Blanco Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Don't Stop Believin' - A Footballing Journey Sure to feature much headscratching, tough decisions, and limited success!!! This is my attempt to really get in to FM 10 - I've played a few games, but none have really sustained my interest. I've gone a season and a bit with Genoa, got Tonbridge Angels into League 2 on Dafuge's challenge (in between dabbling with Barnet, an obscure Norwegian club, and my local team Crowborough Athletic), and got bored with both saves. Hopefully writing about the game should keep my interest alive a little longer this time... Game Setup: Manager Information: Name: Graeme Stern Nationality: English Past experience: Automatic Database Options: Large database with players from top clubs loaded from every continent, in order to give the game long term playability and balance Selected Leagues: Austria: Premier Division & First Division England: Premier Division & Coca-Cola Championship France: Ligues 1 & 2 Holland: Eredivisie Sweden: First Division Elite & Premier Division Switzerland: Super League & Challenge League As you've proably worked out from the title blurb and relatively wide array of leagues (for my little laptop, at least!), I'm aiming for a bit of a journeyman game. Ideally, I'd like to get my first job in the Austrian or Swiss second division, and work my way through in vaguely this order: Austria / Switzerland, Sweden, France, Holland, and finally back home... Progress will be in fits and starts - I'll probably get through quite a bit over the next week or so - uni holidays and practically housebound by the snow mean that there's plenty of FM time, but I head back off to uni next Sunday so updates may be a bit more sporadic after that. We'll see... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanco Posted January 11, 2010 Author Share Posted January 11, 2010 Club Management: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season Club Division Media Prediction My Aim League Finish Cup Progress ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oct 09/10 Altach Austrian First 3rd Safe midtable 4th Already out Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanco Posted January 11, 2010 Author Share Posted January 11, 2010 I spent the first two months waiting - there were no suitable jobs available in July, which meant that I had to wait for someone to be sacked, or do so well that they got poached by a better team. My money was on the former, and I was proved correct when two teams in the Austrian First Division dismissed their managers on the same weekend. I applied for both jobs - and was offered them both - and after a closer examination of the merits of both teams I opted to sign a contract until the end of the 2010/11 season with: SC Rheindorf Altach (or Altach for short...) At first sight, the team looks ripe for improvement - we have the highest average attendance in the division and a healthy £2.8 million in the bank balance. The club boasts a 9000 capacity stadium, as well as above average facilities for the division and a youth academy. Altach are based in the town of the same name in the very west of Austria. The town is a small one - population just over 6,000 - so I don't see the potential for massive long term progress here. However, they spent the previous three seasons in the Premier Division, so I will hopefully be able to guide them back there before I move on to greener pastures. The latest manager, one Adolf Hutter, has a lot to answer for. The media prediction suggested that we were one of the favourites to go up at the beginning of the season, but that we'd be pipped at the post to finish second. As of the 19th of October, when I took over, we are languishing in eleventh, second bottom, and already seventeen points behind the leaders. To add insult to injury, Dombim, our feeder club, are currently in third position. Time for an overhaul, methinks... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
H1993 Posted January 11, 2010 Share Posted January 11, 2010 Nice title Good luck with this, will be interesting to see how you do Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanco Posted January 11, 2010 Author Share Posted January 11, 2010 As it was October, it would be difficult to make any significant changes to the playing staff, so I decided to start my overhaul of the club with the staff, who aren't bound by the laws of the transfer window. Having organised my first meeting with them, I discovered that firstly there were far too many, and secondly that they weren't much cop. By the end of the meeting, four physios, seven coaches and my assistant manager received their P45s - the only survivor being the delightfully named Hans-Jurgen Trittinger, who would stay at least until my new staff bedded in. So, my first task was to find a new backroom team to do their best to help me get this team back where it belongs. I started out by flicking through my Filofax of scouts - incredibly, the club didn't employ a single one under the previous regime. I did my best to get people in with different specialities, so we ended up employing two Frenchmen, a Belgian, a German and a Dutchman in an attempt to find talent from more than just the local area. After the scouting team, I appointed a physio - but not one of the new fangled, so-called 'sports scientists'. Kurt Bittermann was straight out of the old school, and I felt that his no nonsense approach might help shake the players out of their collective daydream. Next on the list was an assistant manager, and I appointed former player Ernst Bradaric, as I hoped that his knowledge of the Austrian football scene, and Altach in particular, would stand us in good stead. Finally, there was the coaching team, and despite the board allowing me six coaches in comparison to my predecessor's eight, I felt we'd improved in almost every department. Further improvements can, and will be made, but I think we've done enough to refloat the sinking ship. Then it was time to look at the players, but the issue was time. It had taken a few days to bring everyone in, and although I had a few ideas about the squad, we had a game the very next day. The new backroom team were, shall we say, not shy about their criticisms. Phrases such as 'not good enough for the Altach squad' and 'some way off the standard required' cropped up far too often for my liking. To make matters worse, the game we had was away against the league leaders - not what you want for your first game in charge. I was incredulous that this squad had been tipped for promotion by anyone - the vast majority of the squad were under 23 or over 30, noone at their peak, and they simply weren't good enough to win the division. The priority here, at least until January when I could bring in some much needed reinforcements, would be to try and scrap a few wins and get out of the dreaded relegation zone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanco Posted January 12, 2010 Author Share Posted January 12, 2010 There'll be more on the playing staff later - this season was pretty much a write-off, so I planned to rotate the side a bit until the beginning of the transfer window to see who, if anyone was worth keeping. I sent my scouts off to various different European countries, with my best man staying in Austria due to the fact that we are only allowed seven foreign players in the squad, and three in the matchday squad.. Most of the foreigners we were paying wages to were in the reserve or youth team setup, and I was considering letting them go to free up slots for more talented players. I would play a relatively basic 4-4-2 in my first game, and tweak from there, depending on how the matches were going. I wasn't confident going into the first game, but on closer inspection of the league table, I realised that although promotion would be nigh on impossible, a decent top half finish was well within my reach. We were part of a bottom three that were slightly adrift from the rest, and the top two teams had also broken away from the main pack, but the middle seven teams were separated by just three or four points. My aim, if the team managed to click and I could sign some decent players, was a top five finish (which counts as midtable in a league of 12!) October / November Summary: 23/10: FC Admira 1 - 0 Altach 31/10: Altach 2-1 Austria Lutentau 3/11: Hartberg 1-2 Altach 6/11: Altach 1-0 Gratkorn 20/11: Austria Amatuare 2-0 Altach 27/11: Wacker Innsbruck 0-3 Altach Not bad then; 4 wins from 6, twelve points in the bag (more than the pathetic 9 that my predecessor got during his twelve games in charge), and now up to ninth place. Since my arrival, we had more points than any other team in the division, so life is pretty good here. The only two defeats came to teams in the top three; we weren't as good as Admiral, and 1-0 to them perhaps flattered us a bit, and Austria Amatuare fielded a very strong team (including players from the Austria Wien first team, like the Brazilian Schumacher, on loan from Udinese). Despite this, we dominated the first hour of the game, and deserved to be in front, before Schumacher scored with his only sniff all game, and they scored a free kick in the dying moments to seal the points. The wins were solid - all deserved barring a fortuitious 88th minute winner against Gratkorn. Really seeing the positives here - there are a number of players who have really impressed me with their performances. Now it's time for the winter break, which in Austria lasts all the way through to March. I've accepted an offer to play in a friendly tournament at the beginning of January which will net the club a cool £100,000, and I'll try and arrange a few more games to keep the squad fresh. Squad evaluation and winter break update to come... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanco Posted January 13, 2010 Author Share Posted January 13, 2010 A busy winter... Given I had three months without a competitive game, you would think that the time would pass relatively without incident. That was, more or less, the plan. I didn't want to make too many disruptions to what now seemed a fairly decent squad for the division, despite what my instincts and my coaching team had told me. Before making any changes, however, I decided to have a full evaluation of the squad, working out where I was weakest and needed to strengthen: Goalkeepers: Martin Kobras was the man in possession of the number one shirt, and he would be keeping it if no new faces came in. He wasn't a very reliable keeper, having dropped a clanger in the opening minutes of the Hartberg game (fortunately for him, we came back to win 2-1), but the less said of his backup, nineteen year old Kevin Fend, the better. I would try and pick up a keeper if I could, if not immediately then at the end of the season. Defenders: On the right hand side, the man who had played most games for me was Gilles Ganahi. On the bright side, he was just nineteen, so filled one of the three mandatory slots for players under 21. However, he was probably the weakest player in the side. I had two better options for that position, but Jurgen Pichomer was required further forward and captain Patrick Pircher would play in the centre of the defence. Starting alongside him was Russian Gennady Nizhogordov, probably the team's best player and a rock. Their backup consisted of Andreas Simma, a twenty year old inexplicably valued at a million pounds, who would be sold if I could get anywhere near that amount for him, as well as Matias Sereinig and Mustafa Kara, both of whom could also cover at left back. The first choice left back was Enrico Pfister, who was solid but not spectacular. Midfield: The four options for the two central midfield slots made this position appear relatively strong. However, none of the four players were particularly gifted, and all were roughly of the same level. Matias Olz and loanee Jurgen Prutsch would compete for the more defensive role, as a rule, and twenty one year old Matias Koch would fight it out with the more experienced Manfred Pamminger for the creative spot. On the right wing, the options included Jurgen Pichomer, who was first choice in that position and would arguably be first choice in both full back positions (if he could play three positions at once!!). His backup was another loanee, Mario Kreimer, and the perpetually injured Andreas Lienhart, also on loan. The opposite flank would be occupied by Phillip Netzer, the squad's best player, who could also play in the centre if necessary. Sturm Graz's Patrick Scherrer would provide cover. Strikers: Up top, the clear first choice pairing would be Patrick Burger and Andreas Bammer. Although not by any means too good for the division, the fact that their backups were both in their teens and clearly not good enough for the team made the decision very easy for me. The final member of the squad was Butrint Vishjal. He had been deeply offended when I replaced him as captain, having a hissy fit and eventually demanding to leave the club. He was no great loss, and was transfer listed - I had decided never to play him. Transfer Progress: The plan was to try and get rid of as much of the deadwood in the reserves as possible (particularly the foreign players). I would offer out the million pound rated defender, as the funds would be very useful, and see what I could get, particularly up front to offer some competition to Burger and Bammer and in goal. Ideally, I'd like to recruit Austrian, as we're only allowed 3 foreigners in the matchday squad, and our Russian defender will be one of them. We managed to get £35,000 for troublemaker Vishjal, and £750,000 plus healthy sell on clauses for our overpriced centreback. Plus, I got a bit more off the wage bill by offloading three reserve players to lower division clubs on free transfers. Incoming transfers were slightly less successful - the previous manager had arranged for Luis Fuentes, a Chilean (and therefore foreign!) thirty-eight year old centre back. He wasn't a bad player, and he was free, but we wouldn't renew his contract (which luckily would expire at the end of the season). My first signing was Ze Adriano - yet another central defender - but I couldn't resist, as he was even better than our Russian, was also free, and at just 24 would only get better. My final signing was Cyriac Gohi Bi, a striker on loan from Standard Liege until the end of the season. He was a cut above my two first choice players, and would hopefully bring out the best in them. So, not quite what I intended. Only three new faces, two of which will leave at the end of the season, and all of them foreign. No keeper recruited (there was nothing on the market). However, Ze Roberto is class, and I also managed to pick up a few players who would join us at the end of the season. I won't bore you with the details, but two of them have been playing regularly for the league leaders in problem positions for me and the third looks like a very good prospect. Other News: We played a few moneyspinning friendlies, losing most of them to Premier Division opposition but making good money in the process. There was also plenty of interest in me - it's surprising how much attention four wins from six games in the Austrian first division can get you. I denied interest in jobs at Portsmouth and NAC Breda, but applied for a job just across the border in Switzerland. Grasshopper reportedly had me as the hot favourite to drag them out of the relegation zone in the Swiss Superleague, but I found out when I received the rejection letter that the press weren't always accurate with their rumours. The board were understandably unhappy with me, but a public apology went a little way in repairing the damage. So, at Altach for the foreseeable future, and on with the second half of the season... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanco Posted January 13, 2010 Author Share Posted January 13, 2010 March & April Summary: 6/3: Altach 1-0 FC Lustentau 12/3: SKNV St Polten 0-0 Altach 19/3: Altach 2-0 Salzburg Juniors 26/3: Dombim 1-3 Altach 30/3: First Vienna FC 1894 0-1 Altach 2/4: Austria Lustentau 2-1 Altach 6/4: Admira 1-0 Altach 9/4: Altach 4-1 Hartberg 16/4: Altach 2-0 Austria Amatuare 23/4: Gratkorn 1-1 Altach 30/4: Altach 2-2 Wacker Insbruck There were plenty of good results for us in these couple of months - beating the Salzburg reserves team so comfortably was a massive result and an excellent performance. We also proved that we could grind out the wins, several one goal victories bearing this out. The consecutive defeats were a slight worry - although Admira are a good side, I was disappointed with losing both to them and Lustentau. We hit a couple of draws at the end of the month, relinquishing a 2-0 lead against Wacker, so we'll have to pick up the concentration for the last few games. The league table shows our massive improvement since I took over in October - with four games to go we are just three points of second place. That doesn't matter, as there is just the one promotion spot, but it's a massive improvement from the relegation place we occupied back then. I can't see Admira staying up next year - they've lost two of their first team to me for next season, and a number of others are leaving. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanco Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 May Summary: 4/5: FC Lustentau 1-1 Altach 7/5: Salzburg Juniors 0-2 Altach 14/5: Altach 3-0 First Vienna DC 1894 29/5: Altach 1-1 SKNV St Polten An unbeaten month, which helped push us further up the table. A couple of great wins in the middle - Salzburg Jrs are a good side, and we played one of the best half hours of football I've ever seen on FM to go 3-0 up early on against First Vienna. We should have beaten Lustentau, equalising on the 65th minute, but we couldn't turn twenty five minutes of constant pressure against ten men into a goal. The last game of the season was a bit of a dead rubber, but I was still bitter about the dropped points. That was it for the year - season summary to follow shortly. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanco Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 Season Summary: Cup Results: We were dumped out of the Austrian Cup in the second round, before I arrived, so nothing to do with me League Table: Not bad, considering that I arrived after twelve games with the team on just nine points. Had I been in charge since the start of the season, and continued with a similar points to games ratio, then we would have won the title by eight points. That's my aim for next year, should I not receive an offer from elsewhere that tempts me. Not much strengthening required, I don't think - perhaps a new keeper, a striker to replace my Ivorian loanee who returned to Standard, and a little more squad depth. Oh, and I have absolutely no idea why Salzburg Juniors got relegated - the only relegation playoff was between Lustentau and a lower division team. Perhaps they aren't letting reserve teams play in this league any more? Who knows? Awards: Fans' Player Of The Year: Andreas Bammer Andreas certainly deserved this - comfortably top scorer, and provided a bit of class up top. Having said that, Jurgen Pichorner would certainly have run him close had he not had a poor patch of three or four games in March/April Best Eleven: I'm going to ignore the game generated one - it gave a first team slot to someone who made one appearance??? GK: Martin Kobras DR: Patrick Pirchner DC: Ze Adriano DC: Gennady Nizhegordov DL: Enrico Pfister MR: Jurgen Pichorner MC: Mattias Olz MC: Mattias Koch ML: Phillip Netzer ST: Andreas Bammer ST: Cyriac Gohi Bi Honourable mentions got to Manfred Pamminger, Gilles Ganahi and Patrick Burger Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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