Big Club, Small Country - Challenge

[jimbowmanuk]

Just run a quick test to see if worth carrying my save on with Montserrat. I have run my save on for 3 years to see how many players are coming through at other clubs. Only 15 players available for Montserrat in my database at the moment. Decided it was going to take way to long before the international job became available and will be starting this again with a more viable nation. So...

Former Gambian international Simone Finke takes charge at Man City. Was undecided about whether to go with a big club or start at a lower club for more of a challenge. In the end I figured to go for the cash and the big club to try and get some decent players through straight away. Chose City as they have the players to fit into the formation I play. Chose Gambia simply because FM legend Cherno Samba is eligible. Going to be my first signing

Good luck with Gambia SBB, unfortunately Montserrat is one of those nations that SI don't have enough info on the players leading to only 11 being in the database

[Biscotti]

Disappointing to see people having to restart their games. I've just had my first intake and was disappointed to see no Liechtensteiner players come through.

I notice my DB is also lacking in players, but I'm pretty sure I could just turn on the swiss leagues to fix that one so that's what I might do.

[BS_8]

Curacao would have been amazing in the Dutch league as so many are dual nationality.

I've come across a lot of them.

Same with Surinam. I just think a European test would bring the greatest reward / most frustration, I may not have succeeded by the time FM13 comes out, but I'll give it my best shot.

Vamos Andorra!

[ri916]

how many players in the db do you need to manage a country?

[jimbowmanuk]

how many players in the db do you need to manage a country?

The minimums usually between 70 and 80 players but I think it takes positions into account aswell so if there are only 2 goalkeepers I don't think its possible to manage them

[ri916]

70-80! :O so unless you take rubbish san marino who seem to have a decent pool of players in the game (or another team like this) you have to produce loads of players before you can manage them, if they only have 10-20 players in the db?

[BS_8]

It's a good challenge and a long term one, creating a large pool of players is easier than getting enough quality players for San Marino to compete in Europe, let alone the world.

Then a lot of countries have dual nationalities like Curcao, Netherland Antilles and Surinam with Holland, you can load Holland to help I'd assume?

Also depends how much you want to get into your game, you can holiday large chunks until you get the national players you want?

I've got my first Andorran youngster and found a good Andorran coach from the 5 Andorran staff on the game.

Hopefully that will help my cause.

It could be a very long came before I even become competitive, let alone qualify.

[jimbowmanuk]

Curacao is now the name for the Netherland Antilles, I loaded the dutch league in that save but the player numbers never increased for any nationality including second. It concerned me that even if I got enough players back to play as them if a few retired then the game would probably sack me due to lack of players, just like it does if you get relegated to a non playable league

[BS_8]

I had NA on my mind after Curcao, apologies. I wasn't sure but put it instead! Loving the challenge at the moment. Trying to flood my club with Andorrans where I can.

Has anyone noticed if they come through other academies in your league at all or just the club you're managing?

[ShyBaldBuddhist]

When I was trying it with Montserrat there weren't any coming through at other clubs until I added the English leagues. If you are after Andorrans may be worth loading the Spanish leagues. Still may not get many through but it should help.

On another note I have started again. Haven't liked the English league on any save so far on FM12 and wasnt enjoying it at City. I have taken Biscotti's advice and have swanned over to Belarus to take over at Dinamo Minsk. I have taken Belrusian nationaility too so hopefully the challenge should be achievable. Only about half way through the season and this save looks to have legs already. Some decent talent at the club, hopefully the youth intake will be as good as the facilities.

[jimbowmanuk]

When I was trying it with Montserrat there weren't any coming through at other clubs until I added the English leagues. If you are after Andorrans may be worth loading the Spanish leagues. Still may not get many through but it should help.

On another note I have started again. Haven't liked the English league on any save so far on FM12 and wasnt enjoying it at City. I have taken Biscotti's advice and have swanned over to Belarus to take over at Dinamo Minsk. I have taken Belrusian nationaility too so hopefully the challenge should be achievable. Only about half way through the season and this save looks to have legs already. Some decent talent at the club, hopefully the youth intake will be as good as the facilities.

Good luck in Belarus, I think the harder part of that challenge may be trying to win the champions league. There is a club in Belarus in the lower divisions with 20 for all the youth stuff so they produce some of the best you nation has seen

[ri916]

where can you find out how many players of a certain nationality there are? the player search doesnt show them all due to scouting restrictions do they?

[jimbowmanuk]

where can you find out how many players of a certain nationality there are? the player search doesnt show them all due to scouting restrictions do they?

I went through the editor database to get the initial amount, but you should be able to get them all when you do a search in game as you have 100% knowledge of your nation

[18Rabbit]

Since I had barely started and the DB updated today, I restarted with the 12.2 DB. Still Finnish at Inter though.

[jimbowmanuk]

Since I had barely started and the DB updated today, I restarted with the 12.2 DB. Still Finnish at Inter though.

No problem

I know the challenge has had a few teething problems but we seem to be getting over those hurdles now, I'm sure there were a few little problems when the small club to big club challenges started too.

Just about to post on my 1st Panamanians

[jimbowmanuk]

Real Madrid/Panama - Youth Intake - 2011/12

Youth Intake

Emanuel Herrera

Javier Torres

Torres doesn't look like much of a player but Herrera has a lot of promise, also he solves a real problem for me as my reserve Keeper is banging on about wanting 1st team football so now I can tell him to do one and put Herrera as my back-up between the sticks

[jimbowmanuk]

Now that the new patch is in I've run a quick check of the database and some nations have gained more players from the quick check I've just done,for example Botswana have 10 more players since the update, so at some point tomorrow I'll update the nations on the opening post

[brettney1980]

Brettney's Manchester United Sri Lankan Adventure: Youth Players 2nd batch!

Man Utd Youth;

Just the 1 Sri Lankan player once again nowhere near as good as last seasons either ... We are also already on a Treble for the season Community Shield, Club World Cup and League Cup ... Still no sign of the Sri Lankan job coming up.

Gnanasena Hewage Profile|Gnanasen Hewage Coach Report

[rlipscombe]

eally interesting challenge mate and one i am tempted by. will have a think about it and maybe have a couple of little plays with it see what happens. hope it takes off for you.

[jimbowmanuk]

brettney1980 - you might have another season at the earliest to wait before the Sri Lanka job becomes available, I've noticed that international managers don't seem to get sacked til after the 2014 World Cup

rlipscombe - Cheers for the support, I came up with it cause I always try a save with a big club but usually start losing interest after about 4 seasons so decided this would keep me more interested in carrying on a save, also there are very few challenges out there where you can take over one of the giants straight from the off.

[brettney1980]

brettney1980 - you might have another season at the earliest to wait before the Sri Lanka job becomes available, I've noticed that international managers don't seem to get sacked til after the 2014 World Cup

I can live with that ... I should of won every trophy possible with Utd by then at this rate

[glennuk]

Hmm thinking about Kenya as I used to live there, Venezuela as I live near there, and Qatar as I may soon be moving there.

But great challenge with a great twist LOVE IT

[duffy89]

Sounds like a good challenge, might give this a pop when my current save dies down.

Turning Qatar into a good team in time for WC '22 sounds like a good idea!

[ShyBaldBuddhist]

Herrera looks a decent prospect Jimbo. A little eccentric maybe but should prove to good enough back up to Casillas

[glennuk]

The new Manager of Barcelona has been announced as Kenyan International Glenn Crane.

The former defender has 25 caps to his name with one solitary goal.

Retired early due to a serious Knee Injury and becomes the youngest high profile manager in History.

[brettney1980]

Brettney's Manchester United Sri Lankan Adventure: Season 2012/13

Another hatfull of trophys but still no sign of Sri Lanka dropping their current manager ... Is there no way i can offer my services!?

Squad Stats

Transfers - Luka Modric (overpaid for him i guess) for £52m was the big signing of the summer.

Competitions Info;

Community Shield: Won!

European Super Cup: Won!

World Club Championship: Won!

League Cup: Won!

FA Cup: Lost In Semis.

Premier League: Lost on Goal Difference!

Champions League: Lost in Final!

Youth Watch: Mohamed Jiffry Mohamed Anees

End of season news ... Ryan Giggs retires, Wayne Rooney wants to leave

EDITL Forgot Champions League!

[Biscotti]

2011/12 season summary

League: Winners

French Cup: Quarter-Finals

Coupe de la Ligue: Winners

Champions League: Quarter Finals

A strong season, but I do feel we could certainly have done better. More disappointing, though was the lack of any Liechtensteiner regens coming through the academy this season. That being said, there are a few pretty good french prospects, so it's not like I've not got some youngsters to nurture

[ShyBaldBuddhist]

Good luck in Belarus, I think the harder part of that challenge may be trying to win the champions league. There is a club in Belarus in the lower divisions with 20 for all the youth stuff so they produce some of the best you nation has seen

Don't think the board are going to help me along the way to CL glory either. They have already sold two of my better players from under me due to receiving what they thought were good offers. I also had agreed a fee for Pablo Mouche, who looks like he would be ideal as one of my front men, but the board are being tight with the wages. Even being £10k under budget they wouldn't allow me to offer more than £1.9k and he wanted £3.5k.

On the plus side they have agreed to invest some of the funds raised into youth and training facilities so hopefully we will have a decent bunch come through

[jimbowmanuk]

Real Madrid/Panama - End of Season - 2011/12

Everything almost went to plan this season but a small blip towards the end cost us 2 trophies. In the league we were toe to toe with Barcelona for the most part but a couple of bad results for them meant we had enough of a gap to afford any slips and we took advantage winning the league by 3 points. In Europe we coasted through the group games to set up a game against Benfica, fairly easy games to win 6-2 on aggregate, the draw pitted us against Barcelona in the quarters and we lost the 1st leg 2-0 at the Nou Camp a week later when they came to visit we thrashed them 5-0 and advanced to the semi's. Porto stood between us and the final a routine 2-0 win at home before travelling to Portugal where we were disallowed a goal in the opening minutes, this clearly spurred on Porto who beat us 3-0 putting us out of the Champions league 3-2. The Spanish cup went to plan to begin with 9-0 agg against Cadiz, 4-1 agg against Sevilla, 5-3 agg against Valencia and 5-2 agg against Ath Madrid put us through to the final against Athletic Bilbao. We just couldn't find the target and had to come from behind to force extra-time, nothing happened over those 30 mins and it went to penalties where we went down 3-2. A note of interest is that in all saves I've had on FM12 I have yet to do the League/Cup double hopefully that can change next season.

League Table

Champions League

Spanish Cup

In Panama news, they reached the 3rd round in North American World Cup Qualifying but are currently bottom of their group which includes Mexico

Season	| League	| Cup		| Europe
--------------------------------------------------------
2011/12	| 1st		| Runners-up	| CL semi-Finals
--------------------------------------------------------

[BS_8]

After a lot of work on Ajax and Andorra, Title winners 2 seasons and Cup winners and despite an Andorran coach, I received just 1 Andorran by my 4th intake.

I think it was unlucky, there were a few U18s at Andorran sides but nothing to shout about.

I think the task of it all would have been too much, so I have sadly given up (maybe too easily) on that game. I just don't think I could have even competed with other European teams let alone manage to Qualify and win a World Cup.

I like this challenge though, so didn't want to bin my enthusiasm though. I decided as no on has take Surinam yet, I think I will, but I will still be Ajax. I will update later as I am busy, but I have already had 2 Surinam players. One who could excite world football and have another U19 who has Surinam as his second nation.

I think I may have a bit more luck with this game.

Sorry for cheating/failing at my first attempt. Onwards and Upwards.

[Ant]

This seems like a really good challenge, decided to go with the team with the BEST Youth Facilities in the world!

RGUOR Minsk playing in the Belarusian Lower League (4th Tier) I haven't edited them, this really is how they appear in the game.

I'm a former Mongolian International Ant Fletcher with 25 caps and 6 goals to my name, makes me the 2nd highest goal scorer in Mongolian history.

[jimbowmanuk]

This seems like a really good challenge, decided to go with the team with the BEST Youth Facilities in the world!

RGUOR Minsk playing in the Belarusian Lower League (4th Tier) I haven't edited them, this really is how they appear in the game.

I'm a former Mongolian International Ant Fletcher with 25 caps and 6 goals to my name, makes me the 2nd highest goal scorer in Mongolian history.

Good luck Ant, and I know you haven't edited them I chose not to include them in the OP but they have 20 for everything

[ShyBaldBuddhist]

Dinamo Minsk/Belarus 2012 Season Review

Squad - League - Cup

Good first season domestically as we did the double. Really struggled to find a goal scorer in the first half of the season. Forked out £250k for Du Bala in the summer transfer window and he made all the difference. He notched 19 goals in 23 starts to ensure we topped the league. The cup is quite a strange affair in Belarus as it is spread over two seasons. At the start of the season we finished off what was started last year to lift the trophy. We wont be retaining it though as we have already been knocked out on pens to a lower league team. Had quite a tough draw in Europa league qualifiers. We managed to get past Red Star 4-1 on aggregate in the 3rd qualifying round. Basel were too strong in the next round though and we went out 4-3 on aggregate. As there is no U-18 squad all youth intake went straight into the reserves. Didn't get any list of candidates so no screenshot of the full bunch. Iliya Ostrikov was the one the ass man picked out as being the best. Doesn't look great but pretty sure we can train him on to become good enough for the reserves at least.

In Belarus news they are currently ranked 68th in the world. They are second bottom of the world cup qualifying group and don't have much chance of progressing with France and Spain in the same group. Hopefully this means the position may become available soon. I am very surprised at the standard of some of the players. Glad I started a game here, gives me some good scouting knowledge for future saves. Some of these players are good enough for mid-lower level premier league and are very cheap.

[18Rabbit]

I think the Finland coach can feel me eying his job. As of Sept 15th of the first season Finland is the "Most Improved Nation" moving up from 75th to 54th in the rankings. *******.

[ShyBaldBuddhist]

Same thing is happening over in Belarus. Since my update they have moved up to 49th in the rankings. Had some great wins over the Czechs, Poland and Slovakia. Think I'll start withdrawing my players to ruin his chances

[Ant]

RUOR Minsk/ Mongolia - Youth Intake - 2011/12

Youth Candidates

Badmaanyambuugiin Dagvasuren Attributes - Badmaanyambuugiin Dagvasuren Coach Report

The only Mongolian of the intake and the lowest potential at just 1* but his name...it's just so "Badman"

[ShyBaldBuddhist]

Brilliant name

[Biscotti]

That name just makes me want to link

Anyways, aside from that, I don't remember the last time I played as a team where I had cash to splash with. Only mid-way through July and already £24m spent. Still got another £5m or so in the budget too, which I'm using to chase youngsters with.

[18Rabbit]

Well, Fnord Fjord may get lucky and get a vacancy on the Finnish international team, mainly because the team has been plagued with injuries and has started losing but, I ain't picky.

[dinthead]

Decided to see what I can do with Macau.

Darren Denton has taken over the reigns at AC Milan.

EDIT: Can we take the national team jobs at youth levels?

[ShyBaldBuddhist]

Don't see why not. It can only help to develop your players and get the national job in the end.

[BS_8]

After a lot of work on Andorra, unfortunately the game has gone to rest.

I decided that I will be Surinam as there is more chance of progressing as a nation than Andorra ever will.

For the purpose of the challenge, I took over Ajax in February to find that they were sat in 13th in the Eredivisie.

Not wanting to mess with too much too soon and hoping I'd keep my job, I went on holiday to get rid of the nightmare season.

Here is my Surinam profile:

Denith Van Hoof

My Surinamese players:

Mark Jap A Joe

Carlos Kinsiani

The both have Dutch as second nation. I have one youngster that has Surinamese as a second nationality too:

Stefano Denswil

Ajax Season 2011/12:

Eredivisie 13th

Champions League: 3rd in Group

Euro Cup: 1st Knockout Round Ajax 1-3 Valencia (agg).

Dutch Cup: 3rd Round, Ajax 0-3 Sparta

Not sure who was in charge, but possibly one of the worst seasons for Ajax ever? PSV 3rd, Twente 10th and Feyenoord 11th.

A weird Dutch Season. Roll on next year and the Surinamese invasion.

[glennuk]

So i ask my board to buy me Neymar.....they say no.

I ask them to buy Thiago Silva from milan, they stump up 34.5 million and bring me the centre back on a silver platter.

Pique and Thiago Silva CBs With Puyol to rotate in, or take the RB role from Dani Alves on occasions, and Abidal or Adriano (or hopefully soon Aly Cissokho) on the left.

Predicting alot of clean sheets!

Forza Barca!

PS; Also buying Mcdonald Mariga, the only kenyan worth anything!

[letissierandhenryaregreat]

Curacao is now the name for the Netherland Antilles, I loaded the dutch league in that save but the player numbers never increased for any nationality including second. It concerned me that even if I got enough players back to play as them if a few retired then the game would probably sack me due to lack of players, just like it does if you get relegated to a non playable league

That's incorrect. Curacao was an island in the Netherlands Antilles but the Netherlands Antilles split so Curacao and Sint Maarten became constituent countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba became special municipalities of the Netherlands.

Sorry about that. *nerdy time over*

[Oktober]

This topic intrigues me... I havent really got properly into FM12 quite yet, but something I always like to try is having a go at San Marino, both the club and the country. They start from the smallest beginnings... but with some decent effort and guidance, they can definitely provide a pretty huge return...

[SetUpMan50]

Introducing Christopher Chagrulaf, former Guamanian International player and the new manager of the New England Revolution in the MLS,

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/600/christopherchagrulafove.png/

I also applied for every Guam national team post and got the U-21 gig!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/29/guamstaffstaff.png/

[Taunton]

Great challenge. Will follow this thread with great interest. Good luck everyone!

[jimbowmanuk]

Good to see more people taking part, International youth management is perfectly acceptable as it gets your foot in the door with the FA

[toonbalmy87]

I am going to try to do it wit Luxembourg

And be the coach of Monaco

[letissierandhenryaregreat]

Since I have a career updates thread that is taking up a lot of my time, is it alright if I just holiday through seasons and only play international matches (when I get the job)?