[FM16] Home(r) Nations to the Max - Part II: Home(r) Sweet Home(r)

[dllu]

[tyler16]

Loved the first iteration of this, will definitely be following.

[dllu]

The story so far

I’m back.



Remember me? Max Power. The perennial failure (in the eyes of his father, at least) who turned out to be at least a somewhat talented football manager. I went from my native Missouri (or Missou-ra, as the ol' man would have said) to England to try my luck at this very un-American sport and established myself as a household name at non-leaguers Tamworth – aided by my trusted wing-man Dale Belford. After two successive promotions, taking the club to the Football League for the first time in its history, I was then offered the chance to take over the reins at Sunderland. Despite moderate success and a lot of promise for the future, my time there ended rather abruptly.

I won’t bore you with too many details of my European exploits, as many of you will know about them already from my first Home® Nations to the Max thread. So let me just bring you up to speed on recent events instead.

At the end of October, Sunderland was going steady if not strong in the Championship, still within reach of at least the playoffs. Then came the news: A secret investor had bought the main share in the club. Apparently he just didn’t like me and my coaching style – I can’t think why.



Anyway, for whatever reason I found myself out in the street – not literally, as thankfully I received quite a generous golden parachute for terminating my contract almost two years early. So there I was, an unemployed manager with only three hairs on my head but plenty of money in my pocket. At least it gave me the freedom to look for a job that would be meaningful to me and not have to worry about the size of the paycheck. And I’d like to think that my credentials and my résumé were good enough to make me attractive to a number of clubs.

[b]Season[/b] [b]Team[/b] [b]Division[/b] [b]Pos[/b] [b]FA Cup[/b] [b]Other[/b] [b]Notes[/b]
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2012/13 Hayes & Yeading National League South - 1R FAT 3Q Sacked after game 33/42
2012/13 Tamworth National League 22nd(R) N/A N/A Took over after game 39/46, relegated
2013/14 Tamworth National League North 4th(P) 2Q FAT 2R Promoted via playoffs
2014/15 Tamworth National League 3rd(P) 1R FAT 1R Promoted via playoffs
2015/16 Sunderland Championship - N/A N/A Sacked on Nov 1

That was the situation I was in on a grey and dreary November day in the Northeast of England when the phone rang. It was my brother, calling from across the pond with some very interesting news…

[Northwood_dk]

DOH!

I will follow

[dllu]

The prodigal son

My older brother Will was always the good one. Dad’s favourite. So when the old man passed away last year, naturally Will inherited the family business. Well, technically my mother is still the majority shareholder, but Will is now CEO of Power Motors and the de facto head of the family. A good thing too. William J. Power, Jr. – to use his full name – certainly has more of a mind for business than I do. The one time, years ago, before I went to Europe, when Dad tried to get me into the company by letting me design the new car model – well, let’s not even get into that train wreck.



Suffice to say our fraternal relationship had always been a bit... strained. Things had softened somewhat since our father’s passing, though.

But enough about that. Unlike me, Will had always been into the more... American sports. All-Star quarterback in high school and college. Football – to him (and Dad) it was something you played with your hands. “Soccer” had never interested him in the slightest. And yet that was just why he called.

“Max – long time no hear!”

“Yeah – nice to hear from you too, Will.”

“So, I hear you’re out of a job”. The slight snigger in his voice did not go unnoticed, but I let it pass.

“You heard right.”

“Well, believe it or not, that is actually the main reason why I’m calling. You know your old team? The Isotopes?”



Of course I did. The pride of Springfield. Or maybe more like the eyesore. They had never won a thing in their 26-year history. Financially they had been on the brink of bankruptcy for their entire existence. The stadium was built in 1989 but looked like it was from 1889 and hadn’t been renovated since then. Not to mention that when I was 16 and tried out for the first team, the manager had told me in no uncertain terms that I would be doing the world a favour by not just hanging up my boots, but burning them. And preferably never coming near a football pitch again in my life.

“What about them?”

“As I’m sure you’re aware of, they’ve had a horrendous season so far.”

“I know.”

“Well, hopefully they’ve reached a turning point. The club was taken over by a new owner.”

“Really? Who?”

“Me.”

“What??”

“Well, to be precise I only bought 49% of the club. The local brewery bought the rest. You know their chairman – Howard Duff, Dad’s old pal. But at least I’m co-owner.”



“But you never cared about football!”

“And to be completely honest I still don’t. I saw a good business opportunity and I took it. Howard’s the same. That’s why we need you, Max.”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. The first thing we did was fire the old manager. And as you so eloquently pointed out, I may not know much about football. But your results over in Europe speak for themselves.”

Things finally dawned on me.

“Wait – so you’re saying…?”

“Yes, Max. We want you to be the new manager of the Springfield Isotopes. I can think of no one better suited for the job. Now, I know it’s a step down from your previous position and I am willing to give you a couple of days to think it over -“

“I’ll do it.”

[dllu]

Disclaimer

At this point I should give props to Uncle_Sam for use of his US/Canadian database. All I changed were a few details of the PDL team Springfield Synergy.

Also props to Kevnaylor over at FM Base for his wonderful custom kits...

[dllu]

Springfield Isotopes: An overview

As I landed in Springfield airport for the first time since the funeral and drove to the grounds of my childhood club for the first time in over a decade, I must admit I started thinking “What have I got myself into?”

So what kind of club was I coming/returning to?



The “stadium” (not sure if the term really applies here)? Just like I remembered it.



The squad is extremely young but actually has a lot of potential. As my old elementary school principal would say: “That’s mighty good but it needs improvement”.



Looking at the table, the question is whether we can afford the luxury of waiting for them to fulfil that potential. Exactly halfway through the season and the team has yet to win a game. Amazing, really, that we’re “only” eight points from safety.



Just to give you a further impression of the kind of challenge I am facing: We are currently on an eight-game losing streak – but even more worryingly, we haven’t scored a goal for 500(!) minutes.



Time to get down to business, I guess…

[deltablue]

Great team idea

[dllu]

December 2015

Turns out the club actually has quite a bit of money in the bank - I guess the new non-alcoholic “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Sewage” Duff Ultra-Lite must be doing better than expected.

Plenty of transfer budget left for this level, and our wage budget isn’t anywhere close to being used up either. So the question begs: why not? Are there no players to be had? I guess I will have to find out before the transfer window opens on 28 December.





In other words, I couldn’t sign any players for a month - unless they were unattached, and anyone who's unattached in the middle of the season is probably crap anyway. So I went and filled our two open scout positions instead to help me find players worth signing.



Even with the players at hand, just getting a breath of fresh air into the club in the form of me must have done something for the players’ morale. We only went and got more points in December than my predecessor had managed to scrape together all season! And we scored almost as many goals as we had so far as well! Great start in my book. I was especially pleased with the second win:





A hard-fought victory in a match where we were on our heels for most of the 90 minutes. Even if it came at a cost - Richard Murphy who scored two of our three goals this month will be out for 6-7 weeks with a twisted ankle - those will likely turn out to be the three most valuable points we will get all season. The table will show you why:



That’s right. Dallas Roma are second to last and realistically the only team we stand a chance of actually catching up with. Had we lost that game, the gap would have been ten points and almost insurmountable. As it stands, it is only four points and anything is possible...

[Nobby_McDonald]

Looks like you might turn this round.

[dllu]

January 2016

Seems I was right to assume that the lack of transfer activity earlier in the season was due to a lack of players worth signing. We did manage to bring in one new face during the winter window, though.





Mike Johnson – or as I’ll be calling him, the "Jack Wilshere of Southwestern Missouri" – should be a significant improvement to our midfield. We need someone who can take charge, make decisions and create opportunities for our forwards. Mike can do just that. Miles better than our current selection of playmakers anyway.



Results-wise the "new manager" effect seems to have worn off way too quickly. I experimented a bit with the tactics to try and find something that would work. It seems the best thing to do is just shut up shop, play ultra-defensively and just hope for the best. We are actually doing all right in creating chances. The problem is, almost none of our shots are on target. So it seems our strikers are the Achilles heel here. Well, if we survive – and I survive – I’ll know what to look for this summer.

Our only consolation was that Dallas Roma did almost as poorly as us, so the gap only widened by one point:



With eight rounds to go, things need to improve very soon. Our man Johnson only came in before the last game of the month but had a good debut, so hopefully he’ll get even better. We have a couple of home games in February, including one against 16th place Fredericksburg, which I very much hope will yield three points...

[Dexter_Morgan]

Not impossible to get out of it yet

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February 2016

At the beginning of the month, I managed to persuade the board to improve our youth recruitment. To – “basic”, no less. Baby steps, but any investment like this is good news.



On the pitch – definitely better than January. Much better. Two vital 1-0 wins. The one at home against Fredericksburg was well-deserved. I decided to throw caution to the wind and try the old smash-and-grab gambit. The lads fully grasped the importance of the game and delivered the performance of the season.

For about a week. Then out of the blue a completely unexpected – and undeserved – win against Sonoma in a match we should have lost by 3 or 4. Suddenly we’re on a streak! Two in a row counts as a streak, right?



And where does that leave us in the table before the final five games? Only above the red line for the first time all season, as Dallas lost all their games this month...

[dllu]

March 2016

We only had two league games this month, so I decided to arrange friendlies in our off-weeks – at home against lower-league opposition, in an attempt to boost morale.



Obviously that did not go at all the way I had hoped. And we lost both league games as well, although the delegation from Hershey, Pennsylvania did present us with a nice gift basket as a token of their friendship (mmm... chocolate... *drool*).



At least Dallas keep losing as well, so we’re still hanging on for dear life. And our last three fixtures in April include two home games against mid-table sides, so fingers crossed...

[Dexter_Morgan]

You can do it!!!

[deltablue]

Go 'topes!

[Northernpilgrim]

Squeaky bum time

[kris0710]

Fantastic idea for a save and my 6 year old caught me reading this and now he's a follower too!

Best of luck for April.

[dllu]

Fantastic idea for a save and my 6 year old caught me reading this and now he's a follower too!

That just made my day! Hopefully I won't let him down...

[dllu]

April 2016

As was to be expected, there has been quite a bit of manager movement towards the end of the season, as teams have failed to live up to expectations. Luckily I have manged to keep the board satisfied – if not exactly happy – so far. I just had to share this one, though:



Has to be one of the most aptly named managers ever – him and Arsène Wenger.

As for our results in the final three games, there was absolutely no improvement:



But more importantly: How did our relegation rivals do? Was it enough?



Yes! Arguably the worst half-season of my career, and yet we somehow managed to survive – if only because we beat Dallas head-to-head. Plus they ended the season with a 15 game winless run. I really should send their manager a case of Duff – no, make that a keg – as a token of my appreciation.

For the statisticians out there, we amassed the grand total of 14 points in my 17 games in charge. Had the team maintained that average all season long, we would have ended up in – well, still in 17th place, as it were...

[Dexter_Morgan]

At least you stayed up, hopefully things will go better for you next season

[dllu]

Season round-up 2015/16





These just highlight our miserable season. The fact that our goalkeeper was one of our best players says it all.



We have been more or less selling out all season, so Mr. Duff decided to expand his stadium by 50%(!). And while we’re waiting for our own ground to grow from 2000 to 3000, we will be renting a ground with a capacity of - over 16,000(!!). No complaints from this manager.



We are also allowed to venture outside the United States to look for players now. Cheap Caribbean wonderkids here we come!



The board weren’t exactly thrilled with me, but apparently satisfied that I did my best with the very limited material at my disposal. Enough so that they offered me a new 1-year contract (at about half my old salary, but whatever). Hopefully next season we will improve enough to convince them to commit to me long term.



This is actually huge news! Turns out we were the only semi-pro team in the division (which explains a lot), so being able to train full-time should really make a world of difference...

[Dexter_Morgan]

Some good little improvements for the club there, hopefully it will help you move on

[dllu]

Summer 2016

Our youth intake came just after the end of the season:



Nothing really worth noting – except this guy:



201 cm and 84 kg. At 14 years old! This American teenage version of Jan Koller should be able to scare any defense, especially when his voice changes and he bulks up a bit more. Heck, I’m afraid of the kid as it is.



The special centenary edition of the Copa America was played here in the United States, but the hosts disappointed by not even progressing from the group stage. Apparently Brazil “disappointed" as well by “only” reaching the final through two penalty shootouts and then losing to their arch rivals. All this led to two prominent managers leaving their posts – one probably a bit more voluntarily than the other.





Speaking of prominent managers: I hadn’t realized that this guy had moved to the Major League, but I guess when the club owner at Inter Miami is your old teammate anything is possible. And yet he ended up getting them relegated, getting the sack, and moving to another second-tier club. Who knows – maybe we’ll meet on the bench someday?



The EUROs in France offered no huge surprises but a few small ones, including Switzerland and Croatia in the semi finals. The Croatians even beat Ukraine 6-3(!) along the way. Arguably the biggest sensation, though: Denmark not only qualified but even made the top 16...

[dllu]

2016/17 pre-season



We came back from the summer break to find a pitch perfect pitch ready for the new season. More importantly, though, GM Duff had a nice piece of news concerning our youth department, which should help the likes of Sean ‘the Friendly Giant’ Wilson reach their full potential:



With the horrendous last season we had, turning professional wasn’t going to do it alone. The squad needed a serious overhaul – “serious” as in pretty much being completely dismantled and rebuilt from scratch. Which brings me to the easiest part of any manager’s job:

[video=youtube;PnSccAokV3c]

This should illustrate the extent of our “serious overhaul”. So will it work? We scheduled three friendlies against bigger teams (two of them much bigger) to 1) test ourselves and 2) get some extra revenue, followed by three games against smaller teams to boost morale:



The first two went even worse than expected, but then the all-new Isotopes actually started gelling (a bit) and we scored more goals than we did in any three consecutive games all of last season. Now to carry that form over when the league kicks off...