Hungary For Success

[Doumbia]

Hi all, I am new to the forum but I have been browsing FMCU for about three years now. I have read some great careers over the years and I really enjoy reading about people's saves and how they are getting on. People like dafuge, SRL88 and SnakeXe are a few notable examples of my inspiration for starting a thread.

My aims for this save are pretty simple, I will be starting in Hungary and I won't be managing anywhere else. I want to win European trophies with a Hungarian team and maybe later down the line manage the national team and see if I can do any work with them but for the moment my career starts with Szeged 2011. Usually Wikipedia has a wealth of information but as you see there isn't much information about this club.

Here is my set up. As you can see I only have the Hungarian leagues as playable and the rest as view-only. I hope this save game can last until FM13 as I don't plan on starting any other games until then. My policy for signing players will be that I will be signing mainly Hungarian players which is pretty self explanatory and mainly English players because I am English and I think it'd be nice to have some English players playing for me. I don't even know if English players would want to sign for an unknown Hungarian club but we'll see. There is already a Honduran at the club and an Ivorian who I will be keeping hold of.

I will be posting season by season updates, probably a similar layout to dafuge's because I think that it is a very efficient way of summarising your season. As I start finishing seasons and posting regularly any suggestions or improvements on my layout and posting style will be much appreciated. I don't even know if anyone will be interested in reading about my save but I hope there are a few.

The journey begins...

[Doumbia]

Name: Szeged 2011

Nickname - N/A

Founded - 1928

Stadium - Szegedi VSE Stadion

Status - Professional

Media Prediction: 13th out of 16

So this is where it all starts, an unknown Englishman in East Hungary. My aim for the first season is survival first and foremost, anything else will be a bonus. I have been given a transfer budget of 11k and a wage budget of 12k. We are currently spending 2.7k per week on wages so the budget is there to bring players in. This is what my current squad looks like and I'll be looking to bring some new players in so I will post a screenshot of the squad before the first game of the season. I am quite pleased with the squad I have got but I will be looking to bring in at least three new players just to stamp my own authority on the team.

[deltablue]

Hi, and good luck.

[Doumbia]

Thanks, judging by the start I've made, I'll need it.

[SRL88]

Best of luck fella. Looking forward to reading .

[Doumbia]

Thanks. Should have my first season review up within the next hour.

[Doumbia]

Szeged 2011 - Season 2011/12 (Hungarian Division II - East)

League Table

We were predicted 13th so to finish 9th should be deemed as a successful season but I can't help feeling we should have performed better. We probably should have finished higher but a 7-0 loss in the penultimate game made me thinking that this teams needs a lot of rebuilding if we are going to improve next season.

League Positions Graph

As you can see we never really challenged and 9th seemed like a fair position to finish in.

Hungarian Cup

Knocked out by lower league opposition at the first hurdle. I am annoyed for a number of reasons, we were the favourites going into the game and I wanted to chance to test myself against a team from the top division, not to mention the financial benefit. It wasn't to be. Here is the game itself.

Squad

I split these screen shots into positions so you can get a better look at the players. I have two goalkeepers to choose from, both have the potential, but I am thinking of buying an experienced goalkeeper to steady the ship because both keepers are still very young. I think my defence is okay, nowhere near one of the best in the league but I am satisfied with their performance over the season. I'll probably look to promote a youth player to the squad to bolster the numbers rather than sign a new defender. As for the midfield, possibly the strongest area of the squad, I think I'll need to rotate my formations a bit next season if I am going to accommodate all the players. Finally, my attackers. Not much to shout about really, I'll definitely be looking to bring in new strikers in time for the new season. Not really an abundance of goals here which is disappointing but this like is harder than I expected.

Transfers

Considering my transfer budget was only 2k, spending 20k on one player was a big mistake and I won't do it again. All the players I signed were Hungarian and mostly a disappointment. I'll be more careful about who I sign in future. This season was a wake up call really.

Finances

What can I say? The finances aren't looking good. The wage budget isn't looking great though so I'll be looking to sign a lot of frees in the summer rather than spending 20k on player which I'll still be paying off for another three years. A real rookie error on my part.

Confidence

I suppose if the board is very pleased with your management then you are doing a decent enough job but I am still not pleased with how things are going.

Key Players

When you're three key players all have a rating that is under 7 you know you're team didn't have a great season and that the key players aren't that key after all. The fact I didn't really have one player who stood out shows that last season was more of a team effort. Krisztián Folmer was the main stiker for us who bagged the most goals, only on loan though so I'll be looking to sign him up permanently, 11 in 23 isn't a bad record for a team favourites to struggle. Péter Barics is a decent centre back who can also player left back, the only issue is he is 31 so I am worried about how many good seasons he has left, not many I think. And finally, Tamás Kulacsik, at 5ft 5 he is a very small player but he has done well for me this season. The coaches are telling me he is past it and at the age of 32 maybe he is, I will keep him on next season but I can't see him playing regularly. He has done well to score 9 goals from an AMC role but I certainly don't see a long term future for him.

Next Season

For next season I am hoping to bring in a lot of new players, five at the least. The fans and board are happy with a ninth place finish but I am not. I think it'll be tough to get out of this league because the only way out is to win it but with some shrewd signings and better tactics I believe I can get us out of this league by 2014. My current tactic is a simple 4-3-1-2. I am looking to change this into either a solid 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1 with wingers and a DM, it all depends on the sort of players I sign. The only thing I am hoping for next season is to improve on ninth place and to advance further in the cup. Now I've managed in Hungary for a season I am definitely more confident about next season and I am getting familiar with the teams and players in the league now.

[Doumbia]

I must be doing something right.

[deltablue]

Steady first season.

[emgergo]

Oh, Szeged of all places

If you need some background: Szeged is "the capital of the South(East)", as well as the City of Sunshine, Hungary's 3rd biggest city. Not that it helps having any decent football teams, mind!

The thing is that Szeged's football background is so chaotic that it's unique. Szeged AK was founded back in 1899 and became the champion of the "counties" (there was no nationwide league for some decades, the official top class was the Budapest one) in the early 1920s, becoming the best team outside Budapest. They were founding members of the first Hungarian professional national league, the team reached its first height of success in the late 20s (5th place in the league, cup runner-ups). A relegation and a promotion followed soon, as the team became a strong mid-table one in the 30s (best placement: twice 4th).

After the second world war there was a host of mergers and name changes, but Szeged teams were regular fixtures in the top league. In the late 50s the club colours were changed from red to blue & white, later blue & white & black. There was another good period in the 60s (and a 6th place), but that was the last real strong Szeged performance - the team was bouncing up and down between the top and the second leagues. In the early 1990s Szeged sank to the third league, but slowly came back and (bearing the name of Szeged LC) fought back to the top league. The story ended very badly as the team went bankrupt in the middle of the 1999-2000 season... A new club was founded but went bankrupt in 2005. Right now they bear the name of Szeged 2011, the chairman is a former president of the Hungarian Football Federation (another prominent member of the board is a bishop!), the official goal is going up to the top league in 4-5 years.

As of now Szeged has had 51 top flight seasons. How such a big city cannot bring a decent top tier team together is one of the mysteries of Hungarian football. BTW handball is by far the biggest sport in the city right now.