FM2022 French League Thread

[Ronaldo Beckham]

After failing in my first attempt of the Youth Academy challenge with FC United I have decided to start a French league save. I thought I would start the French League thread in case others want to let people know how their French team saves are progressing.

I will post what team I have decided on soon.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

@Jogo Bonito I was stuck on who to manage but here is my reasoning behind it.

I don't want to manage a big team like PSG, Lyon, Monaco,Marseille, Lille or Nice but I also don't want to manage a team with not many prospects and not much money to spend. I know most French teams don't have much of a transfer budge but I would like a team with at least £1m to spend.

I have also eliminated St Etienne, Lorient, Stasborg and FC Metz due to managing them on FM2021.

So the teams I have singled it down to are Angers, Bordeaux, Clemont, FC Nantes, Montipellier, Lens, Reims, Brest, Rennes and Troyes.

You done a save with Montipellier recently so I have eliminated them as well. A few people managed RC Lens on FM2021 and did massive career threads with them and I usually like to pick teams not many people have posted about.

Rennes seems like an easy choice due to them having amazing youth recruitment but seems too easy. 

So my final selections were Angers, Bordeuax, Clemont, FC Nantes, Reims, Brest and Troyes.

I went with Stade Reims in the end as I like that they have a lot of different countries represented in their squad.

Sorry for the over the top explanation lol.

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

I thought I would start the French League thread

Huzzah! It'll probably be a while before I join in here, but I'll be following with interest 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

12 minutes ago, warlock said:

Huzzah! It'll probably be a while before I join in here, but I'll be following with interest 

Yeah feel free to contribute when you are ready buddy. Cheeers for posting.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Good luck with Reims. I would have suggested Bordeaux so it is good I am late replying

[Ewan0404]

Good to see this thread starting up again.

I'll be starting in France when I get the game next week. I'll have updates in here and in the careers section 👍

[nico_france]

Good to see this thread up this year !

Bastia in Ligue 2 might be a tempting one for me

Will do my Marseille guide next week, for those who want to know a liitle bit more about this year's situation

Keep it up !

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Good luck with Reims. I would have suggested Bordeaux so it is good I am late replying

Yeah I was very close to picking Bordeaux but I wanted a harder challenge. I will definitely do a save with Bordeuax at some point. I am probably going to do a save with every French league team at some point in the next 12 months.

By the way @Jogo Bonito I have already signed our boy Karim Konate and I have a notepad file full of African players I am going to search and scout. I got £1.5m to spend so I am looking for bargains.

 

[Ewan0404]

@Ronaldo Beckham how are your overall finances at Reims? Any long term debts? 

[Bradz FM]

I done a Le Havre save in FM21 and it was the best save I've ever had on FM

 

Good luck!

Edited November 5, 2021 by Trevomac

[Jogo Bonito]

8 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Yeah I was very close to picking Bordeaux but I wanted a harder challenge. I will definitely do a save with Bordeuax at some point. I am probably going to do a save with every French league team at some point in the next 12 months.

By the way @Jogo Bonito I have already signed our boy Karim Konate and I have a notepad file full of African players I am going to search and scout. I got £1.5m to spend so I am looking for bargains.

 

Bordeaux are a bit rubbish to be honest, especially defensively. And have a few young players who could be developed. One for another time perhaps.

I think you can say Konate is your boy now! I'm sure he will score goals for you. Virtually 80% of my followed African talents are attacking players, hopefully you will balance your signings better than that 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Bordeaux are a bit rubbish to be honest, especially defensively. And have a few young players who could be developed. One for another time perhaps.

I think you can say Konate is your boy now! I'm sure he will score goals for you. Virtually 80% of my followed African talents are attacking players, hopefully you will balance your signings better than that 

Well I thought Konate was able to come into the squad straight away but annoyingly he has to stay at ASEC until next season.

In the mean time I have managed to sign a few African players.

Have you ever heard of any of these players then @Jogo Bonito ?

10 hours ago, Ewan0404 said:

@Ronaldo Beckham how are your overall finances at Reims? Any long term debts? 

£11m in the bank and £24m in debt.

[Jogo Bonito]

28 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Well I thought Konate was able to come into the squad straight away but annoyingly he has to stay at ASEC until next season.

In the mean time I have managed to sign a few African players.

Have you ever heard of any of these players then @Jogo Bonito ?

£11m in the bank and £24m in debt.

Well, Azeez of course is well known. I don't think he is a free agent in real life but a good signing. Not really familiar with the others, Bamba a little bit and I think Ako Assomo went to Latvia but again I don't know anything about him really. Strikers are my speciality and I guess that proves it 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Well, Azeez of course is well known. I don't think he is a free agent in real life but a good signing. Not really familiar with the others, Bamba a little bit and I think Ako Assomo went to Latvia but again I don't know anything about him really. Strikers are my speciality and I guess that proves it 

Can you recommend me some cheap strikers then or strikers who have their contracts expiring soon as I have no transfer budget left.

 

[Jogo Bonito]

9 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Can you recommend me some cheap strikers then or strikers who have their contracts expiring soon as I have no transfer budget left.

 

I could suggest a few French speaking ones. Whether they're Day 1 ready for Ligue 1 is another matter.

Who is on your shortlist for that position?

[Ronaldo Beckham]

3 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I could suggest a few French speaking ones. Whether they're Day 1 ready for Ligue 1 is another matter.

Who is on your shortlist for that position?

Here are my list of African players. I don't know what positions they are in though other then the ones I have signed in previous saves.

Parfait Guiagon
Audrey Modiba
Teboho Mokoena
Joel Yeregbe
Guy Romain Kpea
Aboubacar Doumbia
Mohamed Sylla
Ousmane Meite
Okemba Ovouka
Chieck Haidara
Wissem Bouhadiche
Irvin Cardona
Waniss Taibi
Robin Voisine
Said Arab
Hubert Mbuyi Muamba
Arouna Sangante
Willem Geubbels
Malek Menif
Thendo Mukumela
Riyaaz Koopstadt
Dean Solomons
Gift Motupa
Souleymane Diaby
Bubacarr Kebbeh
Hamza Chahid
Moussa Diarra
Cade Erickson
Alidu Seidu
Pokou N'Guessan
Dion Lopy
Timothy Atamenwan
Ousamma Falouh
Mamadou Traore
Oluwadamilare Olatunji
Bongolwethu Siyasi
Jihad Moussalli
Mateo Leveque
Hamza Ait Allal
Mamadi Fofana
Achref Afli
Ousmane Diakite
Victor Olatunji
Ebrima Darboe
Kagiso Madisha
Karim Konate

[Ewan0404]

1 hour ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Here are my list of African players. I don't know what positions they are in though other then the ones I have signed in previous saves.

Parfait Guiagon
Audrey Modiba
Teboho Mokoena
Joel Yeregbe
Guy Romain Kpea
Aboubacar Doumbia
Mohamed Sylla
Ousmane Meite
Okemba Ovouka
Chieck Haidara
Wissem Bouhadiche
Irvin Cardona
Waniss Taibi
Robin Voisine
Said Arab
Hubert Mbuyi Muamba
Arouna Sangante
Willem Geubbels
Malek Menif
Thendo Mukumela
Riyaaz Koopstadt
Dean Solomons
Gift Motupa
Souleymane Diaby
Bubacarr Kebbeh
Hamza Chahid
Moussa Diarra
Cade Erickson
Alidu Seidu
Pokou N'Guessan
Dion Lopy
Timothy Atamenwan
Ousamma Falouh
Mamadou Traore
Oluwadamilare Olatunji
Bongolwethu Siyasi
Jihad Moussalli
Mateo Leveque
Hamza Ait Allal
Mamadi Fofana
Achref Afli
Ousmane Diakite
Victor Olatunji
Ebrima Darboe
Kagiso Madisha
Karim Konate

Are you only signing African players? 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 minute ago, Ewan0404 said:

Are you only signing African players? 

Mostly African players yeah. I just enjoy signing unknown African players. 

 

[Jogo Bonito]

@Ronaldo Beckham I'd promote Koffi (on my shortlist) and use him, Donis and Toure whilst you wait for Konate. But I know that's not the answer you want...

[Ewan0404]

3 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Mostly African players yeah. I just enjoy signing unknown African players. 

 

A bit random but an interesting challenge. 

[Jogo Bonito]

Some French speaking African strikers for your limited budget @Ronaldo Beckham - best picks in bold. 

• Cheap or expiring contracts - Samson Akinyoola, Ibrahima Sow, Djibril Gueye, Mai Traore, Ibrahima Wadji, Leonel Wamba, Robert Tambe, Cephas Malele, Malick Evouna, Adel Bettaieb, Karim El Berkaoui
• Loan (if possible) - Bamba Dieng
• Free - Firmin Mubele, Abdoulaye Sane, Kule Mbombo 

Consider this a one-off pre-release favour 

P.S. Nabil Bentaleb is free if he fancies patrolling the Reims midfield.

Edited November 6, 2021 by Jogo Bonito

[Ronaldo Beckham]

3 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

@Ronaldo Beckham I'd promote Koffi (on my shortlist) and use him, Donis and Toure whilst you wait for Konate. But I know that's not the answer you want...

Yeah that is fine as Donis and Toure have been doing well for me with my 3 striker tactic I use.

2 hours ago, Ewan0404 said:

A bit random but an interesting challenge. 

Yeah I like to do different things to keep me interested in the save.

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Some French speaking African strikers for your limited budget @Ronaldo Beckham - best picks in bold. 

• Cheap or expiring contracts - Samson Akinyoola, Ibrahima Sow, Djibril Gueye, Mai Traore, Ibrahima Wadji, Leonel Wamba, Robert Tambe, Cephas Malele, Malick Evouna, Adel Bettaieb, Karim El Berkaoui
• Loan (if possible) - Bamba Dieng
• Free - Firmin Mubele, Abdoulaye Sane, Kule Mbombo 

Consider this a one-off pre-release favour 

P.S. Nabil Bentaleb is free if he fancies patrolling the Reims midfield.

Thank you @Jogo Bonito I will scout these players now and add them to my shortlist. Thank you.

[DefinitelyTaylor]

I’m posting my Toulouse career over in the FMCU forum. You can follow it here. 

 

[BadAss88]

5 hours ago, DefinitelyTaylor said:

I’m posting my Toulouse career over in the FMCU forum. You can follow it here. 

 

Toulouse are on my list for FM22 too.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Stade Reims Season 1 Review

I finished nicely in 14th position which is basically what I my expectations were so I am happy. 

I played a 3 strker tactic so I needed my strikers to score and I luckily had 2 out of the 3 who did score a decent amount each with El Bilal Toure being the top scorer with 18 goals for the season. He will hopefully form a nice strike partnership with new signing Karim Konate when he joins in the summer.

El Bilal Toure

 

Fraser Hornby got 16 goals for the season and would of probably got more if he played more games. It is quite remarkable how many goals he got considering his finishing attribute is only 9.

Fraser Hornby

Best Overall 11

Accolades

 

I didn't make many signings for the first team but my best first team signing was probably free transfer signing Ramon Azeez who was very solid in the middle of the pitch helping the defense and he only got 1 goal but it was the clubs goal of the season so he likes to score a spectacular goal.

Ramon Azeez

I have Karim Konate coming in who I mentioned before but I also have a personal favourite of mine coming in the summer and he was amazing for me in my FC Metz save I had on FM2020. His name is Parfait Guiagon. He is good at set pieces which I lack in the team.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Nice little award for Toure

[Ronaldo Beckham]

So because of FM2022 coming out today I have decided to start a new save in the French League but I am figuring out whether to start again as Stade Reims or take on another French league team and maybe one in Ligue 2. 

I have set myself some rules to make it more realistic to real life.

1.  No downloaded tactics - It takes the fun away if I use a super tactic
2.  I have kept player attritube masking - I only sign players I can scout
3.  Refuse to use shortlists full of wonderkids - FM saves get boring for me if I sign every wonderkid available.
4. Disabled First Transfer Window - I got to stick with what I have until January.
5. I want to try stick to the club's transfer policy so I will be looking at the squad and my transfer business will be based around players from them nations. So if I am doing  a French League save I will be looking at French, French speaking African players and non French speaking African players.
6. A lot of French teams rely on selling players to make money for them to survive. A lot of French teams are in debt so my aim is be financially efficiant even if that is at the expense of my squad. So no player is unsellable.

If @Jogo Bonito or anyone else has any suggestions to make it as realistic as possible then feel free to let me know. 

Here is my set up. 

I will post the team I decide on soon.

 

[Ewan0404]

Seems a fairly good set up to me. I'll be starting tomorrow in France and can't wait. 

Any idea what other club you might go then if not Reims again? 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

1 hour ago, Ewan0404 said:

Seems a fairly good set up to me. I'll be starting tomorrow in France and can't wait. 

Any idea what other club you might go then if not Reims again? 

In Ligue 1 I might manage Troyes, Clermont or Angers.

In Ligue 2 I am thinking a few teams. Maybe Paris FC, Le Harve, Auxerre etc. Literally every team in Ligue 2 looks like a good save.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I have found my new team for my first long term save on FM2022

Havre AC or as I know of them Le Havre FC are a team who have had a good track record of producing superstar players such as Paul Pogba, Riyad Mahrez, Benjamin Mendy, Ibrahim Ba,  Jean-Alain Boumsong, Steve Mandanda, Vikash Dhorasoo,  Lassana Diarra and Dimitri Payet. 

My aim is to continue this tradition whether it is players direct from my great youth academy or unknown players I sign and help turn them into superstars before they go off to play for bigger teams.

Le Havre haven't been in the French Ligue 1 since the 2008/2009 season. 

Their rivals are Lens and SM Caen. 

They were the first club out of Paris to win the French league title. 

The club was founded by Englishmen.

Le Havre is known as 'les ciel et marine' in France, which translates as 'the sky and navy blues'. These colours were chosen by the club's English founders as they were those of their alma maters, the universities of Oxford and Cambridge: the anthem of the club is played to the melody of "God Save the Queen" to mark the English origins of the club:

"A jamais le premier
de tous les clubs français
ô H.A.C.
Fiers de tes origines
Fils d'Oxford et Cambridge
deux couleurs font notre prestige
Ciel et marine!"

English translation:

"The first ever
of all French clubs
The H.A.C
Proud of your roots
Son of Oxford and Cambridge
two colors make our prestige
(the colors of the) sky and the sea!"

One thing I would like to do is set new records especially for the players. Alexandre Bonnet is the record appearance holder with 438 appearances and he is still at the club so he will probably end his career on 500 games for Le Havre. One of my goals is to find a player to beat his 438 appearance record.

Jean-Micheal Lesage has the most goals for the club with 78 goals. I think I will find someone who can get more then that but we will see.

This is a screenshot of the reccomended starting 11.

Here is a screenshot of the board's expectations. They want me to work within the wage budget, a top half finish, work towards being self-sustainable and most important one is to develop the best youth academy in Ligue 2. 

@Jogo Bonito Do you think I have made a good choice then ?

 

[Jogo Bonito]

Good choice of club with a decent history of developing fine young players. I like Ba (signed him for Montpellier) and they have a truly fantastic stadium.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

32 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Good choice of club with a decent history of developing fine young players. I like Ba (signed him for Montpellier) and they have a truly fantastic stadium.

Yeah the stadium does look lovely.

Le Havre have 2 Ba's but I assume the one you are on about is Abdoullah Ba who is doing well for me so far. 

[Hoarau]

Just when i think i'm out... all this chat of Ligue 2 sides and African journeymen pulls me right back in...

So it seems FM22 is taking me to the fourth largest city in burgundy and trying to follow in the footsteps of one of the godfathers of French football, Guy Roux.

Bonjour Les diplomates....

[Ewan0404]

I'll be downloading the game and starting tonight one I'm home. 

Decided to start as OGC Nice to try and topple PSG. 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

6 hours ago, Hoarau said:

Just when i think i'm out... all this chat of Ligue 2 sides and African journeymen pulls me right back in...

So it seems FM22 is taking me to the fourth largest city in burgundy and trying to follow in the footsteps of one of the godfathers of French football, Guy Roux.

Bonjour Les diplomates....

I nearly picked Auxerre before deciding on Le Havre so I am looking forward to seeing how you do with them. 

Good luck buddy and please post your progress on here.

[john1]

Lost my Saint-Etienne save after having to format my laptop, I am still tempted to manage in France again, might go for Lens or Saint-Etienne again.

Still undecided who to pick.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

30 minutes ago, john1 said:

Lost my Saint-Etienne save after having to format my laptop, I am still tempted to manage in France again, might go for Lens or Saint-Etienne again.

Still undecided who to pick.

Gutted mate. I hope you figure out who to manage and have a fun save.

 

[john1]

6 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Gutted mate. I hope you figure out who to manage and have a fun save.

 

Was really enjoying it, finished 3rd in my first season and 2nd in second season  

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Le Havre Season 1 Review

A good first season that faltered at the end and I was very close in making the play offs. I feel like the team has failed despite the board's expectations of a middle table finish which is what I achieved.

I need to do better next season and close the gap as I was 12 points away from the play offs.

I have got Karim Konate coming in for next season so hopefully he will give me the firepower I need to progress. 

So after saying about keeping to certain transfer policy well that didn't work out as my DOF who I leave in control of transfers and he signed a few free transfers. 

Lucas Necul(Argentinian), Jairo Quinteros(Bolivian) and Han Kwang-Song(North Korean) were my transfers for the season and as you can see below they didn't achieve much.

Best Overall 11

Fernand Mayembo was my best player with the Congo central defender having a very good overal average rating & 5 goals which was better then my actual strikers which is a bit depressing.

Fernand Mayembo

My top goalscorer was midfielder Himad Abdelli(Algerian)who got 7 goals and seems like a good player in the making. 

Himad Abdelli

Accolades

[Bradz FM]

On 09/11/2021 at 01:02, Ronaldo Beckham said:

Yeah the stadium does look lovely.

Le Havre have 2 Ba's but I assume the one you are on about is Abdoullah Ba who is doing well for me so far. 

I done a save with them on FM21. Best save ever.

Last year Abdeli, Ba, Meddah, Isaak Toure, Ylan Gomes and Yahia Fofana all turned out pretty good. Abdeli, Ba and Gomes stayed 13 years with us. Some cracking talent came through too

[SkeltonTom]

Tempted to start one with Red Star Paris or Paris FC... Any thoughts?

[Ronaldo Beckham]

4 hours ago, Trevomac said:

I done a save with them on FM21. Best save ever.

Last year Abdeli, Ba, Meddah, Isaak Toure, Ylan Gomes and Yahia Fofana all turned out pretty good. Abdeli, Ba and Gomes stayed 13 years with us. Some cracking talent came through too

Gomes has been rubbish for me so far. Hopefully he gets better in time.

 

 

[nico_france]

Il y a 4 heures, SkeltonTom a dit :

Tempted to start one with Red Star Paris or Paris FC... Any thoughts?

Had a great save back in the days with Paris FC

But it will take a lot of time to become the best team in Paris 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Ba Gone

Gutted he has gone but he went for a decent fee and if he does well at Palace then I will get a big chunk of money from his next transfer.

I have had a loan offer for him accepted by Palace so we will see how that develops.

 

[john1]

Currently managing in France with AS Saint-Étienne.

This pops up, Never say never  

 

Edited November 12, 2021 by john1

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Le Havre Season 2 Review

Another season of feeling like we could of done better. We struggled to hit consistency but we finished 10th in the league. I managed to hit form towards the end of the season but it was too little too late as I wanted to get into the play offs at least.

Transfers

 

Main transfers out were players I didn't want to lose but I had to take out the emotion of having the players there as the club needs to sell their highest assets to keep surviving. 

I had good offers for Isaak Toure who went to Aston Villa for £3m upfront. £2m in clauses and also the club get 50% of the profit on his next transfer. 

Toure played 7 games and got 1 goal for Aston Villa so far.

Abdoullah Ba has only played 4 games for Crystal Palace and not done very well when he has played.

My best signing was Karim Konate who is starting to become a really good player for me.

He got 10 goals for the season but I know in a year or 2 he will get 20 plus goals a season.

My Best Overall 11

I want to try get into the Play Offs next season. Le Havre are too big of a club to be in the French Ligue 2.

 

[john1]

Get in   First trophy on FM22!  Great to see my goalkeeper, scoring the winning penalty  

Edited November 13, 2021 by john1

[john1]

Just finished my first season with AS Saint-Étienne. I thought we did well, and exceeded many expectations, could have nicked 3rd spot, but suffered 2 defeats in last 5 games sadly. Also winning the cup too   Might raid Bordeaux and Nantes to find cheap players  Might look at improving U's19 coaching teams even each department rated the best. Have also been focussing on Switzerland leagues and Africa regions for hidden gems.

 

Tactics

  
 
Tactic wise, I went for this classic formation, don't know if anyone remember on FM19 or so, Real Madrid was using this tactic but MC to AMC position, I decided to try this out to suit the players I have at the club. Which works out well for us. Also got 4-3-1-2 narrow tactic too, but not used it much as I have with 4-2-3-1 formation. Might go for something different next season, still undecided.

My U's19 won the league, hopefully, will play few youngsters next season from the U's19 to aide their development.

 

Transfers

 

Most of them was signed by my DOF and HOYD. Only signings I made was Alexandre Jankewitz and Zhirkov. Only bought in Zhirkov, for mentoring purpose.

Edited November 13, 2021 by john1

[john1]

Best thing this season, is not suffered defeat against PSG  

 

[john1]

 

HUGOOOOOO

This how PSG lined up