[FM16] 50 Shades of Magenta: A New Caledonian Dream

[smp20]

50 Shades of Magenta: A New Caledonian Dream

So here I am, starting my journey in a land-down-under albeit starting back in time in January 2015. No not Australia, but a smaller island off it's east coast known as New Caledonia. With just over quarter-million inhabitants, New Caledonia is a ''Special Collectivity'' of France. It is here in the capital Noumea that I start out my career with club and country. For the record I am using Claasen World Leagues Update, with all Oceanic Nations loaded as well as all divisions of France and top flight leagues in Brazil, USA, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, China & Australia - this should create an interesting game world!





The Club: AS Magenta



I've opted to start with the most successful side in New Caledonia, AS Magenta, who are current league and cup holders. We start off with good facilities for this part of the World (trust me there are very few better outside of New Zealand) and we should be in a good position to hoover up the local talent. One of the interesting things in New Caledonia is that the cup winners also qualify for the Coupe de France, joining in the 7th round opening up the prospect of playing Ligue 1 sides and other potential revenue streams. The club is semi-professional with a £1.1k weekly budget, so money from other competitions could really help to build us up. My aims with the club team are to:

• Consistently win the New Caledonian Super League & Cup
  
• Win the Oceanic Champions League (OCL)
  
• Win the Club World Championship
  
• Win the French Cup
  
• (Most importantly) Develop players for the National Team
  

The National Team

So I will be using AS Magenta as a base to develop players for the NT, much like any other club and country challenge. Our biggest rival in Oceania will be New Zealand, but I'm hopeful we will be able to close the gap on them soon. We have three star players who I will need to get the best out of:

Wesley Lautoa - this guy is way up there as one of the best players in Oceania, maybe second best only to Winston Reid. I will need to utilise him well, I am thinking of playing him as a roaming playmaker against the smaller nations to dominate the midfield and at centre back against stronger teams.

Georges Gopes-Fenej - a pacy exciting winger that will be key in both delivering and scoring goals.

Cesar Zeoula - an attacking midfielder that will be forcing me to adapt my 4-4-2 Ranieri / Sacchi style which i have used in all of my recent saves - likely to come in a 'shadow striker' role.

Benjamin Longue - included a SS of my best club player who is likely to be important for the NT as well, shame he is coming towards the end of his career.

Aim for the National Team:

• Win the Pacific Games
  
• Win the Oceanic Nations Cup
  
• Qualify for the World Cup
  
• Win the Confederations Cup
  
• Win the World Cup
  

Here's my Manager Profile - starting with UEFA B and Sunday League Footballer. I will be doing yearly updates, with the first update to come soon!

[deltablue]

These Pacific island saves are always interesting

[smp20]

These Pacific island saves are always interesting

Thanks deltablue - hopefully this should be a fun save, never really managed outside Europe!

[andychar]

Always like to see saves in completely random leagues and locations. Looking forward to this one.

[Makoto Nakamura]

Looking forward to this smp! Had a save where I managed AS Magenta a few years back, I'm really glad you loaded France as well it would be amazing to see you win the French Cup and I wonder if you'd qualify for the Europa League or if the Europa League spot would just go to the cup runner up?

[sc91]

Is it just teams from New Caledonia and Tahiti that qualify for the French Cup?

[smp20]

AS Magenta 2015

Competitions

Super League ~ Domestic Cup ~ Oceanic Champions League ~ French Cup ~ Club World Championship

Domestically, we dominated with just two points dropped in the league in a 0-0 draw with AS Auteil where we just couldn't finish. We had a little wobble in the 1st cup game needing a last minute goal to go through against a lower league side but we looked comfortable from there on.

Just a couple of months into the season we tasted our first Champions League action and I have to say I like the format of having it played over a short period. I was expecting a very tough game against Oceanic giants Auckland, but we managed to come away with an incredible 3-0 victory! Our form carried on against Vanuatu's Eraklor and we rested players for the final game against Ba in anticipation of the semi-final. We were drawn against Auckland and I wondered if we could be consistent versus them. It took extra-time but we won 3-2. In the final we faced Team Wellington and we continued our extra-time prowess with another 3-2 win to be crowned Champions of Oceania! This came a lot sooner than expected, I anticipated the New Zealand sides to be way ahead in quality.

We've had a very kind draw in the French Cup so far facing non-league sides including a favourable draw in the 9th round in January, lets hope it stays that way and we get drawn against Marseille! The final competition of the year was of course the Club World Championship. We started very well with a 4-0 thrashing of Hiroshima where we just seemed to take our chances. The quarter final saw us face America of Mexico. I was expecting to be annihilated but he held firm and took them to extra-time, eventually defeating them 2-1 with a dogged (dirty) display. River plate were too much for us in the Semis and a very tired team rolled over against Jeonbuk.

Players

Transfers ~ Player Stats ~ Youth Intake ~ Stephane Baudry ~ Wakanamune

I spent the pre-season snapping up any half decent players in our league that I could find, some would be backup whereas some would become key players. As you can see from the player stats, performances were at a high level throughout the season and we managed to get goals from our wide players and AMC/FC combination, albeit no one player dominating the scoring charts. We were only able to bring in two DMs of sufficient standard so they both played a lot of the season, at least until I managed to bring in Joel Wakanamune who came in from the French non-leagues - he wasn't able to play in the league games but was able to play in other competitions and he's a great addition to the squad. The youth intake was useless except from one player - Stephane Baudry. An amazing prospect and a rare centre back with aerial ability in these parts of the World. Our key players for the season were:

• Timothee Brunel - played as my roaming playmaker and the youngster has been a revelation. The heartbeat of the team.
  
• Fabio Guichard - another youngster, Fabio has been a very solid left back despite his dodgy determination.
  
• Lorenzo Bernard - I wanted to mirror club and country and this lad enabled me to use a shadow striker at club level. Gets a lot of key passes.
  
• Roy Kayara - a more established player, Kayara was a coup from Hienghene and finished as top scorer from right wing.
  
• Mickael Partodikromo - the only player who joined us from abroad (NZ), he's made the left wing position his own and is still young.
  
• Benjamin Longue - he's declining rapidly oon the physical side but is still a great player for this league.
  

Miscellaneous

Finances ~ Facilities ~ Manager Profile ~ Team Instructions

We are in a very strong position financially after prize money from the CWC, around £500k has been set aside for facilities development and I'm hoping we can turn pro within 2/3 seasons. Our junior coaching is up to average and my manager atts have developed nicely over the year. I've got a clear tactical philosophy and this will be carried forward with club and country.

[smp20]

Always like to see saves in completely random leagues and locations. Looking forward to this one.

Thanks Andy, hope you enjoy it!

Looking forward to this smp! Had a save where I managed AS Magenta a few years back, I'm really glad you loaded France as well it would be amazing to see you win the French Cup and I wonder if you'd qualify for the Europa League or if the Europa League spot would just go to the cup runner up?

Thanks Makoto, yeah the French Cup adds a bit of spice to it. I imagine it would go to the runner up as we are members of a different confederation, but it would be a very nice surprise

Is it just teams from New Caledonia and Tahiti that qualify for the French Cup?

Its also teams from other French Overseas territories (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint Martin).

[sc91]

Its also teams from other French Overseas territories (Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Mayotte, Réunion and Saint Martin).

Ohh interesting.

I've tried similar before, and the major issue I had is that any half-decent regen chose France over Tahiti (albeit New Caledonia in your case), hopefully this is something you don't encounter.

[smp20]

Ohh interesting.

I've tried similar before, and the major issue I had is that any half-decent regen chose France over Tahiti (albeit New Caledonia in your case), hopefully this is something you don't encounter.

Yeah they all start in the 7th round - Tahiti and New Caledonia are the only FIFA nations however. I really hope that they choose New Caledonia, unless they really were good then you'd expect them to play for France.

[smp20]

New Caledonia National Team 2015





2015 allowed me to build up my familiarity with the team with friendlies and it was definitely a great build up towards the 2016 Oceanic Nations Cup. I opted to play a mix of Oceanic sides and against teams just above us in the World Rankings (100-150) from across the world. We came away with a 100% record despite being billed as underdogs in many of the ties. Our most notable victory was a 2-0 win against New Zealand, a good sign!



2016 Oceanic Nations Cup







At the first time of asking we managed to win the Oceanic Nations League! New Caledonia had finished runners up in both 2008 and 2012, so it felt great to finally win it for the nation. We started in style by thumping the host nation 4-1, followed by an expected 3-0 victory over Samoa. A rotated side struggled against Tahiti for most of the game but Zeoula came off the bench and changed the game leaving us with a 100% record going into the Semi's. The Solomon Islands are usually a decent outfit, but we demolished them 4-0 paving the way to the final. Here we faced New Zealand and as you can see from the SS, we got a deserved 1-0 win. This means that we will be playing in the 2017 Confederations Cup against some of the World's biggest sides. We've been drawn a tough group for World Cup Qualification alongside Solomon Islands and New Zealand with the other group containing Tahiti, Samoa & Fiji. Our key players were:

Vadaine Oliver - he may have struggled to get into York City's side but he has been terrific leading the line for us thanks mostly to his physical abilities. Scored 3 in the ONC including the winner in the final.



Cesar Zeoula - consistently causes problems for opposition defences with his technical ability, also scored 3 goals in the ONC.



Georges Gope-Fenepej - got the highest average rating in the OCN from left wing, scoring 3 in the opening 2 games.

Wesley Lautoa - quickly becoming one of my favourite players on FM. Mostly plays as our Roaming Playmaker, but sometimes plays at CB to bolster our back line - he did this when we went one nil up in the final and New Zealand never looked like scoring!

[smp20]

Now this could change things a lot :eek:

[deltablue]

Nice work in the nations league.

[smp20]

Nice work in the nations league.

Thanks deltablue , some big news coming up, some may have already worked it out from the previous post!

[smp20]

New Caledonian Super League



We managed to continue our domestic domination by equaling our points tally from last season - we may not have scored as may goals but the weaker teams seems stronger this season. The newly promoted sides finished 2nd, 4th and 6th respectively.

New Caledonian Cup + French Cup



We secured entry to the 2017/18 French Cup by winning our domestic cup. Unfortunately in the 2015/16 French Cup we went out in the 9th round on penalties to a French non-league side which was disappointing. A penalty loss also decided our 2016/17 campaign, where we lost in the 7th round to Tahitian AS Dragon - our first team was out on international duty (note to self don't arrange international friendlies in November) so our U20s made a valiant effort. I'm hoping to fare much better next time of asking.

Oceanic Champions League





We comfortably navigated our way through the group stages against opponents from the Cook Islands, Fiji and Tahiti and followed this up with a comfortable win against Hawke's Bay in the semis. We once again faced Auckland, Oceania's most successful side, this time in the final and it was a great spectacle. At 2-2 AET we were victorious on penalties to retain the Oceanic crown.

Club World Championship





Play-off ~ Quarter Final ~ 5th Place Playoff

Once again we gave a create account of ourselves in the CWC. We made hard work of our first game against Saitama building a two goal cushion but a first half sending off left the match open. We forced a strong Queretaro side feature Juan Forlin and Carlos Fierro to extra time, eventually succumbing to a 1-0 loss. The 5th place play-off pitted us against African champions Zamalek and despite a close game we ended up with a four goal lead, but slipped two late goals for a 4-2 final score.

Player Performances



As you would have expected, player performances were great throughout the season. These were our key players:

Timothee Brunel - another Player of the Year standard season from our young roaming playmaker, he's already key for club and country.

Stephane Baudry - came through our youth ranks last year and had a great first full season, developing very nicely in the process.

Fabio Guichard - the young full-back's ambitious personality has allowed him to develop over the last couple of seasons and he is regularly among the assists.

Malo Lecomte - brought in from struggling SC Ne Drehu, he is cracking prospect with the right attributes in the right places to become key for club and country. An excellent debut season.

Mickael Partodikomo - another solid season from the young winger, scoring important goals throughout.

Joel Wakanumune - his pace made up for his lack of aerial ability at centre back enabling him a solid first full season with us.

Roy Kayara - last season's top scorer gave another impressive seasonal display with an average rating >8.

Michael Hmae - Now I hadn't initially SS him, but after 26 goals in 21 starts (12 sub appearances) it would be rude not to!

Miscellaneous

Transfers ~ Facilities ~ Finances ~ Professional Status

I've put our transfers in here as it really wasn't a big transfer season for us. The only key first teamer coming in was Malo Lecomte who was a 2015 youth intake player at Ne Drehu. Our outgoings were mainly clearing deadwood. Our training and youth facilities have been upgraded and our junior coaching is up to good. Now I have to mention it, the potential tycoon takeover! More to follow, but we were in a very good financial position and had turned professional already.

[smp20]

Tycoon Dawns New Caledonian Era

Now what a potential game changer! the tycoon actually happened! We are surely now head and shoulders above the rest of the continent with this backing, and just minutes after joining the our new Sugar Daddy agreed to increase our junior coaching to excellent. Now of course my main aim is to develop players for our national team so this is what I did:



I've managed to bring in our National Team stars. Vadaine Oliver was very easy to prize from Conference side York City on £2.5k a week, while Zeoula and Fenepej were keen to join from the French 3rd tier at 1 million a piece and on £8k and £6k respectively. Wesley Lautoa was a little more difficult to lure to his homeland, but a huge payrise to £30k a week with good add-ons (nearly 5 times his previous wage) was enough to bring him in. After all, money talks. I'm very excited about the future of the club and I am thinking about my transfer strategy going forward. Speaking of the future of the club:



I completely forgot to include this in my previous post. In our intake we got a striker with fantastic potential - Warren David. Aside from a half-decent keeper prospect, the rest was pretty rubbish, but I'm very much looking forward to developing Warren David who had already made his international debut and scored a cup final hat-trick!

[Raware]

A real chance of dominating for years to come with your new tycoon!

Lautoa still has a few years in him as well so he should be able to bang 'a few' goals in in that league!

[deltablue]

12.25M! I wasn't sure how much you'd be able to use that but it appears you've got a couple of relatively big money moves already.

[smp20]

A real chance of dominating for years to come with your new tycoon!

Lautoa still has a few years in him as well so he should be able to bang 'a few' goals in in that league!

Yes it's certainly put us on the front foot and gives us a real possibility of closing the gap with the other continents. Lautoa is one of my all-time favourites already, he will boss the midfield that's for sure.

12.25M! I wasn't sure how much you'd be able to use that but it appears you've got a couple of relatively big money moves already.

Yes its a big budget and I was delighted when it was possible to sign our key NT players, especially Lautoa. I've added a keeper for £600k, he's French and 25 so could become a NT player at 30.

[smp20]

New Caledonia National Team 2017



I was planning to go into more detail here, but you will find out shortly why I haven't. Despite a wobbly 0-0 with the Solomon Islands we managed to get the double over New Zealand and qualify for the Oceanic WCQ Final. We were always going to be favourites against Fiji who only had one good striker of note (Roy Krishna) and we duly dispatched 4-0 at home allowing me to play the back-up team away. A play-off against a strong Chile side (12=3th in WR) awaited us and we managed to push them all the way, grabbing a 2-2 draw at home and holding them to 0-0 in Chile. However we didn't make it through due to the away goals rule. We had a great Confederations Cup campaign, with close losses against Australia and Germany and even beating Peru in the final game almost making it though to the Semi's but Australia did so on head-to-head.

AS Magenta 2017 Season









A season of pure domination, thanks to our Tycoon ownership our team is now far too strong for the rest of Oceania let alone domestic sides. We only conceded one goal all year, in the CWC Play-off against Al-Ahly which was also the only game we didn't win.

This is where motivation is becoming a problem for me, there is now no competition except from a few CWC games at the end of the year and I can see myself getting very bored with this save going forward. Its been a short-and-sweet career, but I feel its best for my own sake to start on a new save. I need one where I can be challenged throughout the season. In the end, the tycoon takeover may have killed us. Thank you very much for reading, I will be putting together another thread for a new career which is as of yet undecided.

EDIT: I have decided to continue this! What a numpty to think of stopping here. More updates to follow

[deltablue]

Such a shame, especially given how close you were to the World Cup.

[smp20]

I know it is a shame, but I just couldn't see myself enjoying it long term. It hasn't helped that my game was processing pretty slowly - note to self on the amount of leagues to add for next time!

[Lenzar]

Away goals really needs to be abolished.

[smp20]

I may have had a re-think on this. A bit hasty to dismiss. Basically I am going to get rid of the non-native players I have and have a rule of only having New Caledonian nationals. This will only mean getting rid of two players, Mathieu Michel a keeper and Adam El-Abd a centre back who came in to tutor (model pro). Im going to remove some of the leagues to speed up the game a bit and continue - It may mean holidaying parts of the domestic campaign but so be it. Ive still got the CWC and French Cup to aim for and of course the World Cup and Confederations Cup for the national team.

What do you think?

[lewis999]

Would it be worth having a skin with an instant result button? I have never used it but it may make it quicker.

[deltablue]

That sounds good. It would be nice to see things continue as you've still got a lot to play for internationally at least.

[smp20]

Would it be worth having a skin with an instant result button? I have never used it but it may make it quicker.

Yes that could be a very good idea.

That sounds good. It would be nice to see things continue as you've still got a lot to play for internationally at least.

Yes still a lot to play for. I think the frustrations of knowing it would be another 4 year wait to be in the same position added to my haste.

I will do an update tomorrow adding a bit more detail

[smp20]

Away goals really needs to be abolished.

It was really gutting to go out this way

[smp20]

Youth Intake 2017



Another decent intake with one very good prospect and another decent one. I have no idea why we produced so many (rubbish) AMR this season!



A rather brilliant prospect and if his potential is correct he has the ability to get as good as big Wes (Lautoa, not Morgan). He will be going straight into the national team, his pace will help create a good partnership with the strong, yet slow, Stephane Baudry.



The nation has been struggling with goalkeepers so it's great to get one through with a decent attribute profile and potential. He will become our no. 1 very soon.

[smp20]

Club & Country 2017

I've decided to do a breakdown of my squad which is now the same for club and country except for Mathieu Michel & Adam El-Abd who will be leaving. This will hopefully give you a good idea of how my squad looks - I still think we are over-achieving and I hope we will start to bring through some good youngsters to plug our weaker areas.

Goalkeepers





Goalkeeper is a real weak area for us. Giraud has always been rated higher than Petitjean, though I think Petitjean has some decent attributes in comparison. Louis is a welcome addition to strengthen this area. Of course Mathieu Michel was our first choice but my change in strategy means he is on his way to Stade Brestois for £600k.

Defenders



Right Backs



Lecomte is a very solid full back for us, he has pace and all round defensive attributes to perform well for club and country. His understudy, Ledoux, is well below standard now despite performing well for Magenta when he plays.

Left Backs



Fabio Guichard has no technical attributes above 8 and has terrible determination and bravery. Nonetheless, his pace and other mental attributes have helped him become a very good left back for us. Martin has decent physical abilities and is a team player, best I've got for 2nd choice!

Centre Backs



Baudry is everything you'd want from a typical centre back, he's big, strong and great mentally. The only thing he lacks is pace, this is where our most recent youth starlet, Recordier, comes in and he will be able to form a solid partnership with Baudry for years to come. Wakanumune was once a key player for New Caledonia, now in his later years he will provide cover in centre back and defensive midfield, just a shame how rubbish he is in the air!

[smp20]

Midfielders

Defensive Midfielders



Our star man Wes Lautoa has been phenominal for club and country as a roaming playmaker - he's now 30 so he has a few more seasons left in him. Brunel was our RPM before, and has adapted to become Lautoas more defense minded partner. Lecuyer is great in the tackle, but lacks all round game to cut it as first choice now.

Wingers



Gope-Fenepej is a class act and is the nations all-time top goalscorer with 29 goals in 50 caps - he scorers goals for fun from left wing. Roy Kayara has nice rounded attributes for a winger and performs well at domestic level and against other Oceanic sides, but fails to perform against bigger nations. Partodikromo provides a back-up option for either wing.

Attacking Midfielders



Cesar Zeoula is one of those players who can really unlock defences and has caused some of the bigger teams real problems. Leroy is a player with decent potential, but has a lot of growing to do to become a regular first-teamer. Bernard was our first choice AMC for the first two seasons, but never developed and has found himself mostly playing u20 games now.

Strikers





A position that we actually have depth! Warren David, a very un-French name, looks set to become a New Caledonian legend. He has everything you'd want from a defensive forward as well as pace and finishing ability to get among the goals. Vadaine Oliver may have had a very average first season for Magenta, but 16 goals in 26 caps shows that his physical presence has been key for the national team. JP Saiko is our 3rd choice man, who came in from the French amateur leagues after being top goalscorer for the club before. A mention goes to Michel Hmae who was a good goalscorer at club level and got 1 in 1 for the NT - he will be leaving on a free shortly.

[smp20]

National Team Confederations Cup



We gave a good account of ourselves against the Australians but the pace of their front 3 was too much for our defence. A goal from a corner from Baudry to equalise gave us a chance but Matthew Leckie flew past our centre backs to score the final goal.



As expected, Germany were by far the better team and controlled the game. However, we managed to limit them to 3 CCCs while getting two CCCs late on in the game causing the world champions to panic.



An outstanding result against a superior Peru side, becoming the first Oceanic side to win a game in the Confed Cup since Australia. We really deserved the win, and managed to do so without Talisman Lautoa.



Look how close we were to making it through! We lost on head-to-head . If only we didn't concede straight after scoring our 2nd goal against Peru.

World Cup Play-offs



We may not have created that many chances, but Warren David was always a threat and i think we were just about good enough for the draw. It's a shame we couldn't thwart Rabello!



One of the most gutting times for me on FM. When Arturo Vidal got sent off after just 4 minutes it meant we really had a chance! To top it off, they subbed off Rabello who was their catalyst in the home leg. Chile just about edged us with created chances, hence our keeper getting MOTM, but we missed a CCC in the dying minutes and the 0-0 draw was enough for Chile to put us out on away goals.



We're now at a national record 89th in the World Rankings, long may our climb continue!

[smp20]

I've decided that instead of seasonal updates I'm going to do them more regularly, generally themed around a competition. 2018 will be a quiet year internationally unfortunately, will just 5 friendlies being played.

[smp20]

Oceanic Champions League 2018



Our first disappointment in the OCL. We looked great in the group stages but faltered against Auckland in the Semi-final despite dominating possession and the chances. This means that there will be no Club World Championship for us this year .





Auckland started the campaign with a rare loss but roared but to win their group, while Waitakere were comfortable in theirs and they Thrashed Western Utd in the Semis 5-1 to produce an Auckland rival final. It must have been a terrible came and Auckland failed to score any of their 3 penalties after a 0-0 draw so Waitakere became OCL Winners!

[smp20]

Hi all, I've decided to take on a little project elsewhere, a more short term one. Will be making a thread for it shortly!