[FM15] Adventures of a journeyman

My favorite way to play FM is to create a fictional character and then start as unemployed.

So, that is what i am doing with my first save on FM15 (just got the game last week).

I have already kicked off my first save and this time i thought i would actually document my journeyman career, so that is why i am creating this thread now.

First of all, the manager character i have this time.

He is a young(ish) Italian guy, who was a promising player, but series of injuries cut his playing career short.

He still played a few seasons on semi-pro level, so that is also his starting reputation.

Luckily he is good with languages, so in addition to Italian, he also speaks English, German and Spanish.

He is all rounder, so attributes are quite even on coaching and tactical side.

The setup of game:

A large database, to be exact:

That totals to 153k players.

So, the game isn't exactly fast, but it is still playable on my PC at least.

And here is the manager in more detail:

Ok, so there is the basic setting.

Like i mentioned, i already started the career and as you can see from the manager profile, it has started off pretty well.

Job hunt was started with only lower league / low reputation teams, we all know that no high reputation team would hire this guy anyway.

Getting a job was pretty easy though, he got invitations to several interviews right away. First team to offer contract was Witbank Spurs in South Africa, National First Division.

He was eager to get his career started, so naturally he accepted.

Edit: Along the way i have adjusted tactics etc. so i no longer use just tactics made by others.

Training i handle myself, both team training and individual training. Same goes for team talks and press conferences, i don't trust my assistant manager to do them properly anyway.

So, the first team in my new career is Witbank Spurs. Here are the basic details of the club:

So, not exactly a high profile club, but in a way perfect for the first job.

Club doesn't exactly roll in cash, so i have not bought any players. Got one for free transfer and 4 on loan. Also brought a few guys from reserves to 1st team.

So, now i have at least 2 players for each position, which is the way i like it. Have to be prepared for injuries. Although, some of the backup players aren't exactly up to the task, but we will manage with what we have.

Like i mentioned earlier (at least i think i did), the season has already started.

And this is where we stand at the moment:

We also won our first "preliminary cup round", so we got to the first round of the actual cup.

I think this is enough for the opening, i will try to remember to update this often enough.

I realized that i completely forgot to include my current squad in to the first post, so here it is.

I got one new player on January transfer window, defensive midfielder Sibusiso Mahlangu joined our squad on free transfer.

He is a quite experienced one and is easily the best option for DM position now. Unfortunately he came from being without a squad, so his match fitness needs some work...

Threre are a few more players on the squad, but they didn't fit on the screen. Then again, they are not usually on the match squad

We had a bit of an "away tour" as we played three matches away from home.

First one was against Baroka FC and according to media and betting agencies, we were firm favorites to win the match.

And that is exactly what we did:

Then we faced Royal Eagles, again we were seen as the favorites and again we triumphed:

And the third away match was against FC Cape Town. In this one the home team was seen as a favorite and we started the match with bit more defensive tactic.

Still, we played pretty well and could have snatched a victory, but in the end draw was an ok result from this one:

Last match for today and it was a crazy one too.

After our three matches away, we were again playing in front of our home crowd. The opponent this time was African Warriors.

A total of 519 people came to see us play, doesn't look very impressive on stadium that can hold 35k

Anyway, we were again favorites and things looked very promising in the early stages of the match. We quickly took 1-0 lead, but Warriors scored soon after that 1-1.

That didn't shake our belief and we scored two more goals in a short period of time, 3-1. Time to calculate the points and go home?

Nope, but apparently that is what our players thought. Warriors put up a fight and lived up to their name. They managed to score three in a row, making it 3-4.

I had no other option, but to change to our most attacking tactic, substitute the worst players and hope for the best.

And we did manage to score once more, making it 4-4.

We should have won that one, but that's football for you... And our defending on opponents set pieces was awful. We conceded one from corner and two from free kicks.

I have not written much about my (or to be more exact, my Italian imaginary guys) goals for his career.

The honest truth is that i haven't given it much thought yet. I think that the "larger scale vision" would be to become as succesful as possible.

The logical first step is to take Witbank Spurs in to ABSA premiership and of course to stay up while building a stronger squad.

After that we of course want to win the premiership, cup and also CAF champions league.

Reaching all of those goals would mean that the African conquest would be pretty much complete. Then it would be time to perhaps look for new challenges on a different continent.

It is of course entirely possible that some other South African team could offer fresh challenge, but we will cross that bridge if it comes to that.

For now, the main target is promotion and although we have drawn two matches in a row, we are still 1st on the NFD, so looking good so far.

I have a feedback request (in case someone actually wants to follow up on my career that is ).

As this is the first time i am trying to document my own game, i am not exactly sure how i should go on about it.

So, would be good to get some insight from people who have made these before or who have read a lot of them.

What kind of things i should include here? How often i should update it? Is the current style ok or should i make some adjustments?

Oh, and as English is not my native language, i apologize for spelling errors etc.

I have a feedback request (in case someone actually wants to follow up on my career that is ).

As this is the first time i am trying to document my own game, i am not exactly sure how i should go on about it.

So, would be good to get some insight from people who have made these before or who have read a lot of them.

What kind of things i should include here? How often i should update it? Is the current style ok or should i make some adjustments?

Oh, and as English is not my native language, i apologize for spelling errors etc.

I've been reading since you started and enjoy what you write - there's no particular way on how to go about updating the thread, it's how you prefer to do this.

On mine for example, I do 3/4 updates a season whereas some people post just end of the season updates.

The content is good also - again, some people go really in depth with a lot of screenshots of their game. On the other hand, some people just give a small overview with League Tables, Squad and Fixtures.

And to say English isn't your first language - it's really good!

I've been reading since you started and enjoy what you write - there's no particular way on how to go about updating the thread, it's how you prefer to do this.

On mine for example, I do 3/4 updates a season whereas some people post just end of the season updates.

The content is good also - again, some people go really in depth with a lot of screenshots of their game. On the other hand, some people just give a small overview with League Tables, Squad and Fixtures.

And to say English isn't your first language - it's really good!

Thanks for your feedback, it is much appreciated!

I will probably post a lot of screenshots, because pictures often tell more than just words

I am considering that i would update after for example 5 or 10 matches, so the updates wouldn't come "too often".

At the end of the season i am planning to do some kind of wrap-up/review about how the season went. And after that a "pre-season package" covering new transfers etc.

Will see how i get this going. I am however planning to update this as long as my career lasts, so i guess i will find the optimal way to update / style that would suit the purpose best.

And thank you for your kind comments about my English. I like to think that i know the language pretty well, but you can never really evaluate your own language skills.

I love the African continent for my saves - had an awesome one on FM14 with Al Merriekh from Sudan, the Continental competitions are awesome and in some respects a lot more challenging then the Europa league and Champions League in EU, more straight KO rounds etc. Went on to manage Ajax CT - massive stadium and big underachievers in the ABSA - and Cape Town, well what an awesome place!!

Always load more African countries into my saves now!

Good luck and look forward to your updates!

I actually had a nice save starting in South Africa on FM14 also. That is why i was not afraid to take the Witbank Spurs job this time

I planned to load more African countries, but as my database is already quite large, i didn't do it this time. Will do in the future though. I already have the needed files to load all the major countries from Africa

Improvement on the manager skills.

Continental C completed:

It also gave a small boost to managers attributes:

edit:

And now the manager makes positive headlines. Good start for the career, let's hope it lasts.

A bit of problem on our squad at the moment.

There are several contracts running out and it seems i will lose a few players that i would have wanted to keep.

Two of them are looking for new challenges and don't want to sign a new contract, that's understandable i guess.

However, two of my players who are foreigners (from Zimbabwe) would accept a new contract, but they don't get new work permits. Tried twice, failed twice.

Then again, if we continue to play like we have played, we will be promoted and then i will need to do some rebuilding anyway. So, maybe this isn't a big deal.

If we don't manage to get the promotion, then this will be a problem, all of those players would be very useful in NFD next season too...

One thing i have forgotten to mention.

As in South Africa (and many other countries too), there is no league or official matches for reserve teams, it is sometimes hard to keep all players match fit.

I have solved this issue in a way that i kind of play my "own reserves league".

In practice that means that i arrange friendlies with nearby teams, one match for the reserves every week.

In those matches i always use first team players that have not played much recently and are in need of match fitness. That way they are ready to play when called upon.

Same thing applies for players returning from injury. I start to play them in the reserves before i take them back to the first team matches.

Luckily Witbank Spurs has a lot of nearby teams, so it is easy to arrange loads of reserve matches without any cost (and i always play them away, so our own field doesn't get overused ).

A few matches played, we have narrowly won both of them.

2-1 home win against Jomo Cosmos and 0-1 away win against Highlands Park.

The reason i am updating already (although i said earlier that i will only update after 5-10 matches) is that the next match could be quite decisive.

We are playing away against Black Leopards, the only team that is currently threatening our 1st position.

I will update this post with half time and full time result.

Here is the pre-match prediction:

edit:

First half played and we are doing great.

Sabelo Nyembe opened the scoring with a great shot just outside the box.

Just before halftime whistle, our forward Dumisane Gamede was fouled inside the box and penalty was awareded. Gift Madigwa buried it with confidence.

So, this is the halftime scoreline:

edit2:

Second half didn't go exactly as planned.

First a lucky goal for them, ball bounced from the crossbar into the back of our keeper and from his back in to goal.

Then they scored another from a corner.

I made a tactical change + a few substitutions and we got back in to game. Didn't manage to score though, but neither did they. So, it ended in a draw.

This is how the table looks after this important match:

edit3:

We have another big match ahead of us.

Nedbank Cup 1st round against ABSA Premiership teahm Black Aces. Luckily we are the home team.

I will update the result of that match here too. Will probably be too much for us, but we will try at least

edit4:

It seems that no one really thinks that we have any chances in this match

edit5:

We fought bravely, but in the end they were a bit too strong for us.

The main problem was that we couldn't get our shots from decent spots, so we mostly missed the target.

And we even missed a penalty

Here is the match report:

The first season is nearing end, only 6 matches to go.

We have been performing on a good level most of the season and thus we just got some good news:

This is what has been going on after the Black Aces match:

Also spent some time testing new skins and found one that i like very much so far.

During busy periods in the game (transfer windows / lots of matches around the world in a short period of time) i sometimes think that have i created too large database for the game...

As it sometimes takes quite a long time to progress even a few days. Then again, most of the time it progresses fast enough, so i will keep at it.

I do want to have all the different countries and leagues available, will have a lot of interesting opportunities in store for the future of my managers career.

Already planning about how i want to progress with the career.

I am thinking that i will not seek for new job for at least 3 seasons, instead i will do my best to make Witbank Spurs as good as possible.

However, if i get a very tempting job offer without actively seeking one, i will consider it.

That is unlikely though, my starting reputation is not high and South African leagues don't have a high reputation either, so i will probably stay largely unknown to the rest of the footballing world.

edit:

There is also a "final goal" or more precise "final goals".

Goal 1:

Get a job in good (or reasonably good) team in England, Italy, Spain or Germany.

Goal 2: Make that team in to a major force in Europe

Goal 3: Get a job as National team manager

Goal 4: Win the World Cup

Still a long way to go, but i think that at least goals 1 and 2 are very much doable.

We got our first intake of new youth players.

Unfortunately it seems that for the moment our only way to strenghten the squad will be via transfers.

Still 3 matches to go, but i can already say that we had a very good season:

I will write up my season "review" after i get the final matches played.

First season finished or to be more precise, is finishing at the moment. End of the season processing always takes a loooong time with a large database.

I will write up while i process the game, so this might be quite a lengthy post

Overall it was a very good season, almost perfect. We won the National First Division and got promoted to ABSA Premiership.

We also achieved the minimum target on cup by getting to the actual First Round. Unfortunately that was as far as we got.

Still, in total we fared much better than board or media wanted/predicted.

Here are the final 6 matches:

And here the final league table:

We also managed to break a few records. We made a new record on goals and points in National First Division. We also made a new record in the longest streak without losing games in NFD.

Here are my awards for the most important players in season 1:

Goalkeeper:

This was a very easy choice, because he played all our matches. I took a calculated risk, we didn't really have adequate backup for him. Luckily there were no injuries and he managed to play rather well during the entire season.

Defender:

Here we had much more competition, but in the end one of our Central Defenders deserves the key player award for this season. He played well in most matches and even scored a few goals from corners.

Midfielder:

This was another easy choice. One player performed with good consistency and showed good example for the rest of the team.

Forward:

No question here, our best goalscorer. Even though he had his fair share of injuries, he was always an asset to the team when he played.

A few words about the upcoming season too.

Like i mentioned earlier, we are going to lose a few players due to workpermit issues. We will also let a few players go, because they just aren't good enough.

So, to have any chance of staying up next season, we will need to get some new guys in to the squad.

And actually we already got one:

I also managed to sign three of the loan players i had this season. One of them i didn't want, he wasn't good enough.

Once i get my game near the pre-season, i will update what our goals are for the new season and other stuff that comes to my mind.

edit:

One addition to the ending season.

Just got this message on my game:

First of many awards (i hope ).

Goals for next season:

1. Stay in ABSA Premiership

2. Improve finances

3. Optional goal, complete another coaching badge

Very good season, best of luck in the Premiership next year

Very good season, best of luck in the Premiership next year

Thank you, i think luck will be needed

I have been able to only sign new players via free transfers, we simply don't have the money to buy any players.

Also having some trialists at the moment, will sign at least one of them.

Currently waiting work permit decision for a new goalkeeper, would really like to have two choices on that position also.

Once i get my pre-season done, i will update the squad we will have for the first premiership season.

edit:

One thing i don't understand, could be a bug?

I tried to renew the contract of one of my players numerous times, but each time his work permit was denied.

Now another South African team offered him a contract and the work permit was immediately granted. Doesn't make any sense.

edit2:

Reported it on bugs forum, so SI can take a look. Maybe i am just missing something...

edit3:

Nope, not missing anything. Surely a bug.

I usually don't reload my game, but this time i just had to. I got pissed that another team was able to snatch one of my best strikers, because i couldn't get a work permit for him, but a team from same league could.

So, i reloaded my latest save (luckily it was from last night session end, so didn't miss much of todays "work"), then i released the out of contract player.

As soon as he was listed as free agent, i offered him a contract and what do you know, he finally got the work permit i have tried to get since January...

So, renewing contract always ended up in denied work permit, but release + offer contract = work permit granted.

Pre-season done and we are ready for the new season.

On pre-season we focused on fitness, team cohesion and tactics.

We also played a bunch of friendlies, this is how they went:

All of those were weaker opponents, so the results weren't totally convincing, but i am not too worried either.

The best thing is that we only suffered one serious injury, so we get to start the new season with pretty much full squad.

After our first season, we let some of our players go and got a few replacements.

As we didn't exactly have money to buy anyone, i had to scrape the "free transfer barrel" for new players.

I managed to get a few that will immediately strengthen the first team and a few that could become good if all goes well.

These are the new players on Witbank Spurs squad:

Media is again predicting that we will not have a good season. They actually think that we will be dead last and go straight back to NFD.

I am determined to see that it doesn't happen. I promised board that we avoid relegation, but secretly i am hoping for a midtable finish

This is what board is expecting:

That concludes my "pre-season package", now it is time to see what we can achieve in the ABSA Premiership!

Our first season in the ABSA Premiership is well on the way.

It has become clear that there is quite a big difference between ABSA and NFD.

Still, we have done better than predicted before season. Our first set of results looks like this:

And this is how we stand in different competitions:

So, not too bad for a team that was predicted to finish last. Still, lots of games to play, so can't celebrate yet. I still believe we can surprise everyone and end our season on a midtable position.

New players have mostly performed well. New goalkeeper Vozinha has been crucial, i think he has actually won a few of those very tight games for us. He is also the only player on our current team who plays also international matches, so he has good experience to share for the rest of the team.

DM Keita has also perfomed very well, helps a lot with our defence and has made it possible to play some of the younger players on defence also.

One thing that is a big disappointment is the attendance on our home games. As you can see from the matches, not too many people actually bother to come to our matches.

We have stadium capacity of 35k, but that doesn't count for anything when only 700-1000 people actually show up. It is much better than last seasons 400-600, but still so low that our finances are constantly quite tight.

It seems i will not be able to take a new coaching course, we just don't have money for it. Good thing is that board agrees it would be a good idea, so maybe next season...

It seems something has been done right:

Since i don't have any other jobs lined up or even intention to look for any just yet, i will discuss with them about a new contract.

edit:

I requested better training facilities, but they declined.

I tried to play hard ball, but they refused again.

So, no contract at this point.

Assuming they propose new contract again, i will probably agree without any requests. I know that the money is tight, but we could really benefit from better training facilities too...

I forgot to write this earlier.

There was a small change in our team just at the end of the transfer window.

I got a reasonably good offer for Gift Madigwa (the midfielder who was one of our best players on the first season).

Since we had plenty of other players for the same position, i decided to sell him.

After that i got one player to bolster our Central Defender group, so in my opinion i got more balance to our squad in case of injuries or bans.

Great work so far at Witbank Spurs. It seems you won't have any problem staying up in the Premiership .

Great work so far at Witbank Spurs. It seems you won't have any problem staying up in the Premiership .

Staying up just got a lot harder as one of our key players is now out for several months:

We sent him to a specialist, so he actually should be out for about 3 months, but that is still a very long time to be without our number one stopper.

Good thing is that i have kept our last seasons nro 1 match fit with reserve matches, so now he gets his chance in the Premiership. Let's hope he gets the job done.

edit:

In total our injury situation is pretty well, this is what it looks like at the moment:

Training has also been going well. If i don't include long time injuries, all players have green arrow in individual training window, so we are making progress.

I can only imagine what it would be like if we could get those better training facilities i wanted and some more talented coaches

I hate to say this, but our backup keeper really isn't good enough for this level.

Not even close.

It seems that most of the shots go in... these are the stats of our latest match:

I admit that our defence wasn't ideal either, but at least 3 of those goals were such that they shouldn't have gone in...

I watch my matches on extended/comprehensive (depending on how important the match is) and i must say that i haven't seen our backup keeper making many saves on the matches he has played...

Well, nothing to be done about that, we just have to try to get points when possible, at least we are still holding our midtable position. For now...

They actually offered 1400€/week with 35% wage drop if we get relegated from ABSA.

Since the club finances are poor, i countered their offer with 1000€/week, but no reduction if relegated. They were thrilled to accept my counter offer

Kutgw

Kutgw

Hope to do just that

Things are getting a bit harder again though, another key player out for several months:

Once again it was proven that you really need to pay attention to your players and if there is need, talk to them.

I have this one striker, who played for over 10 hours without scoring a goal.

I waited it out for as long as i could, but finally i decided that i must talk to him about it.

At first i thought about being harsh about it, but in the end i chose the "you haven't scored lately, but i have faith in you option". He seemed to react well.

What happened in the next match?

This happened:

Man management so big in recent versions of FM.

Always love to read saves from not-England.

Man management so big in recent versions of FM.

Always love to read saves from not-England.

It is funny, in real life i am a Liverpool fan and of course know Barclays Premier better than any other league, but in FM i almost never play with Liverpool.

Now that i think of it, i don't think that i started a single save in FM14 by picking my own team, always started unemployed.

It has become the "right way to play" for me. Create a young(ish) and inexperienced manager. Start unemployed. See where that goes. I guess it makes the game more realistic to me when the first job is in a team that actually could hire a newbie manager.

Of course the ultimate goal is to get in to more high profile jobs, but only when experience has been earned on smaller teams.

Back to the season.

As i mentioned earlier, we have lost two of our key players and i would be lying if i'd say that i wasn't worried about that.

Well, good thing is that i always try to build the team so that there is at least decent backup for everyone. I think that approach has once again proven to be the lifeline of our season.

This is what has happened since the last match/competition update:

So, not too bad actually. We have managed to even spring a few surprises along the way.

And what it comes to the competitions, this is where we stand now:

So, despite the injuries, we have managed to maintain our midtable position and even improve it by moving from 8th to 7th

Good news from the medical team also, our nro1 stopper, Vozinha, is nearing return. Should take about a week and he's back. I will of course have to get him play a few reserves matches also, so he can build his match fitness, but his return is great news for sure.

Just made my first mistake on transfers.

It is the end of January transfer window and i got a loan offer for one of my less used strikers.

I thought that it would be good for him to get more playing time, so i accepted it.

Only after that i checked that they actually plan to use him as cover for the first team... Well, he will have the same role than he would have had if he'd stayed. Now i just have to hope that their 1st choice strikers get injured

Looking pretty good in the league.

Looking pretty good in the league.

Yes, it has gone much better than anyone (expect me ) believed before the season.

Unfortunately, this is probably the best we can do, before we somehow get our finances in to much better shape and get to sign some really good players.

The richest teams in the league have players that cost more than my whole team, but we have proven that pricetag doesn't make a player

Finally he is back:

Now we have to get him back in to match shape, while avoiding any setbacks on his recovery.

Good thing is that there is a bit of a break and we have our next match in 11 days.

He can play at least one reserves match before that, then i will have to decide whether he is ready to start the next 1st team match.

Which skin is this that you use? Well done on promotion and the new contract!

Thanks!

I am using Scorpio 1.9 and i also have a backgrounds pack installed.

Going well in the league with good progress

We got another youth intake.

Unfortunately the new youth players are even worse than what we got last year, clearly scraped from the bottom of the youth talent barrel.

The best of them have massive 2 stars potential, so still not counting the future of Witbank Spurs in to their hands.

Then again, i am not even expecting any decent youth players, because our youth setup leaves a lot to be desired.

There are some good news though, at the moment our senior squad has clean bill of health, everyone back in business. Few of the guys with long injuries behind them are of course out of shape, but we should get them back in to playing condition in the next few weeks or so.

Great work on the promotion MTM. Going well in your second season as well. South Africa's always been an interesting league but I've always got distracted by trying to sign too many players .

Great work on the promotion MTM. Going well in your second season as well. South Africa's always been an interesting league but I've always got distracted by trying to sign too many players .

I don't have that problem, at least not at this point

Our finances are so poor that i can't afford to buy anyone or have too many players on my roster. So, i will have to try to scour the free market for the best possible players i can get and then get them to agree to very low salary. Not as easy as it sounds

It seems that my loaning out Ranga Chivaviro might turn out well. He has come in as sub on two of Chippa Utd games and he has scored two and assisted one

If their manager has any sense, he will get more game time on the last games of the season.

Last update of season 2.

We had some difficulties on matches on the last part of the season.

Biggest disappointment was losing twice to Santos which is actually one of the teams we should beat regularly. To make it worse, one of those matches was the first round of Nedbank Cup, so we failed to get to the 2nd round.

The finest moment of our last batch of matches was the game against Sundowns. They are a much bigger team and we got a beating from them earlier on the season.

In the match game was 1-1, then our RD Tsehla got carried away on a tackle and got a straight red card. I was sure that the game is lost.

Instead of giving up, my players fought like their life depended on it and Cleopas Dube bagged a late winner. Tremendous match.

These are the last results of the season.

Although we struggled a bit, other teams struggled even more and we ended uo 6th on the league! That was amazing as we were supposed to head straight back to NFD.

And now is the time for my "players of the season" awards.

Goalkeeper:

We actually had two choices this season, but in the end my choice is Vozinha.

Msiza did decent job while covering during Vozinha's injury, but in the larger scale Vozinha was more consistent and did a number of game savers along the way.

Defender:

This was a tough call, because none of the defenders were truly excellent, but they performed on pretty steady level all-around.

So, i decided to award it to the biggest improver. Partson Jaure was the last addition to our squad and he had a lot of trouble in the first few months of his Witbank Spurs career.

However, he eventually found himself and after January he was a solid first team performer.

Midfielder:

Our midfield performed rather well most of the season, but one player really stood up.

A young winger who was a bit on the shadows on the first season, really found himself this season and was one of the biggest positives of the season.

So the midfielder award goes to Mahlatse Mhlabine.

Forward:

This is toughest to call.

Gamede and Dube were both excellent, but as Dube was the main catalyst for our autumn, i give the award to him.

How did it go with my goals for the season?

1. Stay in ABSA Premiership = Completed Finished 6th, a great season.

2. Improve finances = Completed Our finances still aren't great, but we got from Insecure to Okay.

3. Optional goal, complete another coaching badge = Failed Board didn't have funds to pay for it.

Our final position also helps with our finances a bit:

That concludes my report for our second season, now towards pre-season and the third season with Witbank Spurs.

edit:

Forgot to mention one thing.

Several staff members are running out of contract within the next month (including assistant manager and several coaches).

I am taking another calculated risk and not renewing their contracts. At worst i should be able to get equal replacements for them, but i am hoping to find better.

edit2:

Still about the finances.

On first season we made a loss of 609k€, this season we made a profit of 363k€.

We are still slightly on the red, but if i can keep this going, we should be on the black next season.

Really good season I'd always look for new staff when you have an assistant manager as you can use the 'assistant manager to filter out unrealistic targets' option.

Really good season I'd always look for new staff when you have an assistant manager as you can use the 'assistant manager to filter out unrealistic targets' option.

Yes, as soon as the contracts run out (currently processing towards that, but as usual, it takes time with my rather large database ), i will hire the best Assistant i can find and afford.

Then i fill the remaining positions. We have made rather good progress on training/player development, but i think we can do better.

edit:

It seems that others also appreciated what i got done with Witbank this season:

I think coming second with a team that finishes 6th is not bad at all.

Transfers for this summer are done (i think).

The key for us now was to reduce our wage costs, but try to keep the team at least as good as last season.

We released 3 players on the summer and now we have two new players.

Or to be more exact, one new player and one making a return.

Both free transfers of course.

Madigwa is not first team material any more, but he will be a useful backup. And who knows, maybe he proves me wrong.

Funny thing is that when he left, he said that he will not come back as long as i am the manager. Well, he came back and he was more than happy to do it

We also found new assistant manager, a few new coaches, new head physio and new head scout.

So, lots of changes in Witbank before the new season. First friendly match is in a few days, interesting to see how things go after big changes.

Board expectations for the season:

I guess i will only promise midtable, because budgets are not really improved for higher goals and i am already comfortably under the wage budget.

My own goals for the season:

1. Top half finish.

2. Improve finances more

3. Bonus: Attend a coaching course (again, if there is money for it)

For our third season we have a new competition to participate in.

It is the South Africa MTN 8, that is the cup competition for teams that got the positions 1-8 in previous seasons ABSA.

Board doesn't seem to think much about it.

Here is what they are expecting in different competitions on the upcoming season:

It seems that the optional goal can be done this season, assuming Alfredo doesn't fail

Seeing how "expensive" the course is, it is easy to understand it couldn't be funded last season Well, finances were poor so i should be lucky they paid the salary in time.

Excellent start, keep it up! I will be following.

My primary save this year started in SA too - with Santos FC. I do mostly the same each year, start at the bottom, unemployed with no reputation, take whatever job I can and work my way up. After five seasons in Santos I started getting unsolicited job offers from the continent and wound up in Ligue 1. I'd never played South Africa before this save, but I thought it was pretty fun.