[FM10] I'm a Northerner, Get Me Out Of Here

[mackemforever]

Database - 10.3

Leagues Loaded (all available leagues for each nation) - Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Holland, Norway, Poland, Ireland, Romania, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales.

Game Start Date - July 2009

Database Size - Large + All players of national reputation in Europe

Approximate Player Count - 140,000

Use Real Players - Yes

Add Key Staff - Yes

Allow transfer budgets in first window - Yes

Enable Player Attribute Masking - Yes

This is my first journeyman save on FM10, and actually my first since FM06 and hopefully will keep me going till FM11 comes out.

[mackemforever]

The Job Search

Manager Profile

Profile

Job Applications

FC Lviv - Ukrainian First League

Algard Fotballklubb - Norwegian Second Division Group 3

Club Atletico Ciudad de Lorqui - Spanish Second Division B4

C.P. Cacereno - Spanish Second Division B2

Karsspor - Turkish Second Division Phase 1 Group Stage Group C

Mako FC - Hungarian Division II Group A

Nardo FK - Norwegian Second Division Group 2

Sandnes Ulf - Norwegian Second Division Group 3

Skjetten Fotball - Norwegian Second Division Group 1

Warta Poznan - Polish First Division

FC Bleid - Belgian Third Division B

R Excelsior Virton - Belgian Third Division B

KFUM-Kameratene Oslo - Norwegian Second Division Group 1

Contract Offers

FC Bleid

Wage - £0

End of Contract - June 2010

Transfer Budget - £0

Wage Budget - £3,000

As FC Bleid were the only team that offered me a contract I'm accepting it. While they are a pretty terrible team and it will be a very difficult year, its a step in the right direction and you've got to start somewhere.

[mackemforever]

2009/2010 Pre-Season

Club Information

Overview

Facilities

Affiliated Clubs

League

Rules - Nothing unusual in the league rules except for the disciplinary rules. It looks like things could get difficult if you've got any players who pick up a few yellow cards. I personally think its a good rule as it forces players not to dive into tackles, although at this level that is often the only way to win tackles!

Initial Assessment

Staff

Well, they are all pretty awful, and I will look to replace all of them, however at the moment I'm not going to get rid of anybody as I'm not sure how good the staff I'll be able to attract to the club will be.

Goalkeepers

Gerald Brolet - Apparently my best keeper which makes me a bit worried. Looks like he is an OK shot stopper but could be prone to making daft mistakes, but hopefully his good right foot will be able to help us get moves going.

Remy Poncelet - No future at the club, nowhere near good enough for a first team spot and with almost no room to improve.

Jeremy Vanneroy - Jus about good enough for a backup role, but I really hope I won't have to play him as I really don't think he is good enough, even for this level.

Defenders

Mathieu Godart - Not great by a long stretch but is the best I've got at right back. If I can't find anybody better then he will have a place in my starting XI but hopefully I'll be able to bring somebody better in.

Ghislain Favier - Another right back, another poor player, and somehow is behind Godart in the pecking order. Very unlikely that he will get much playing time at all this year.

Gregory Muller - Goodbye.

Mamadou Coulibaly - I'm a bit spoilt at left back. This guy is my first choice and I think he could be very good this year. He's good physically, mentally and has all the right attributes to do a good job both at the back and going forwards.

Sebastien Do Rosario - Will be one of my starting central defenders. He can tackle and is good in the air, works damn hard and hopefully can do a good job despite his lack of pace. I personally think that he could be very good as I believe that hard work and good knowledge of the game can make up for a lack of pace.

Mouslago Camara - Looks like a fairly solid defender, not great on the ball but can head, mark and tackle. Will probably get a fair amount of time on the pitch this year although may lose out as I would prefer to have Rosario paired up with a quicker defender.

Giovanni Vanaschen - Backup for the backups backup. Will only set foot on the pitch if every single other defender in the squad gets injured.

Quentin Vandermaelen - A weaker defender than Camara but will probably start ahead of him as I always try and use a quick defender to play further up the pitch and try and cut out any dangerous looking passes, so his poor tackling hopefully won't be that much of a problem.

Julien Gerouville - Another OK defender, nothing exceptional but solid enough and will probably be rotated fairly frequently. Is likely to get a fair bit of playing time in the DM spot though as he is good in that position and he is one of only 2 players in my squad who are capable in that position.

Gregory Servais - Another good left back, decent enough defensively and pretty good on the attack. At this level his pace down the wing should cause problems and it looks like he could be capable of putting a good final ball into the area.

Mathieu Detaile - Awful, but is still in contention for the right back spot due to the lack of talent at that position in my squad.

Midfielders

Adil Vanaschen - And the award for worst player in the squad goes to........... This guy.

Gaetano Lamonaca - Not too awful, not good, about the best I've got as an AMC.

Gael Arend - Pretty much identical to Lamonaca, not good but could be worse. Will probably get some playing time as an AMC but not much.

Sebastien Cognart - Pretty awful and doesn't even play in a position I will be using, will be gone by the end of the week.

Kevin Leveneur - Not great but could do OK as a quickish striker.

Strikers

Jeremy Falcione - No real strengths and will just end up being backup.

Kevin Martin - Like Falcione but worse.

Franckie Quere - The target man in my squad. Is big, OK on the ball, strong, good in the air, can finish, and will definitely be the focal point of most of my attacks. Will hopefully work well with the pace of Cognart.

Nathan Raguet - The worst striker in my squad.

Squad Summary

Needs plenty of work doing to bring the squad up to scratch. Plenty of choice and enough talent in defence, an OK keeper and an OK couple of strikers but the squad does have some major downsides. I don't have any central midfielders, and I need 2 decent ones to make any tactic work, not got any strong AMCs and need backup for my strikers and keeper.

Next Update - Transfers & pre-season matches

[rancer890]

That's a horrible group of players mackem! Good luck anyways. At least you don't have to pay compensation when you release those players.

[mackemforever]

2009/2010 Pre-Season Continued

Transfers

Transfers - Not as many as I was expecting to make and something I messed up a bit. I forgot to check the transfer rules and it turns out that the 9 players who I agreed to sign who all play in the same league as me won't join till July 2010. The rules are pretty odd and annoyingly stop you from signing any players from the same division or a lower division until July 2010, but strangely it doesn't stop teams from higher divisions stealing your best players like the b***ards at RFC Liege did with my best defender.

Current Squad - I decided not to release any players as at an amateur side I always assume that any time a player puts in some good performance they will get stolen by another club, and by keeping all my existing players to take my squad up to 32 players (exclude Coulibaly from the screenshot), 46 if you count my youth squad. There isn't a lot of talent in there but hopefully there is enough to keep me in the league.

Friendlies

Friendlies - A good bunch of results although I still don't think we are in any way shape or form a good football team. All of our opponents are from much lower leagues than we are and I think if we had lost any of them I would have had to retire due to the shame of it.

Next Update

The season begins.

[DSYoungEsq]

Note to self: When start in Belgium, bring lower league! <lol>

[mackemforever]

August 2009

Belgian Cup 3rd Round: RUW Ciney 0-0 (1-3 P) FC Bleid - A game that should have been an easy win for us against a team playing even further down the league system than we are but we made very hard work of it. We were the best team for the whole match but just couldn't find the goal, but luckily we held our nerve during the shootout at the end.

Belgian Cup 4th Round: FC Bleid 1-0 KVSK - By all rights we should have been easily beaten in this game as KVSK are predicted to do well in the division above me but we put in a great performance, even if we are obviously lacking at the front and havn't quite figured out how to find the back of the net yet. The winning goal came in the 88th minute when Csaba Skilosi found himself on the end of a cross and got a bit lucky when his header came off the post, hit the back of the Bjorn Sengier in the KVSK goal and ended up in the back of the net.

League: UR Namur 1-1 FC Bleid - First league match and we are put up against one of the league favourites, so things could have been easier to start with! I thought it might be a good day for us when Sebastien Do Rosario popped up at a corner in the 10th minute to give us the lead. After that we spent most of the match on the back foot but managed to maintain our advantage until the 76th minute when Yann Njia caught Servais in possession in our area and had the simple job of slotting home from 10 yards out.

Belgian Cup 5th Round: Aalst 2-1 FC Bleid - Playing against another 3rd division side but one of the best sides at this level, so we were expected to struggle but the guys put in a great performance. Either side could have taken the league but it wasn't until the 59th minute that the deadlock was broken by Danny van Bakel when he latched onto a low ball across the area by Lamonaca to give us the lead. It only took 8 minutes for Aalst to draw level when my keeper chose to come for a cross but failed to get anywhere near it, leaving Kristof Kestens to head into an empty goal. Both sides threatened to take the lead in the last 20 minutes but neither could and it went to extra time. It was pretty dull from then on as both sides were obviously very tired and both teams were just taking potshots from long range but unfortunately in stoppage time Laurent Depoitre got lucky with one of those long range efforts and gave Aalst the victory they were expected to get.

League: Bleid 0-0 Woluwe-Zaventem - A match against another relegation candidate and one of those games that we need to win, and while we were the better side we just couldn't find the net, something that I feel might become a big problem this season.

League: US Centre 0-2 Bleid - Goals! 2 of them! I think i'm dreaming. A great performance, we controlled the match and deserved to take the 3 points. I was expecting to have to watch another 90 minutes of football without my side even coming close to scoring but in the 52nd minute Rafael scored an absolute beauty, beating both central defenders and chipping the keeper. He added a second in the 68th minute with an absolute screamer from 30 yards out.

League Table - Too early to really judge how the season will go but if we can stay around where we are right now I will be pretty happy at the end of the year.

Belgian Cup 5th Round - All of the 3rd division clubs dropping like flies, and no upsets, all too predictable.

Player of the Month - Rafael - I'm not going to lie to you here, I'm giving this to him purely because he was the first player to score a goal from open play.

[mackemforever]

September 2009

League: Bleid 1-0 Tongeren

A very good performance everywhere outside of their area. We have been doing a great job of controlling the middle of the park and restricting chances against us but have really struggled to score goals. Our only goal in this match came in the 16th minute when Julien Gerouville received the ball 30 yards from goal but managed to find the top corner perfectly.

League: Peruwelz-Mouscron 0-0 Bleid

A pretty dull match for everybody involved. Neither team really looked likely to score and I think a draw was a fair result as neither side did enough to deserve to take 3 points.

League: Bleid 2-0 Dessel

Another pretty good performance but for once we managed to hit the back of the net. It didn't take long for us to take the lead with Sebastien Do Rosario heading home from a corner in the 7th minute. After that we continued to push for more goals but were kept at bay until the 74th minute when Franckie Quere scored his first of the season when he got himself on the end of a Falcione cross to head home from close range.

League: RC Mol-Wezel 1-2 Bleid

A tricky match but arguably one of our best performances so far. On paper it was fairly even but we created lots of great chances and until the 73rd minute when Gregory Servais was sent off we were dominating the match. Rafael gave us the lead in the 15th minute when he timed a run to perfection to get onto the end of a pass from van Bakel before rounding the keeper and sliding the ball home. It took another 24 minutes for us to get a 2nd goal, again through Rafael but this time he got himself on the end of a low cross by Quere, leaving him with an easy finish from 5 yards. After that we started to look really confident, knocking the ball around really well and Mol-Wezel didn't have a single chance until the 60th minute when Servais handballed in the area and Kurt Van De Paar found the net from 12 yards. 13 minutes later Servais got himself sent off and we spent the last half hour on the back foot with Mol-Wezel having 7 chances in 30 minutes, but we managed to hold on for a well deserved 3 points.

League: Bleid 2-0 Verviers

We seem to finally be learning how to score and our performances seem to keep improving. Rafael's run of form continues and in the 23rd minute he picked the ball up 10 yards outside the area, ran straight through 2 defenders and beat the keeper from 15 yards out. Our second goal came a few minutes after half time with Franckie Quere outjumping his marker to get onto the end of a cross by Godart, and from 6 yards out the keeper didn't stand a chance.

League: Olympic Charleroi 0-2 Bleid

A tough match, with our opponents predicted to win the league, but we put in a great performance and deserved to leave with all 3 points. Things were pretty even for most of the first half but in the 38th minute we took the lead when the keeper came for a free kick, completely missed it, and left Sebastien Do Rosario with an empty net to head into. After the break we turned things up a notch and could have easily had another couple of goals in the first 20 minutes after half time, but we missed several good chances although in the 90th minute Franckie Quere got himself on the end of a long ball by Lamonaca, beat the last defender, and neatly finished the 1 on 1 chance he was left with.

League Table - Considering we were expected to finish rock bottom of the league we are doing brilliantly. We have figured out how to score goals and our defence is still rock solid. If things continue like this and we can avoid too many injuries we have a good chance of making the playoffs this year.

Player of the Month - Sebastien Do Rosario - Has been an absolute rock at the heart of my defence this month, only losing out in 1 tackle and winning most of his headers. Unfortunately he is only with us until January but if he can continue this kind of form until then I will be very happy.

Other News

Sebastien Do Rosario Transfer - Do Rosario has agreed a transfer to Jura Sud in the 4th tier of French football, to ply his trade as a (semi) professional footballer. Its a shame to lose him as he is one of the best defenders in the division, arguably the best defender, so I was expecting him to move on at some point, but at least we get a couple more months of him before he moves on.

[fcunitedfan]

You're doing great with that team. I was going to do something along these lines as I want to give my FC United save a rest for a few days so I don't get bored with it. Problem with me trying to load all those leagues is that because it takes a while, Windows 7 thinks the program isn't responding when it actually is, just very slowly.

Edit: Finally got into the actual game, and started unemployed. Applied for plenty of low level teams, and guess who wanted me... Yep, FC Bleid!

[mackemforever]

You're doing great with that team. I was going to do something along these lines as I want to give my FC United save a rest for a few days so I don't get bored with it. Problem with me trying to load all those leagues is that because it takes a while, Windows 7 thinks the program isn't responding when it actually is, just very slowly.

Edit: Finally got into the actual game, and started unemployed. Applied for plenty of low level teams, and guess who wanted me... Yep, FC Bleid!

Cool, good luck with that.

Sadly I now can't get into the game at all for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I now know that its not that long till FM11 comes out, and secondly, I'm now completely addicted to Sid Meier's Simgolf!

[fcunitedfan]

I only started playing FM10 a few weeks ago, so it's all still new to me. I'll definitely be playing FM11. Did you get any further with Bleid before you stopped?