Playing Chairman mode - it is possible

[celebritykiller]

I'm normally critical of such ideas, but I like it.

I would like the game expanded in different directions to expand playtime options (especially in career/journeyman games) without need for much extra development work.

Youth Team/Reserve Coach - no transfers ofc, work with what you're given

Director Of Football - transfers, no squad selection/tactics, in charge of scouting network.

Yes each option is limited to an extent, but so is International Management: should that never have been implemented?

[Death.]

3rd season, we're top at mid-February. We had an 8 point gap, which is cut to 2. I fear we're going to throw it away.

We've played great at times, winning games 3-0, 4-0 and 5-0, but if we don't get promoted i'll despair. The team is more than good enough. The top two league scorers are both ours. The top three rated players in the league are all ours.

[Death.]

6 points ahead in 1st with 5 games to go! A 2-1 victory over 2nd placed Cowdenbeath the game before last has tipped the balance.

This could be the season we finally go up...

[Death.]

And... we're promoted!

That was a hard season. Morling kept managing to upset players and it snowballed with other players becoming "upset at the lack of squad harmony. At one point the board were very concerned that he'd "lost the dressing room".

But results were coming nonetheless. I had to sell on 4-5 players and offer other players new contracts to settle the ship a little. One player i sold, a 36-year-old who had been at the club for 9 seasons, had a real benefit to the squad harmony, even to the extent that his transfer would prompt the fans to state so after he'd left.

It was a very good collective performance this season. We were tipped for 3rd, even though i knew we should be pushing for 1st, and we got 1st with three games to spare. What was even more impressive though is our performances in the cups, getting beyond the expected in all three.

So i persisted with the man i chose at the beginning and after two seasons of finishing 3rd and 4th, twice with playoff heartbreak, we've managed to get promotion at the third attempt! I usually just work on a yearly renewal basis, but i've handed Morling and McLean both two year contracts for this.

I'm still not convinced by Morling's man management skills, though, i must admit. But success is success.

[ism-scfc]

I fancied having a go at this, so I've installed myself as DoF at Stockport and have appointed former Wycombe boss John Gorman as manager.

So far so good, just looking to stay up - 20th would be a big success - so top half in mid-october is welcome

[cjmaitland]

I definitly am going to give this a shot. I want to start at the bottom of the english tiers, should be fun. Can you definitly just holiday through (stopping for transfer windows) and not get the sack though?

[Death.]

You might get sacked if your team performs poorly, like you would normally.

But look at it this way: if you perform poorly, it's because you've either signed the wrong players or appointed the wrong manager. And that's your job.

Of course, if you do get sacked you could always just recreate yourself at the club and pretend it didn't happen - you could sack the Assistant instead. Or, you could treat it as you getting sacked as Director of Football/Chairman and try to get a new job at another club.

[momo3289]

Not a fan of the idea! I find it very pointless to go on holiday all the time. I wouldn't like this to be introduced in any future editions of Football Manager.

[ism-scfc]

I fancied having a go at this, so I've installed myself as DoF at Stockport and have appointed former Wycombe boss John Gorman as manager.

So far so good, just looking to stay up - 20th would be a big success - so top half in mid-october is welcome

hmmmm

Only got 40 points all season, but stayed up as there were 4 teams even worse than us!

The league table never lies though, so Gorman keeps his job for now.

[Death.]

My go is certainly showing the benefits of having faith in your manager and giving him a fair crack of the whip...

First Season (09/10) - Third Division

We finished 3rd (out of 10 teams) with 60 points and qualified for the playoffs. We lost in the playoff semi-final on penalties to the 2nd placed team.

Scottish Cup: 4th round

League Cup: 1st round

Challenge Cup: 1st round

Second Season (10/11) - Third Division

We finished 4th this time, again with 60 points and again we qualified for the playoffs. Again, we lost in the playoff semi-final, this time 2-1 on aggregate.

Scottish Cup: 4th round

League Cup: 1st round

Challenge Cup: 2nd round

Third Season (11/12) - Third Division

We finished 1st. In amassing 79 points we took the one and only automatic promotion place.

Scottish Cup: 4th round

League Cup: 2nd round

Challenge Cup: 2nd round

Fourth Season (12/13) - Second Division

We are currently in 1st position, with 65 points after 29 games (of 36). If we win another game we're champions, despite the fact that our start of season expectations were 'avoid relegation'! Indeed, we've somehow performed better than in the season where we won the Third Division.

Scottish Cup: 5th round

League Cup: 1st round

Challenge Cup: Semi-final

The first couple of seasons were steady progress (based off Forfar's previous seasons in real life), culminating ultimately in disappointment. Then we achieved our aim of promotion, before soaring to heights we hadn't even anticipated. I was very close to sacking Morling during the midst of our playoff failure, the second time more so, but, if i had, would we have had the success we're currently enjoying?

My concern now is how the hell we're going to survive in the First Division.

[Death.]

We've just clinched the title with a 1-0 win against Montrose at Montrose... and Montrose are our arch-rivals. The icing on the cake of a surprisingly extremely successful season.

Can't really believe we've managed to win the league in March. I was expecting a relegation scrap! And it should be mentioned that our star striker and captain missed 3 months of the season too. He managed 14 goals in 15 games, which could've been so much more.

[rancer890]

Your career sounds pretty interesting mate. You should post this in the careers forum.

[Koki]

Some people seem to write here without reading what this is actually about. I like the idea and will give it a try!

[toon army 06]

i like the idea but i wish i could watch the matches but have the assitant pick the team ect is that possible.

[The Lambs]

i like the idea but i wish i could watch the matches but have the assitant pick the team ect is that possible.

You can add an unemployed manager and have him watch the matches while your 'chairman' holidays the match.

[Death.]

Okay, first season in Division One and we're struggling. Currently we're 9th after 10 games - there are 10 teams, the bottom team gets relegated and the 9th team goes into a relegation playoff with 2nd-4th from Division Two.

So far we've only won two games. It really is painful to helplessly watch. Especially when we deserve so much from games and get absolutely nothing.

Our minimum expectations could be set as low as 'attempt to avoid relegation', so that underpins the magnitude of our challenge. Even relegation is not really seen as failure.

My aim really is to try and finish 9th if possible and beat the Second Division teams in the playoff to stay up and hopefully build further for next season. Well, my aim is 8th, but that's looking like it'll be difficult at the moment.

[Death.]

Yoooooouuuuu beauty!

We're within a whisker of surviving relegation!

This is how the table looked as we entered the final straight of the season:

6. Clyde         32   -3   42 
7. Dunfermline   32   +3   41 
8. [b]Forfar        [/b]32   -1   39 
[color="DarkOrange"]9. Morton        32   -6   34 [/color]
[color="Red"]10. Raith        32  -15   19 [/color] [color="Red"]R[/color]

Raith had long gone, but the relegation playoff spot was still mathematically being contended between Clyde, Dunfermline, ourselves and Morton. A 4-1 home victory against Clyde, where we came back from 1-0 down, really put us in a good position as in the above. But we had built up a 7 point gap over Morton around November time, which we quickly blew, so i wasn't hedging my bets.

Our next game: Forfar vs. Morton

What a game to be playing at this time of the season. On the one hand, it was in our hands; win, and we'd be just a couple of points from safety. On the other hand, we'd not beaten Morton in the three previous meetings, including being on the end of a 3-0 thumping at their place; lose, and they'd be hot on our tails.

As you can guess, we won. They started much better to be fair, with a lot of possession in and around the final third but were unable to really test our goalkeeper. Then after about 20 minutes it switched and we started to boss things. Again chances were rare in what was proving a tentative game, until on the 40th minute a couple of passes between our midfielders were challenged by a defender, who slid the ball into the path of our striker. He beat the last defender and slotted it home.

We continued to boss the game and on the 75th minute a very nice flowing move saw a perfectly weighted diagonal pass from one striker to the other cut through their defence, which was duly finished by the same player who netted the first goal.

Forfar 2-0 Morton FT

Now after Dunfermline beat Clyde 1-0 as well, we've moved up to 7th in the league, 8 points clear of Morton with three games to go. If we screw this up now i'll be mortified. Though i seriously don't expect Morton to win all three of their games, so it really matters little what we do in that event.

I'm a bit worried about how we're going to strengthen for next season mind. It's difficult to attract players who will take us on another level. And our budget is ridiculous compared to our rivals. Hamilton, who have been near the top of the table, offered me their job at the beginning of the season and set a £2.7m transfer budget. At Forfar we had 28k to spend, which i didn't use because it goes nowhere. Better to stick to free transfers.

[Death.]

Season Four (13/14) - First Division

A 95th minute goal from league winners Hamilton on the final day of the season meant we couldn't finish 7th, but we still managed to avoid relegation by 9 points.

[Olly101]

How did the next season go?