FM15 'Big' Euro Challenge

[Quacky]

The injury thing is related to match fitness from what I can tell. I've taken to organising a crazy schedule of friendlies early in pre-season to sort this out (and to make sure that I crush Brora about 5 times a year).

In other news, since I'll be in northeast Scotland over new years I'll probably take a trip to Wick (Saturday 03/01/2015 Wick Academy v Brora Rangers)

[Misterjokerboy]

Yeah that seems about right, I was assuming that lower quality of coaches and physio would have something to do with it as well and also perhaps the fact that the players are only semi professional. In other news I've just beaten a team from a division higher in the 2nd round of the cup thanks to an early sending off and a penalty

[iacovone]

It is not my file so I can give no guarantees, but I remembered seeing this earlier.

Legend duccio! This worked perfectly. My game looks so much nicer now

[Andy Sava]

I've been working all week-end:( hopefully i can get some play time starting today

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Just as I've got back to work...

I have a week off at end of November so looking forward to that...

[rlipscombe]

quick question...

for those of you who downloaded the game, where do you put your logos, kits etc? first time i have downloaded the game and can't work it out......

[Lower Leagues Rule]

In the Documents/Sports Interactive/Graphics/ folder, I have my own set-up under there...if the folder is not there then make one

[darthbomb]

Since Scotland closed, holidaying in Russia!!

[Misterjokerboy]

Will post a full update in a bit when I have the chance, but I've just managed to avoid relegation in my first season by winning the play off

[Macshimmy]

The injury thing is related to match fitness from what I can tell. I've taken to organising a crazy schedule of friendlies early in pre-season to sort this out (and to make sure that I crush Brora about 5 times a year).

In other news, since I'll be in northeast Scotland over new years I'll probably take a trip to Wick (Saturday 03/01/2015 Wick Academy v Brora Rangers)

Good stuff!

Ross County play Inverness CT in Dingwall on New Year's Day as a glamorous alternative if the road to Wick seems too long at the time.

Congratulations* on the Challenge Cup win from all in Brora

*grudging and jealous ones, obviously

[Quacky]

New year's day is also the tongue twisting Dundee derby day.

It seems right to goto Wick (and Thurso) considering the week before I'm on the south coast, a real length of UK trip

[PaulHartman71]

Making my (hopefully) triumphant return to France very shortly. Was considering doing dafuge's challenge but prefer this challenge as it not only produced my favorite FM save game but also has a very close self-run community within the thread which is a credit to the sub-forum. After their fall from grace in recent years which has left them lingering in the 5th or 6th tier of French football, I sadly will be unable to return to FC Libourne-Saint-Seurin (who have now actually changed their name to the much catchier FC Libourne). Libourne's most famous son Jerome Herbert is currently on holiday waiting to see which French clubs become available. I'm not sure how well or bad this is going to go as I only downloaded FM15 last night and haven't actually had a proper save game on it yet, and from what I have seen of the new in-game menus it looks bloody confusing/different to the last version

[PaulHartman71]

I went for Pau FC, they were the lowest reputation side of the 4 I had promoted in my save game, their colours are blue similar to FC Libourne and the name of their team is one letter away from Paul Formed in 1959, Pau FC are based in the in the Pyrenees, which is in and around the French/Spanish border, i'm not sure if this will give me more of a chance of signing Spanish players than usual, but let's hope so. They're actually a local rival of FC Libourne (traitor!!) and they play at the Stade du Hameau which is a 13,966 capacity ground, 7,166 of which is seated.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=0"]Pau FC Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1"]Pau FC General Info

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=2"]Pau FC Facilities

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=3"]Jerome Hebert Profile

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=4"]Jerome Herbert Personal Information

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=5"]Jerome Herbert Nationalities

I didn't actually realize you could have a manager as young as 20, I assumed by picking the latest birth year it would just default to the 30/31 it usually does. I'll just say that the back-story was that Jerome Herbert was a youth player at FC Libourne before picking up a career ending injury and going into management.

Still trying to get used to the new menu screens and navigation, but I should hopefully have a squad update shortly when I have sorted out a half-decent assistant manager.

=61590018&filters[recent]=1&sort=1&o=1"]

[G-Wiz]

Been a while since i've competed in any challenges, so im looking forward to getting back into the swing of FM after a hiatus, and think ive found the ideal project to take on for this challenge:

AD Marco 09

2015-2016 - A New Beginning

Futebol Clube do Marco was founded on 25 May 1927. In 2000, it reached the second division for only the second time, being relegated at the end of the season, but immediately gaining promotion back.

During four consecutive seasons, Marco competed in the second level. In 2004–05, it achieved its best ever position in the league, finishing in fourth position, nine points behind last promotee C.F. Estrela da Amadora. In the following campaign, the club ended its Portuguese Cup run with a valliant display against eventual winners and national powerhouse F.C. Porto, losing 0–1 away.

On 27 September 2007, with Marco already in division three, the Portuguese Football Federation punished the club with relegation, suspension from all activity for two years and a fine following failure to appear in four league games. A new side was created in 2009–10 as Associação Desportiva de Marco de Canaveses (AD Marco 09 for short), competing in the Porto Second Regional Division, and achieving promotion in the first season.

And so, this is where i begin...

Manager Information

Manager Profile

Team History

Team Profile

Team Information

Squad

[Misterjokerboy]

So, as I said in my other post I narrowly avoided relegation by winning a play off over 2 legs and thanks being unbeaten in my last 7. I needed to win the last match against Coimbroes and hope at least one of the 2 sides just above me didn't.

I got off to a very tough start in the league not winning in my first 7 games and not even scoring until the 5th game where I came back from 3-0 down which sparked a mini revival until another slump of 8 in a row not winning (6 of them losses).

As you can see from the transfers below there have been a few outgoings and new faces in, the outgoings were mainly players who weren't playing and the ones incoming are mainly young players who will be back ups. My intention is to play more or less the same team that went on the good run at the end of last season as they will be familiar with the system and integrate the others when players need resting. Over the next couple of season I would like to try and improve the finances so that I can upgrade the youth and/or training facilities which should help further in the long run. This season I would also like to avoid relegation without the need for a play off.

Transfers

Squad

Information

Profile

Information

A couple of players of note:

Carlos Valente - My first team goalkeeper at just 20 years of age. He was already at the club when I joined and I decided to keep him as first choice keeper. His stats aren't amazing and he wasn't particularly spectacular, but he didn't make any major howlers either. Hopefully the full year of first team football will stand him in good stead and he will continue improving. The back up keeper, who was also at the club when I joined was only 16 and will continue to be back up this season too

Jose Braga - I got him on a free and initially wasn't sure exactly where he was best, I ended up playing him as a support striker where he scored a reasonable 10 goals, considering the struggles the team had I'm pleased with this and will be looking for more from him this season. I'm hoping I can get him to tutor one of the youngsters I've brought in too.

Yaya Bamba - Has become my anchorman and a first choice regular in the heart of the midfield at a young age. He will be in the same role again and hopefully be showing more of the same and some improvement this season.

[danger_mouse]

Leça

2015/16

Squad | Transfers | Finances

Competitions

Campeonato Nacional First Phase:

We got off to a bad start and were always towards the bottom end of the league wondering if we were going to survive, that is until the last 4 games of the season were we could of still finished 4th, but we bottled it and lost all 4 games. A disappointing way to finish the first phase after a good mid season run of results.

Campeonato Nacional Relegation Phase:

We took our bad form with us into the Relegation Phase with only 1 win in 5, with a tweak in tactics we won 4 of the last 5 which was just enough for us not to enter the Relegation Playoff.

Taça de Portugal:

Not a lot to say here, we got smashed in the first round, better luck next year.

Aims for next season.

• Release dead wood.
  
• Promote/Sign youth.
  
• Reduce wages.
  
• Push for Promotion Playoff.
  

[skinnybirds]

U.S. Gavorrano

Season 1: 2015/2016

Manager Info

Manager Profile

Club General Info

Club Overview

League History

Squad

In a miniscule mining village in Tuscany lies the mountainside town of Gavorrano. A population of less than 9000 people with a devotion to their local football club U.S Gavorrano. These are my people. This is my club. Serie A beckons...

[iacovone]

Job done in those first seasons in Portugal danger_mouse and misterjokerboy

All about that survival! I should have an update coming in the next 24 hours. Similar story as you guys

And welcome back PaulHartman and G-Wiz​, good luck chaps!

[PRDH]

Day off today, and I think we all know what that means. Yup, time to find a team for this challenge. Thinking I'm heading East. All the way east - to Russia.

[Quacky]

The movember thing with blonde players is the best.

Meet the mighty Jarmo Vasara, (my scout went to Finland first).

[Misterjokerboy]

The movember thing with blonde players is the best.

Meet the mighty Jarmo Vasara, (my scout went to Finland first).

Very nice I haven't seen any players with a Movember tache that I've noticed in my game

[iacovone]

Well that is exceptional Quacky

[Quacky]

Biggest victory ever. I immediately saved the game after this before something disasterous happened and the game realised what an error it had made.

BEHOLD, Wick Academy 4-1 Celtic

The average first team player for Celtic is paid 3x my total wage budget.

[rlipscombe]

don't blame you Quacky! think i'd save three copies of it...

[minisav]

Back to give this challenge another go. Never got into FM14 but hoping this year is different.

Germany for me again. And as they are the colours of Aberdeen, Rot-Weiss (Red-White to us English speakers!) Essen it is!

I'll upload screenshots tomorrow evening.

In other news, my original club for this challenge, Darmstadt, have made it to the 2nd division in real life. Sadly relegated to the 3rd in this save. And my other completion was with RB Leipzig who have been promoted to the Bundesliga in my game which is cool.

[ArranoBeltza]

Well, I was going to do the small Euro nations challenge, but couldn't get any of my chosen teams in Austria or Slovakia to load before Gernika Club showed up in the Spain save. I've started a few of these challenges in the past but have never stuck with them- let's see if I can do it this time around!

Manager Info

Manager Profile

Club Leagues History

Club General Overview

Club Profile

Squad Overview

Just a note: I added Israeli as a second nationality for my manager. No, I'm not Israeli IRL, but I am Jewish so I figured that it's reasonable to assume that my computer-generated football managing self could get Israeli citizenship quite easily. Second language set to German because I do actually have a decent knowledge of German IRL.

Time to evaluate my squad- it definitely appears as though I'll have to add some depth. I'll probably post an update around mid-season or perhaps after the transfer window.

[PaulHartman71]

After struggling to get to grips with the new FM layout, transfer/scouting screens, general tactic creation, the way the match-day squad lineup's are changed etc its been a rough start to life at Pau FC. A poor pre-season and just 5 points from 7 games so far. However in my last 2 games we've not only picked up our first win of the season but we also came back from 4-0 down away to Vendee Lucon. I'm hoping this is the start of a dramatic turn around and that we can safely avoid relegation. My CAM, Hicham M'Laab and 34 year old striker Sylvain Heckly have been the stars of the show so far.

[PRDH]

Can't get excited about any of the clubs coming up in Russia, might be time to consider Turkey...

[iacovone]

Can't get excited about any of the clubs coming up in Russia, might be time to consider Turkey...

I've only ever had one game in Russia for this challenge and it took me forever to find a team. Ended up at Luch who were based in Siberia IIRC. Anyway, good luck in Turkey!

[PRDH]

Yeah, I wanted to find a team in the far east of the country - somewhere in Vladivostok or the island just off it, but looking through the Eastern division that teams would come from, there were none from that far east. I wanted it to bookend my epic (if I say so myself) game in the Azores with all the home grown players. Take the Champions League as far east as you could.

Anyway, instead I'm in Turkey and I've picked a club, just got to write the opening post now and then get going (well, along with doing some bits of work)!

[Quacky]

Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and even Sakhalin all ended up in the 1st division this year to ruin that. Still Yakutiya is there in the eastern division, I'd like to see some Spanish side go there for a champions league match in January where the average high temperature is -35º.

[PRDH]

İstanbulspor AŞ

Post 1 - An Introduction

Manager

Overview | Information

Club

Overview | Domestic Leagues | Facilities

Welcome one, welcome all to this news page about İstanbulspor AŞ, our might Istanbul Bulls. We're very excited to welcome our new manager - Peter Harmer. The appointment may come as a bit of a shock since he has yet to complete any coaching badges and his playing career was hardly illustrious. We have heard tell of a fine goal in a sports hall in rural Romania where he passed the ball out of defence, then made a lung-busting run out of defence all the way to the opposition box before slotting the ball under the goalkeeper. But since no record of this feat exists we have to rely on the manager's word...

Still, we feel he is the right man to lead the team forward after its promotion to the Turkish Second Division (White League). We imagine, with the appointment of an English manager (with Armenian second nationality) that we will see an increase in foreign media attention so thought we should provide a few details about the club before cracking on with the traditional press conference. Located in Istanbul, among the footballing giants of Beşiktaş, Fenerbahçe and Galatasaray, life was always going to be tricky for the little club founded in 1926. However, despite this the club has achieved some notable successes, finishing second in the 1958-57 Turkish Super League and appearing in the UEFA Cup in 1998.

Tough times fell when the Uzan family withdrew their support in 2001 plunging the club into financial crisis. The club was rescued by the government in 2003, but relegation from the top flight followed in 2005 and a continual fall found the club in the fourth level of Turkish football before the recent promotion to the third tier.

This is where we find the club now with a 4200-capacity stadium and generally adequate facilities. Thank you all for reading and now it's time to open the floor to questions for our new manager.

Peter Harmer - Good afternoon everyone, a real pleasure to be sitting here in this grand old city, as the new manager of İstanbulspor. It's a great club and I hope to bring success back to it.

Journalist - Hi Peter, great to see a man with such passion installed as manager. Can you tell us a little about your background?

PH - Of course. I am, as you know an Englishman, but I do have Armenian ancestry and it was this which pulled me to this part of the world for my first job in management. I've never played the game professionally and I don't have any coaching qualifications, although I'll be looking to rectify that last point during my time here.

J - We here you're a bit of a linguist, how will that affect your management?

PH - Well, I speak English, French and Spanish, so I suppose that helps me communicate with a large number of footballers, but I don't think it'll have a huge effect.

J - And what will your priorities be?

PH I want to reshape this club from the bottom up. I want this team's success to be built on a foundation of youth team players. I think they can really encapsulate the spirit of the Bulls, and so I'll be looking to train a number of high class Calves and bring them into the senior team.

J - I'm sure that'll excite the fans.

PH - I hope so! Any other questions?

J - I don't think so, I'll let you get on with the job?

PH - Thanks everyone, I'll speak to you all soon.

[Quacky]

Wick Academy

2022/2023

Scottish Championship | 3rd

Table | Squad | Finances | Transfers

After turning professional I was able to sign thousands more players, almost all of them would improve my team so long as I kept below ~£10K p/w wages which was tricky. My scout assigned to Scandinavia decided Finland was first and so I got Finns with great quality. This made the whole season quite easy really (except for my bank balance), this was fixed though by a quarter final replay at Pittodrie and another loan taken out after another board room takeover plus prize money and playoffs which were't too hard even if the final match is bugged. Your players decide to go on holiday before it so fitness is ruined, thankfully you're playing against a team who have lost all season long and have no morale so I still won.

Top players: Jarmo Vasara | Stefan Vihtilä | Jamie Smith | Scott Jones | Les Bell

Other stuff: Best win ever

Season | League | Position |   Cup   | Leag. Cup | Chal. Cup | Avg. Att.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
15/16 |  Two   |   8th    | 2nd Rnd |  1st Rnd  |  1st Rnd  |    233
16/17 |  Two   |   9th    | 2nd Rnd |  1st Rnd  |  1st Rnd  |    190
17/18 |  Two   |   3rd    | 3rd Rnd |  1st Rnd  |  2nd Rnd  |    263
18/19 |  Two   |   1st    | 2nd Rnd |  2nd Rnd  |  1st Rnd  |    268
19/20 |  One   |   9th    | 3rd Rnd |  1st Rnd  |  1st Rnd  |    434
20/21 |  One   |   5th    | 4th Rnd |  1st Rnd  |  1st Rnd  |    439
21/22 |  One   |   3rd    | 4th Rnd |  1st Rnd  |  Winners  |    765
22/23 |  Champ |   3rd    | Qtrs    |  1st Rnd  |  1st Rnd  |    1317

[rlipscombe]

PRDH - good luck in Turkey with Istanbulspor. i think i've looked at them before.

PaulHartman71 - tough start there in France, but it's early days and there's plenty of time to turn it around.

ArranoBeltza - good luck in Spain with Gernika

good luck to everyone else in the challenge too. as for me, having a young child is playing havoc with my FM time! i have got my team (i think) and HOPEFULLY i will get a bit of game tonight. Itching to get started but with work and my daughter time has been scarce this week so far.

[Misterjokerboy]

Nice work Quacky, looks like some quality players there

[duccio]

So admendment coming...

After discussion with Gundo, we are dropping Ireland & Scotland, but picking up Netherlands. If you are already posting in here under Scotland or Ireland am happy for you to continue posting in here. But you can now also play in the Netherlands (No Relegation this season due to changing rules within their set-up (Expected to be completely different in 2015)

Do you want me to change the first post logo?

[PaulHartman71]

After a few more poor games we finally put together a good run of form and have at least momentarily escaped the relegation zone. We've done well enough against lower league opposition in the French Cup so far, it seems inevitable that we will be out in the next round though having been drawn away to Toulouse.

[Lower Leagues Rule]

Do you want me to change the first post logo?

Only if you have time, please.

[G-Wiz]

good to see you've turned a corner PaulHartman71. Sadly, ive made a terrible start to my season, only picking up 7 points from my first 11 matches. Its going to be an epic job to keep this team from going straight down

[iacovone]

good to see you've turned a corner PaulHartman71. Sadly, ive made a terrible start to my season, only picking up 7 points from my first 11 matches. Its going to be an epic job to keep this team from going straight down

Good thing they've appointed just the man for the job

[G-Wiz]

Good thing they've appointed just the man for the job

I appreciate the support, wish i shared your optimism

[PaulHartman71]

A bad slump in form has seen us pick up just 2 points in our next 6 league games, it is very tight at the bottom of the league and it is constantly changing whenever a side wins or even picks up a point. I'm hoping we can pick up a couple of wins building on our form of 2 draws to avoid it going to the wire. One positive was our fantastic performance away to Toulouse, only losing 2-1, we were close to coming back from 2-0 down but ultimately they were too much for us. Only got 100K from it as well, was hoping it would be like the FA Cup and we'd get a load more, 100K is better than nothing though I suppose!

[rlipscombe]

bit of a rollercoaster that PaulHartman71. ​hopefully you can find your form again in time

[minisav]

Here I am:

Rot Weiss Essen

According to wikipedia even though they've never been a traditionally big team they still have a good fan base which is nice to hear.

Information

Domestic Leagues

[rlipscombe]

They say that if at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again.......

[Quacky]

Suddenly the germans enter the fray

[PaulHartman71]

yeah I've been RW Essen in a previous year. FM 09 maybe. Always seem to be unusually big but in a low division. Strange.

[ArranoBeltza]

Gernika Club update:

Lots of work needed to be done, and still needs to be done!

I started with no staff and a threadbare squad- along came lots of stopgap signings across the board. I do not expect anybody I brought in to remain with the club for more than maybe a couple seasons, whether they're on the pitch or part of my staff. I brought in a number of players (all on frees). Again, nobody who I believe will guide us to promotion, but I felt should be good enough to keep us afloat in season one. I brought in a number of youngsters and, while none look like they'll be future stars (at any level, really), I hope that I can lay them off to other teams for some profit at a future date. That being said, how are we doing?

We started off with a thrilling draw against Portugalete, before being defeated by them a few days later in our first Cup match. No worries on the cup- we don't need any distractions right now.

As you can see, we've played ten league matches and are sitting at a respectable 13th. It's still early, but the teams in the promotion-eligible spots look unreachable, while we're only one point above the relegation spots and just four from rock bottom. I'm not disappointed with the team by any means. While we lack any true stars, I have been impressed with my team's overall performances: we've played in a number of hard-fought draws, and didn't give up most of our losses easily. Our last win was a 3-1 away win that made me quite happy. We're averaging 90% attendance which is nice, but still lack the reputation to bring in good money. We've been great on attack having scored 22 goals in the league; only two teams have scored more. On the other hand, we've conceded 27 goals- the most in the league.

We remain weak. Our biggest problem has been fitness- too many of my players lack fitness regardless of how often they play, so I suspect that they have low natural fitness. We also lack any true stars- I am assuming that it has something to do with the team's overall reputation, but I was unable to secure any of the best free agents I found and couldn't get a single player to join on loan, even if no other team had placed an offer on him. We are fighting hard right now and I am proud of my team, but we lack a true spark to give me total confidence. I predict it will be about two seasons before we can even think about promotion, but I do believe we're on the right track.

Again, we really need that spark to get us going. I'm looking to obtain two more solid defenders (at least one hopefully being excellent at this level) and increasing the overall quality of the midfield (especially in the center).

The next match is against fellow strugglers Amorebieta. I'd call it our first must-win, as it may help set us apart from those currently in the relegation spots.

[Quacky]

Thats just about how it goes in the first season. Hover about just over the relegation zone with a team that you have to admit lacks quality in every single position.

Soon as you survive a year the reputation starts to go up and your scout (probably singular) has had all year to find those guys that actually will sign to improve matters.

[iacovone]

Got a couple of updates to post for my first season at Machico so here goes. First up, it's the first stage of the Portuguese season:

Star man over this period was captain and right midfielder Marcos Santos. I know, he's not much to shout about but he knew where the goal was and led us to a very impressive first phase of the season. We even had a decent little cup run that led to us taking a big ol' beating off Nacional de Madeira but that was expected (and won't be forgotten...).

As you can see we were really flying at one point and came very close to making it to the promotion phase but a sour run of results in the final five games put paid to that.

A shame but I'm delighted nonetheless! Relegation phase update to come hopefully later today