I can't even explain wtf that was... we never lose 5-0, hardly ever concede more than two). But then the pressure was off again and we went and destroyed West Ham whilst Southampton lost at Arsenal. What this meant was that we now had to win against Everton and hope Man Utd and Southampton don't draw their last game against each other, as either winning would have dropped the other below us in the table. This time we did our part with a professional 3-0 win against Everton. The other game?

We'd done it. Crystal Palace will have CL football next season!

Key players this season were top scorer Rafa Rivero[/url] with 23 in 36 appearances, playmaker/forward Colin Thornton, and a pretty classy and highly sought after Belgian centre half Oliver Guillemot. All in all, a nice end to the Crystal Palace chapter and I think I'm being fair if I consider my job here done. New challenges await in Italy!

So there's my opportunity to enter the big time. Napoli have performed pretty steadily but failed to reach the very top in a league dominated by Juventus, AC Milan and Sampdoria (!). The resources are there though and with 60 thousand seats in the stadium the financial capacity to challenge is clearly there. The squad is aging, smallish and needs some work. They finished 5th so there's no Champions League. On the other hand there's also positive news

I'm certainly expecting to be one of those teams qualifying for next season. I'm sure the board will as well once they confirm their demands.

Wonder how Wenger would spin that 7th place trophy.