The FM17 Journeyman....

[chestermike]

This first post will serve as a brief introduction into my save and what's it's all about.

I am a massive Chester FC fan, and even living in exile 140 miles away I am still a season ticket holder, and I get to 10+ away games a season too. I'm telling you this because most of my FM life involves winning everything with Chester FC first, and only moving on to other projects when this has been done. So this is new for me.....not starting with Chester......where should I go and what should I do?

I've read and enjoyed a lot of careers and stories, the most fun to me seems to be a journeyman game. I usually stay at the team I start with so I have very little experience swapping teams as I go, so this also introduces a new challenge for me......can I take on a team in trouble mid way through a season and be successful?

I set up my game with every single league and division in Europe loaded up, medium database, and give myself no badges and Sunday league experience. Start from the bottom, finish at the top.

After applying for every single job out there, most teams tell me where to go (fair enough), but I do get 3 interviews. Cardiff met uni offer me the job, but the majority of people start with them so I decline. Then an Icelandic bottom teir team offer me a job, It's an amateur club so I put it on hold for a week, and a couple more interviews come along. Thinking I would have to take the job in Iceland that I didn't overly fancy, Fana of the Norwegian 2nd division (3rd teir) come in, and I accept the job half way through their domestic campaign and with the team in big trouble......

[chestermike]

So Fana IL. First thing i notice is a strange league set up. The division has 14 teams in it, but only 1 goes up, 6 stay in the 2nd division and 7 (seven!!!) teams get relegated, the whole bottom half of the division! After checking, I find that this is because Norwegian football is restructuring after the current season,and instead of their being 4 2nd divisions, there will only be 2 next season. The 3rd division is unplayable, so I either stay up or get sacked, even though the board expect me to 'not get outclassed too often'.

I enter as manager after 9 games, so only 17 left this season, sat in 10th place, 6 points from safety. The team have only won 2 games all season, but have drew a few. The last result was a 1-6 home defeat to the bottom club so I can see why the previous guy got sacked.

Onto the squad, a couple of youngsters look hot, but the rest are mostly on amateur contracts and are awful. The cm/coach is somehow on £500pw, no one else is on more than £200pw apart from 3 lads on loan all on £325-£350. I send back 2 of the loans, have to keep 1 as he is my only left back, and set about scouting.....

As a club, Fana are in the city of Bergen. I check out the place on google earth for immersion, the city is quite pleasant, however they do have a premier league team so I will pretty much always be the small team. I am set up as their affiliate so I am hopeful of a decent loan or 2. The ground itself is a small sports centre in the district of Fana, the complex has a small hut which acts as changing rooms, and a few pitches with barriers around them. There was a kids tournemant going on when the google earth cameras visited so the place seems lively enough. The main pitch which I will play on is simply a barrier round a field, with a very small seated stand down one side. The ground capacity in real life is 700, however it's 1200 in game, never gonna complain when whoever has done the research got it wrong in my favour!!!

So.....17 games to stay up...and save my job......can I do it.....

[chestermike]

First season was a very tense affair!

I started by signing on 2 players permanently, abubakar to give me a right winger, and a quite poor dm called Neilson. I also loan in 4 players, the best being a defender from Viking called Nicholai Aas, 2* CA but 5*PA and attributes in all the right places. Tall too.

The first 4 games see me flying into the role, with 10 points taken, including a vital 2-0 win over Fylingsdallen, who are level with me just about. Then my usual slump hits, absolute disaster, with only 1 point taken fromt he next 5 games. I now sit in 9th place, 8 points off safety, and Valarenga 2 are ripping the league up and are a few games away. I'm already thinking who to go with next season, with the poor squad, in a slump, no money, no one wanting to join etc etc.

Then.......the FM miracle hits......a change of formation from a flat 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1 (I wish I could pretend this wasn't a desperate last throw of the dice) has me going on a 4 match winning run against Forde, Vidar, Valagerga 2 and Frigg. I am now sat level on points with 7th, with 1 goal worse GD. The next 2 games are poor, a 1-1 draw with Fylingsdallen is followed by a 1-3 loss to Lysekloster, and I am in 9th place, 3 points from safety going into the final game of the season at home to Stord. I also have to pull back 4 GD, I am down surely?

So.....225 hardy souls come for the crunch final match of the season (12 away), basically to watch us get relegated and me get the sack. Cheers residents of Bergen!!! We kick off, everything is looking scrappy and poor quality as you would expect. Then in the 49th minute, Abubakar pops up with a goal! Great stuff, but is it enough? I check the latest scores, the 2 teams above me that I can catch are both losing, but I'm still being relegated on GD. But in the 70th minute Kyrren Flesja smacks a shot into the roof of the net following a lovely long hoof, 1 pass and a bit of pinball build up.....I check the latest scores.....I am in 7th now thanks to scoring 1 more goal than Vidar, who are losing 2-0.

But wait.....this is FM......something dramatic is going to happen (it always does).....and Stord score against me in the 79th minute. I check the live league table and I am relegated again. I chuck the kitchen sink at Stord trying to score a goal, but despite a couple of highlights it doesn't happen, so I end up winning 2-1 and feeling depressed because surely I have got relegated and sacked, despite an 8th place finish. But no!!! Vidar lost 4-0 thanks to goals in the 89th and 90th minutes to keep me up, as Fylingsdallen also lose 2-0 to Valarenga 2 and I stay up by 1 GD point!!! It feels like I've wont he champions league, totally unexpected.

So.....onto season 2......big clearout needed. I am moving from the Second Division group 3 to group 1, so will have a whole new set of teams to play against. I'm also thinking there will be some quality players relegated to division 3, so I might be able to pick a few of them up cheap. Here is to success with Fana IL.....