FM23 Glory Hunter!!

[BadAss88]

Hi,

This is a thread for everyone who wants to share his Glory Hunter adventure!! 

For those of you not familiar with it you have to win the following 14 (or 16) trophies in 20 years:

Premier League & FA Cup (& Carabao Cup)
 La Liga & Copa del Rey
 Serie A & Coppa Italia
 Bundesliga & DFB-Pokal
 Ligue 1 & Coupe de France
 Champions League & Europa League (& Conference League)

& also for you who likes International management: 

World Cup & Euro's!

Good Luck!!

Edited January 20, 2023 by BadAss88

[BadAss88]

And I give you all some inspiration for some interesting save-options to start with:

England: Wrexham (Impossible! @stevemc), Southampton, Newcastle, Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea & Man Utd;
Spain: Deportivo, Real Valladolid, Almeria, Athletic Bilbao, Betis, Valencia & Atlético Madrid;
Italy: Parma, Sampdoria, Atalanta, Lazio, Juventus, Napoli & Internazionale;
Germany: Hamburg SV, Schalke 04, Hertha BSC, Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig & Dortmund;
France: Bordeaux, AJ Auxerre, OGC Nice, Rennes, Lyon, Marseille & Monaco
Other:  Hajduk Split, Grasshoppers, Anderlecht, Dynamo Kiev, RB Salzburg, Ajax & Benfica

[Gee_Simpson]

@BadAss88

Benfica or Leverkusen? Can't decide between them. Benfica have great facilities and great youth, potentially loads of wonderkids. Leverkusen play in a more competitive league and seem to have more resources in the game. 

[BadAss88]

9 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

@BadAss88

Benfica or Leverkusen? Can't decide between them. Benfica have great facilities and great youth, potentially loads of wonderkids. Leverkusen play in a more competitive league and seem to have more resources in the game. 

Both teams are fun options, I'm more a Benfica-fan than Leverkusen, so I would prefer them!

I myself, am starting with my favorite club: RSC Anderlecht! In real life they're doing aweful so they deserve better!

[Gee_Simpson]

9 hours ago, BadAss88 said:

Both teams are fun options, I'm more a Benfica-fan than Leverkusen, so I would prefer them!

I myself, am starting with my favorite club: RSC Anderlecht! In real life they're doing aweful so they deserve better!

Thanks 👍🏻

Do you use any transfer updates or do you just play with the summer 2022 squads?

I like the idea of Benfica, the only thing is the league may not be the most competitive, but I guess the real challenge for Benfica is doing well in the Champions League.

[BadAss88]

13 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Thanks 👍🏻

Do you use any transfer updates or do you just play with the summer 2022 squads?

I like the idea of Benfica, the only thing is the league may not be the most competitive, but I guess the real challenge for Benfica is doing well in the Champions League.

I'm using the summer 2022 squads

[BadAss88]

13 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

👍🏻

I've decided to go both. I'm going Leverkusen first as I'm biased, they are my favourite German team. I want to use Schjelderup and this will be my last chance with the summer 2022 squads. Then once the January window update is out in late February, I'll go Benfica with the updated squads, meaning I get to use Schjelderup again because as we know, he went to Benfica irl 🙂

Good luck! I'm looking forward to reading your progress!

[sedge11]

On 21/01/2023 at 07:52, BadAss88 said:

Both teams are fun options, I'm more a Benfica-fan than Leverkusen, so I would prefer them!

I myself, am starting with my favorite club: RSC Anderlecht! In real life they're doing aweful so they deserve better!

Obviously everyone plays different but if your doing a glory hunter, it seems abit of waste to start in a country that you don't need to win trophies in, especially when on a time limit.

Glory hunter are great saves though, France is usually the toughest league, because if you don't go for the PSG job they aren't easy to dethrone, and the PSG job rarely becomes available.

[BadAss88]

3 hours ago, sedge11 said:

Obviously everyone plays different but if your doing a glory hunter, it seems abit of waste to start in a country that you don't need to win trophies in, especially when on a time limit.

Glory hunter are great saves though, France is usually the toughest league, because if you don't go for the PSG job they aren't easy to dethrone, and the PSG job rarely becomes available.

It makes the challenge harder yes, but you can still win trophies in other countries as well..

[Gee_Simpson]

Decided against going Leverkusen for now, seems I just can't play with the summer 2022 squads afterall, I like for things to be up to date 😅

So I'm waiting for the window to close on the 31st January, then I'll either wait for the official update in February or just download one after the 31st, and I'll actually be going Benfica instead 👍🏻

Edited January 28, 2023 by Gee_Simpson

[10Sammo10]

Going to start up a save an give this challenge a go. 

Looking at Nice. Hopefully get the Conference League early as it looks like a winnable competition. Some good younger players (Todibo, Thuram) but unfortunately quite a lot of Prem deadwood to get rid of. 

Looking forward to seeing other updates

[BadAss88]

I've started with Internazionale as Daniele De Rossi.

First task, upgrading my staff and analysing my squad.

[Gee_Simpson]

I'm now waiting for the official update before starting my Benfica save. I want the funds from the Enzo Fernandez deal 🤑

[10Sammo10]

Glory Hunter - Season 1 summary

Monaco 2022/23 

Ended up going for Monaco rather than Nice.

Didn't get off to a great start, getting pushed into the Europa League, after failing to get past Benfica for Champions League qualification. I wasn't devastated by this though as I saw it as a good opportunity to challenge for the Europa league, which might be one of the trickier trophies to get my hands on, depending on club choice. 

 

Transfers - 

There was quite a lot of activity for a first window

Out 

I felt there was quite a bit of deadwood and a lot of squad players I thought I could updgrade on quite cheaply, so the following departed. 

The only one I was unsure of was Boadu who I have great success with in previous version of Football Manager, but I felt I had better options and wanting 2 players for each position I couldn't fit him in so decided to cash in. 

In  

Coming in was a lot of young talent. With the PSG dominance on the nation, I feel this will likely be my longest stint at a club for this challenge, so I wanted to bring in plenty of youngsters who can grow to hopefully build a title challenging side. Schjelderup and Fofana, likely need little introduction and should turn into very important players. And at worst, players I can turn a tidy profit on. 

Wanting to play 3 in the midfield, I was light there so Seung-Ho (An absolute steal) and Hamer came in to provide some competition and Fagioli was signed with an option to buy, so another I couldn't really lose on. 

Finally Fran Garcia came in to hopefully become my long term left back, with some very good all round attributes. 

 

Competitions - 

League 

We finished second on the final day, but we were never in a title race. We flirted with it around christmas when PSG dropped the odd point, but they ran away with it. I fear I may be trying a while to topple them, when you look at Mbappe's goal tally...

 

Europa League 

As mentioned earlier, I had high hopes for this competition and saw it as a great chance to tick it off early. Unfortunately after a good start we met one of the strongest sides in the competition early at the last 16 phase, Man United. 

They got the better of us in both legs and unfortunately we will have to wait for another shot at the Europa. 

 

 

French Cup 

This one was agonising and probably something that will haunt me. PSG went out early, which gave me a great shot of getting this one done at the first attempt and being able to throw everything at the league next season. It ended with heartbreak in the final though as we lost on penalties to Nice (The side I originally planned to pick). Mo Camara missing the decisive spot kick and this one hurt a lot. 

 

The squad - 

There some players that shone this season. Disasi and Badiashile formed a good partnership and certainly one that could become a long term thing. Vanderson was brilliant and offered so much in attack as well. 

Kevin Volland was a goal contribution monster, with 25 goals and 11 assists. Scheljdrup had a great first year and looks like he will become a star man. Fofana quietly hit the 20 goal mark, mostly in cups but showed he will be a long term heir to our top goalscorer Ben Yedder who oozes class. 

 

Have already made some free transfers for next year which should add a lot to the squad and have been given a tasty £68m budget, which alongside sales will hopefully put me in a good position to build a squad that can hopefully at least put up a challenge to the PSG dominance. 

Edited February 12, 2023 by 10Sammo10

[10Sammo10]

Glory Hunter 2023/24 - Season 2 Summary 

Transfers - 

Out - 

There weren't any major departures. We managed to keep our key men together, whilst shipping off some players not in long term plans to help with the transfer budget. Embolo, Henrique, Camara, Minamino and Aguilar were squad players the season before, but not players I wanted to rely on so we got some good fees

In - 

There was a number of incomings in key areas and I was happy with the players I was able to bring in to club. We raided Brentford who relegated, so getting in David Raya to be the new number one and Rico Henry for a combined fee of less than £30m was a real coo. 

The Free transfer market was one we had plenty of success and De Vrij and Bamba were brought in to improve the quality, but also the experience and again seemed to good to be true. Ben Romdhane was also poached from Tunisia. Someone I have not come across before, but has really nicely rounded stats. Soppy and Van de Ven came in to at first provide cover across the defence but potentially become long term stars. 

Tottenham were desperate to get rid of Ndombele so I picked him up on a cut price loan deal. I was hopeful I could bring the best out of him. If I couldn't it was low risk and something I didn't need to commit to. 

And finally most of the money went on Brennan Johnson. Half my budget, but a player I love and could make the Right side his own. 

 

 

Competitions - 

The League 

Once again, PSG were too strong. Mbappe didn't score as many, but still a large number. We secured second, even after prioritising other competitions when it became clear PSG were going to walk away with it. Next year, hopefully we get closer. 

 

Champions League - 

A very unexpected run in this competition. Part of me was hoping for a third place group finish to have a good go at the Europa League. But after getting through the group we had some favourable draws which took us to the Semi's. We got past the two Italians sides in Napoli and Inter, but unfortunately Liverpool proved too much. Just as they did when we met in the groups. 

 

French Cup - 

Fortunately the season was not wasted. We ticked the first competition off! Cruising to the final we met the nemesis in PSG. I tried a completely new tactic and put a lot more focus on opposition instructions for this one and it paid off. We took a 3-0 lead in the first half with Ndombele paying his loan fee off and some getting a brace. They fought back, but we just clung on to get that first trophy which allows us to put all focus on the league next season.

 

 

 

The Squad 

 

£40m to put together a title winning squad. 

 

[10Sammo10]

Season 3 2024/5 

After an almost full pre-season, I by chance noticed on my news page something very interesting. 

This left me with a dilemma. After making some transfers and feeling like I might challenge, I decided it wasn't worth the risk and that getting the league title with PSG and moving on should be a sure thing. It was also a rare opportunity to manage Neymar, Messi and Mbappe as it's very rare I'd be at a club that could afford or attract them in a normal save. On top of all that, it was a chance to also have a good shot at the Champions League. I applied and was offered the job 3 days before the Super Cup against who ? Monaco of course. We started with a nice win and a trophy in the first game. 

French Cup 

Despite not paying any attention to this competition and seeing it as an opportunity to rest some players, we got our hands on the trophy for a second time. 

 

The League 

France complete. It would have been a huge failure to not win this, but we got it done easily. My personal target was to do it as Invincibles, but unfortunately we didn't manage that. Lyon and Marseille rose to the occasion to defeat. Mbappe's goal record was insane and outscored 8 teams in the league. 16 point margin in the end 

 

 

Champions League 

I thought we had a really good chance at ticking this one off with the squad we have. Unfortunately we didn't achieve that. It became apparent very quickly in the quarter final away to Bayern that we couldn't afford to cater for both Messi and Neymar and they physically dominated us and made it very difficult to recover in the second leg. We'll see what offers come up in the summer, but if I am not able to move on, I will hopefully give it a better shot next season. 

 

The Squad 

Obviously Mbappe was a joke on the goal front, but it was really fun managing Messi and seeing some of his moments. Sane was a key asset on the wing and his pace gave us something different. So many assists and a good number of goals. Araujo and Kimpembe formed a really solid partnership and someone who was really key was Seiweld who did a lot of dirty work in the middle to allow the attackers to work their magic. 

 

 

There is not a huge amount going on with available jobs. Currently just Frankfurt available. Will see what movement there is through the summer, but hopefully a new country awaits. 

 

Edited February 27, 2023 by 10Sammo10

[Raymubdo21]

Great updates! I've just started my first glory hunter challenge and funny enough got Monaco out of the hat, the league is over already with PSG too strong first season but enjoying the challenge!

[10Sammo10]

23 hours ago, Raymubdo21 said:

Great updates! I've just started my first glory hunter challenge and funny enough got Monaco out of the hat, the league is over already with PSG too strong first season but enjoying the challenge!

Thanks! Nice, I enjoyed managing them. Got some good backing from the board as the seasons went on as well. I think I got lucky with the PSG job coming up though as they are unstoppable as long as Mbappe is there. But good luck with dethroning them! 
 

Frankfurt was the only available job so I’ve take up that challenge. Fear I could have a similar issue to PSG with Bayern though..

[10Sammo10]

 Season 25/26 (4) - Frankfurt 

Transfers

Out 

The first thing I did was clear out the deadwood and there was a lot of. Nobody that left in the summer window was anyone that I wanted to keep hold of and I managed to raise some funds to improve some areas of the squad. 

 

In 

Shipping out so much deadwood meant there was a lot of reconstruction needed, so I was very active in the window. 

Noah Dorman was a regen and one for the future, but he looks quite handy. Wing back was a key area and my main priority to strengthen. Thierno Balde and Aryton Lucas came in to provide some attacking threat from deep. I've not used either before but Balde has some nicely rounded stats, combined with some electric pace (18) and Lucas seemed to be bit of an all rounder. 

Agoume was someone I had my eye on whilst at Monaco and I decided to pull the trigger this season. A good all rounder and I gelt I needed some energy and physicality to the midfield. The same applied to Andrey Santos who has a bit more technically as well and was probably the marquee signing. Broja, Richarlison and Bella-Kotchap all came in on loan to bolster the squad. Initially the plan was for Broja to be the main striker, but when Richarlison was available too I brought them both in to fight it out and whoever impressed the least would go back in Jan. 

 

Unfortunately there was a major departure in Jan, that had all the makings of derailing my season. With 45 minutes of the transfer window remaining, Man United came in and activated Evan N'Dickas release clause. My best centre back and key man was suddenly gone out of nowhere and I had no time to replace him. What made it worse was that same day Southampton recalled Kotchap from his loan due to lack of minutes, but I completely missed that and only found out whilst working out a contingency plan for life without N'Dicka. 

 

The league

We made a brilliant start to the season and went into the winter break in 2nd and only a few points off Bayern. Unfortunately our form dove off a cliff post-winter (Partly due to Man United's antics) and we only just crept into the European places. It took a huge win against Mainz, our challengers, on the penultimate game of the season to secure Europa League football next season and hopefully a chance to challenge for that. 

 

DFB Pokal 

Absolute Deja vu from my first season at Monaco. Heartbreak on penalties in the final. A tight game against Leipzig went to penalties and after 17 penalties in a row being scored, we missed and it was a familiar feeling. 

 

The Squad 

Kolo Muani was the standout performer with 24 goals and 6 assists. He got a large portion of those goals before the winter break and flying at the start of the season. The same could be said of Richarlison who got all but 1 of his goals before the winter break. His 1 goal after was in the cup final to be fair. His form made me terminate Broja's loan and I was very close to activating his optional fee, but having seen his second half of the season form I'll be looking at other options. Bornauw carried the defence and was huge for me with N'Dickas unexpected departure. 

Lindstrom and Sow are players I've looked at signing in other saves and they didn't disappoint. 

 

There will be a lot more activity in the transfer window next season to try and make a competitive squad across 3 competitions. I had the N'Dicka money left over and spent that in the build up to this next season to make sure I didn't lose it in next season's budget. So we have some squad players already coming in and I've been given a tasty budget to bring in some more expensive signings in key areas. 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2023 by 10Sammo10

[stevemc]

I started a bit of a Glory Hunter save on the previous patch, but started with Wrexham so can't do it under 20 years, so I'm planning to start again now the update is out and see how I get on with this. I'm struggling to get fully immersed into FM23, I'm a bit stop/start with it, so I'm hoping this challenge gives me that bug and something to get my teeth into. I also enjoy DoctorBenji's Glory Hunter series (shout out to Lollujo's Non-League-to-Legend too), it's my kinda save.

Going with the trophy options (14) from the opening post, but swerving International competitions as its dire, and I know it'll just be a chore for me personally.

Not 100% sure who to start with yet (figure it out over the next day or so), but thinking a Europa Conference League team to help knock the lowest European competition off this list first.

I've knocked up a template that I'll keep updated throughout the journey...

If anyone wants this template let me know and I'll send it you (created in Adobe XD but can send you as a blank PDF).

Edited March 12, 2023 by stevemc

[10Sammo10]

Nice! Look forward to see who you go with and updates. I've been the same and the challenge has definitely upped the enthusiasm to play. 

Really nice template. I'd be keen to use if you were able to share . Especially as I'm not going down the international route either and will be trying to get the conference league done.  

[stevemc]

3 hours ago, 10Sammo10 said:

Nice! Look forward to see who you go with and updates. I've been the same and the challenge has definitely upped the enthusiasm to play. 

Really nice template. I'd be keen to use if you were able to share . Especially as I'm not going down the international route either and will be trying to get the conference league done.  

Here's a blank PDF file 

glory-hunter.pdf

[10Sammo10]

Season 26/27 Frankfurt season 2 

 

Transfers

I really, really hate transfer windows like the one I had this season. I had planned to make more changes than I would usually like (around 8-9 incomings) but due to a combination of teams unexpectedly coming in for players who I was planning on moving on further on down the line with offers that did not make sense to reject and a few of my star men being poached by those damn release clauses I ended up having a Nottingham Forest style window. The plus side is it should stand me in good stead for the next seasons and mean less work is needed and a more settled team for the long run. 

Departures could be split into 3 categories. Those players I actively wanted to sell - Plizzari, Wind, Foti, Gotze, Toure, Doyle and Ramaj really didn't do anything close to enough last season to be good enough players to be regular rotation options, so I was happy to accept the bids that came in for them and move them on. Plizzari was our number 1 last season, but a string of errors towards the end of the year in key games meant he had to go. 

Those players I was intending on keeping as squad players, but offers came in for more than made sense to reject - Sow, Tuta, Kamada. All 3 were getting closer to the end of their careers and the bids that came in allowed us to upgrade on them with younger, better players. 

And those I was powerless to keep and gutted to lose - Kolo Muani, Andrey Santos and Lucien Agoume. All 3 had their release clauses activated. My former club Monaco really stitched us up snatching Muani for a bargain price. At least I got to use Santos and Agoume for half a season, but it almost made it worse losing them then as they were harder to replace in January and left a huge hole in the midfield. 

 

The big incoming signings were made replacing the star men we lost to release clauses. Muani was replaced with Arnaud Kalimuendo. Someone who tore up France whilst I was at Monaco, but a less successful time at Tottenham after a big money move there, meant I was able to give him an opportunity in Germany and be my main man up front. Amadou Onana came in in January to replace Santos/Agoume. Some serious physicality and athleticism added to the team and the two of them was half of my outgoings. 

Elsewhere there were quite a few bargains brought in to the side to provide competition for places and allow for rotation across the 3 competitions. 

I signed Raya as my number 1 for a second time bringing him over from Monaco. 

The defence was bolstered with Omabamidele coming on a free and Bisseck coming with him to be backup options in the centre. The main signing was Torunarigha, coming in for £20m as that was one of the main areas I identified as needing strengthening, a quality left sided centre back. Calegari and Becker came in as competition on each side and both have some really nicely rounded stats. 

Hannibal was a bit of a steal from United where he struggled for game time. And the midfield was fleshed out by Eggestein, Nkilli and the first of two regens signed Ito. All adding different strengths and options in there. 

Support Kalimuendo, we managed to get Cunha to return to Germany on a free which was a real coup and Laurin Ulrich was a really exciting young addition who I was hoping could become a massive player for us. Lewelling and my second regen Marnick Symons again fleshed out the attack primarily to be used in cup competitions. 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

The League 

It was not to be this year, but there was a positive to take in the fact that Bayern no longer appear to be an unstoppable force and it was actually Dortmund who took the title in a much closer contested race than I had anticipated. I think with a few strong additions we can hopefully run it a bit closer next season. But Champions League qualification and a boost to some already healthy finances was very welcome. 

 

DFB Pokal 

Unfortunately we ran into Bayern in the semis and were not at the races. They comfortably dispatched of us meaning we'll have to put focus onto both domestic competitions next season. 

 

Europa League - 

Fortunately the season was not wasted though. Whilst it doesn't help us move on from Germany any quicker, we managed to tick off a potentially tricky trophy and it was a bit of a breeze to be honest. We blitzed through the groups, event throwing in a 10-0 win in there and had a pretty straightforward run to the final and even that was a comfortable victory, putting 4 past Marseille. Ulrich producing a masterclass with a 10 rating, a goal and 2 assists. 

 

 

 

The Squad 

Kalimuendo was by far the standout this season, notching an incredible 50 goals in all competitions. He was backed up really nicely though by the likes of Ulrich, Lewelling and Cunha who all put up some really decent numbers. 

Hannibal and Onana were really strong in midfield covering all areas and contributing to a lot of goals too. Bornauw and Torunarigha were a really solid partnership at the back and the base were everything was built. 

Raya proved to be a big upgrade in goal and for 1.5m Becker proved to be a bargain putting in really solid performances and getting his fair share of assists. 

 

Next season the focus will be on really challenging domestically and with the number of transfers I ended up having to do last year I'm hoping to only having to sprinkle a little bit of additional quality with a handful of signings this time around. 

 

Thanks very much for the graphic Stevemc. I'll try and spend a bit of time before my next update not making my additions to it look so amateurish. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 16, 2023 by 10Sammo10
Rogue image

[DaveMUFC]

On 21/01/2023 at 07:52, BadAss88 said:

Both teams are fun options, I'm more a Benfica-fan than Leverkusen, so I would prefer them!

I myself, am starting with my favorite club: RSC Anderlecht! In real life they're doing aweful so they deserve better!

Did you kick off with Anderlecht? I really love the idea of the team, the potential the kids have, and bringing them back to the top, but the team is honestly hopeless. 

I've tried doing both vertical tiki taka and gegenpressing, 4-3-3, 3-5-2 etc. And I can't get the players to score, and they keep leaving huge gaps in defence. 

It's left me with 7 points in 9 games, in the relegation zone, and I'm rather going to get sacked or lose interest at this rate!

[BadAss88]

5 hours ago, DaveMUFC said:

Did you kick off with Anderlecht? I really love the idea of the team, the potential the kids have, and bringing them back to the top, but the team is honestly hopeless. 

I've tried doing both vertical tiki taka and gegenpressing, 4-3-3, 3-5-2 etc. And I can't get the players to score, and they keep leaving huge gaps in defence. 

It's left me with 7 points in 9 games, in the relegation zone, and I'm rather going to get sacked or lose interest at this rate!

Didn't kick off a good save yet in FM23.. Can't get the immersion going..

[10Sammo10]

Season 27/28 Frankfurt Season 3 (Glory Hunter - Season 6)

 

Transfers

It was a much less extravagant window in regards to the number of players coming in, this time being in a better position to go for quality over quantity. 

Leaving the club were some players that contributed a lot to our first couple of seasons, but areas that we could upgrade. Kamada and Lindstrom saw minutes decrease, so I moved them on and Ayrton Lucas and Eggestein, two players I had bought to the club were starting to age so again, moved on whilst we could get a decent fee. 

The first incoming was turning Nkili's loan into a permanent. He developed really nicely and for the option to buy fee we had it was a no brainer. A second player joining from Bayern was Alvaro Fernandez. He has developed into a really good all round left back and I was more than happy to give him the game Bayern were not able to. 

We the strengthened further up the field spending a decent sum of £85m for Lovro Zvonarek and Pedro Neto. Zvoranek someone who is still young enough to develop further, but incredible stats already with the idea he would be a big source of goals from midfield. And Pedro Neto was the marquee signing. I was surprised to be able to beat strong competition to get him on board, but he was brought in to add to our attacking options.  

 

 

The League 

We pushed Bayern close this year, but unfortunately tailed off right at the very end of the season to have a slightly bigger gap than the race for the title really was up until the end of April. Unfortunately competing in 3 major competitions meant we didn't quite have enough to get the job done, but was a promising sign to see we were good enough to at least push. Hopefully we can go one step further next season.

 

Champions League

After a patchy start we made it comfortably into the play off round of the Champions league, not coming too far off the top 8 of the group phase. Incredibly the knockout rounds saw us first take on our first side in the Glory Hunter Challenge (Monaco) and get past them, we were drawn against our other former employers (PSG) in the last 16. We managed to beat them as well, but unfortunately Napoli were too much for us in the Quarters with Kvaradona and Osimhen still running riot for them. 

 

DFB Pokal 

Thankfully though we managed to get another trophy in the bag and secured the DFB Pokal. It wasn't the easiest of routes, getting past Stuttgart, Wolfsburg and Leipzig before a pretty uneventful 1-0 win over Dortmund in the final, with that man Kalimuendo's early goal enough to get our hands on the silverware.

 

The Squad

Kalimuendo was once again incredible, not quite hitting the heights of his 50 goals last season, but still far too good. Alvaro Fernandez was an excellent addition and contributed really well going forwards as well, with lots of assists. Ulrich, Cunha, Neto and Zvoranek were a great supporting act for Kalimuendo, all getting a great mix of goals and assists. Hannibal stepped up and Nkili continued his development and is turning into an asset. 

 

 

 

[stevemc]

I’ve finally started Glory Hunter, with Newcastle United, how long it will last God only knows as FM23 isn’t gripping me like previous editions but I’m trying my best.

I’m focussed on setting up the team as a defensively solid unit (I’d rather see 1-0’s than 4-2’s) built around youth, so players like Gordon, Isak and Anderson will be mainstays from the start, with Ashby getting some involvement too.

I’ve also added in Scalvini, Alex Scott, Parisi and Manu Kone. With Livakovic replacing Dúbravka too as I received an unexpected £6m offer for the later. Medium term I will be looking to build the core of the team around Home Grown status players.

Planning to finish in the European places and move forward from season 2 in terms of picking up trophies and improving the youth facilities and coaching set up.

Newcastle United feels like a good start point as they have money and you can make the squad your own quite quickly, before looking at moving around countries.

Edited April 6, 2023 by stevemc

[BadAss88]

[Sunderland AFC]

What reputation do people start a glory hunter with?

[BadAss88]

On 06/04/2023 at 22:55, Sunderland AFC said:

What reputation do people start a glory hunter with?

I've started with International (Continental) as reputation as I play as ex-international Yohan Cabaye.

[stevemc]

Glory Hunter: Season 1

Newcastle United 22/23

First season of Glory Hunter went well, managed to knock off the Carabao Cup and finish second in the league to secure Champions League football, but disappointingly lost the FA Cup final to Arsenal.

To accomplish that I brought in Giorgio Scalvini for £45m, Fabiano Parisi for £27m, Dominik Livaković for £8.5m and Manu Koné for £51m. January saw Sivert Mannsverk arrive for £4.9m and Martin Baturina for £13m to bolster the squad out.

6ft7in Dan Burn bagged 20 goals from set pieces, and put in some great performances so dislodged Sven Botman from defence. Gordon and Alex Scott were amazing for me too. And Callum Wilson is a cheat code on FM.

 

Carabao Cup:

 

FA Cup:

 

Premier League:

 

 

Moving into Season 2, I decided to speed up the rebuild with a very busy window and increase the quality of the squad;

IN’s:

Diogo Costa £65m

Freddie Woodman £4.3m

António Silva £43m

Joško Gvardiol £47m

Teun Koopmeiners £37m

James Ward-Prowse £36m

Jude Bellingham £91m

Gabriel Vidović £61m

Evan Ferguson £63m

Marcus Thuram (Free)

 

OUT’s:

Isaac Hayden £7m

Karl Darlow £375,000

Miguel Almirón £35m

Sean Longstaff £15m

Jacob Murphy £2.5m

Emil Krafth £5m

Matthew Targett £22m

Jeff Hendrick £700,000

Joelinton £41m

Allan Saint-Maximin £46.5m

Chris Wood £15m

Joe Willock £13.5m

Nick Pope £14m

Bruno Guimarães £48m

Sven Botman £45m

 

There might be a little business on deadline day but the squad is almost there for this season as we try to close the gap on Manchester City and pick the FA Cup up. I think the Champions League will be beyond us this season, but in 2-3 years time I think it’s possible.

Leaves the squad looking like this for now;

GK: Diogo Costa, Dominik Livaković, Freddie Woodman

RB: Kieran Trippier, James Ward-Prowse

LB: Fabiano Parisi

CB: Giorgio Scalvini, Joško Gvardiol, António Silva, Dan Burn

DM: Manu Koné, Elliot Anderson, Teun Koopmeiners

CM/AM: Jude Bellingham, Anthony Gordon, Gabriel Vidović, Alex Scott

ST: Callum Wilson, Alexander Isak, Evan Ferguson, Marcus Thuram

Youth: Daniel Langley, Harrison Ashby, Dylan Stephenson, Garang Kuol, Lewis Miley

Loan: Sivert Mannsverk, Martin Baturina

Edited April 14, 2023 by stevemc

[Watson156]

So I started this challenge as I couldn't really get into a save, so the idea of moving teams really helped. I started with the latest transfer database from Pr0. 

Before I started this I had an idea of trying to complete this challenge with teams that had never won the league title before. After having a look around at the possible teams, there was a few good starting points. Bayer Leverkusen, RB Leipzig & Hoffenheim all stood out as great starting points in Germany. France is a bit trickier with only Stade Rennais being a viable/quickish option. In Italy and England I already know which teams I want to complete their parts of the challenge with so I didn't need to look at those leagues. When looking at Spain, Villarreal was the team that really stood out. Their predicted to finish in the top 4, have some very good players and the added bonus for me was that they start in the Conference League. I wanted to get this ticked off quickly, as I don't think it will be massivly hard to win the other 2 European trophies. 

I haven't decided about the International trophies. I will keep an eye out for a good national team job, but I'm not going to go out of my way to get them finished. If it happens it happens!!

As you can see, it went very well.

* * *

League Table:

 

Copa del Rey:

 

Europa Conference League:

 

Transfer History:

 

* * *

Looking ahead to next season there is a very intriguing job available at the moment. Olympique Lyonnais sacked Laurent Blanc after finishing 11th last season. I know that I wanted to try to use teams that haven't won the league before but I would really like to power my way through France & Germany because Italy & England are going to potentially take a lot of the 20 years. There aren't really any other jobs available. Barcelona & Real Madrid both sacked their manager but I don't need those jobs and going by who is linked to the jobs then there wont be another vaiable job open until the season starts again. I've applied so now its the waiting game!!

Trophy Count: 3/16

England: 0/3
France: 0/2
Germany: 0/2
Italy: 0/2
Spain: 2/2 (Villarreal 22/23| La Liga & Copa del Rey)

Europe: 1/3 (Villarreal 22/23| Conference League)
International: 0/2

--------------------------------------------------------
Year by Year

1. 22/23) Villarreal - Won Domestic Double & Conference League

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by Watson156

[BadAss88]

Great start!! Lots of goalscoring 

What tactics do you use? 

[Watson156]

On 25/04/2023 at 07:28, BadAss88 said:

Great start!! Lots of goalscoring 

What tactics do you use? 

Thanks. 

I'm currently mixing between a few tactics from here. I mainly used the Target Man tactic for Villarreal.

[Watson156]

Season 2 | 23/24 |

After winning the treble with Villarreal, I applied for the vacant job at Lyon. I didn't get it, instead they went for Lopetegui. After that I decided to resign from Villarreal. I did get them to agree to my Continental B coaching badge before hand. There was then a bit of a managerial free for all. In short:

Barcelona - Sergio Conceicao (Porto) - Not playable, or useful

Real Madrid - Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) - Didn't want Liverpool job

Villarreal - Graham Potter (Sevilla) - Finished Spain

Liverpool - Thomas Tuchel (FC Bayern) - Applied for job. No interview

FC Bayern - Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid) - Finished Spain

Atletico Madrid - Maurizio Sarri (Lazio) - Don't want Lazio job

Lazio - Christophe Galtier (PSG) - Applied for PSG job. No interview

PSG - Luka Elsner (Havre AC) - Dont want Havre job

I went on holiday until October and it wasn't long before teams started to sack their managers. West Ham first and then Tottenham. I didn't want either of those jobs but applied for the Tottenham job just to get a gauge of what jobs I might be able to get. I was offered an interview for the Tottenham job and then offered the job. I rejected it and waited for the right job. Mid way through November I thought I had found my next club. French team Marseille had offered me the job. Thankfully I decided to delay my decision a week because just 2 days later I was offered the perfect job in Germany. RB Leipzig. 

The first team squad has got some real quality and if this was a career save then I would really love to stick around and build something special, but thats not the point! I was torn between stick or twist. There were parts of this team that I don't like. Not a massive fan of Timo Werner, Andre Silva or Christopher Nkunku as strikers up front. Trying to fit Dani Olmo & Dominik Szoboszlai into winger roles isn't ideal when we already have Alan Velasco & Andreas Skov Olsen. We still have Josko Gvardiol and keeping him is going to be key to my plans. The only caveat is that if we could get £70-90m for him that would really allow me to change this team for the better. 

In the end I decided to keep as many of the players as I could although I would consider any and all offers. No offers were made for the big players so I started to spend the £20m transfer budget I had. Wilfried Singo was a massive target. I really needed a quick attacking right back and was happy to get him for his release clause of £16m. Marcos Leonardo is a striker that I've never had before and I certainly like him a lot better that the 3 strikers I named earlier. He is going to be a massive part of any success we have here. Hendrik Weydandt was bought in on loan so I could play my Target Man tactic when we needed to. It turned out to be a great signing as he scored 11 in 10 and will be making his loan deal permanent.

Transfer History

 

Bundesliga - Took over in 10th after 14 games

 

DFB Pokal - Knocked out before I arrived

 

Champions League

 

* * *

So the plan is now to rebuild this team to how I like and have a real go at trying to win both of the German competitions. I'm happy that were in the Europa League next season so I can try and knock that off the list early. Hopefully this will be my final season here but I am willing to wait an extra season as long as we are progressing and getting close to both competitions.

Trophy Count: 3/16

England: 0/3
France: 0/2
Germany: 0/2
Italy: 0/2
Spain: 2/2 (Villarreal 22/23| La Liga & Copa del Rey)

Europe: 1/3 (Villarreal 22/23| Conference League)
International: 0/2

--------------------------------------------------------
Year by Year

1. 22/23) Villarreal - Won Domestic Double & Conference League
2. 23/24) RB Leipzig - Appointed in December. Didn't win anything

 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Watson156

[Raymubdo21]

Good luck @Watson156! What skin are you using by the way?

[Watson156]

16 hours ago, Raymubdo21 said:

Good luck @Watson156! What skin are you using by the way?

Thanks.

I'm using this skin from @stevemc and then I've been adding different panels from lots of other skins, and edited things to how I like them.

[Raymubdo21]

Thank you

[Watson156]

Season 3 | 24/25 |

My first full season in charge of RB Leipzig and it went very well. We completed the domestic double and have finished our second nation. In the end the league became very easy. Bayern munich have droped a lot, mainly because they haven't bought in a good striker. They did buy Timo Werner from us for £45m, and he scored a grand total of 4 goals for them all season! In fact their highest goalscorer was 35 year old Thomas Muller with 19!

We didn't do that well in the Europa League losing to a poor Lyon team in the round of 16. Initially I wasn't too dissapointed at not winning this title as there is a lot of time left to win it, but im starting to realise that this might have been a big miss for us not to win it this season.

I will probably now resign from RB Leipzig and wait for a good French team to sack their manager. I have no interest in trying to challenge for the Champions League with Leipzig and it's the type of team that I could actually see myself becoming a little bit attached to and end up staying for 3-4 years.

Transfer History

 

Bundesliga - Winners

 

DFB Pokal - Winners

 

Europa League - Round of 16

 

* * *

Trophy Count: 5/16

England: 0/3
France: 0/2
Germany: 2/2 (RB Leipzig 24/25 | Bundesliga & DFB Pokal)
Italy: 0/2
Spain: 2/2 (Villarreal 22/23| La Liga & Copa del Rey)

Europe: 1/3 (Villarreal 22/23| Conference League)
International: 0/2

--------------------------------------------------------
Year by Year

1. 22/23) Villarreal - Won Domestic Double & Conference League
2. 23/24) RB Leipzig - Appointed in December. Didn't win anything
3. 24/25) RB Leipzig - Won Domestic Double

 

[BadAss88]

@Watson156 You're doing great!! Nice career so far!

[Watson156]

Season 4 | 25/26 |

I resigned from RB Leipzig after the season, and was hoping to see a bit of a managerial merry go round and the right job in France become available. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. There were a lot of good oppertunities for jobs in England & Italy but France had to be next. 

In the end I had to wait until the whole season had finished for the perfect job to open up. By some miracle French giants PSG went the whole season without winning any competition losing the Ligue 1 title by 2 points to Monaco. As you would expect the manager was sacked, and within 1 month I was given the job.

 

* * *

 

Season 5 | 26/27 |

My first time ever managing a team this big with this amount of money was very interesting, but also pretty boring to be honest!  The squad was already stacked with talent the previous couple of managers had bought, Rice, Osimen & Musiala just to name a few. The previous manager had also agreed to sign Bissouma from Tottenham at the end of his loan spell which was very dissapointing. 

There wasn't a lot of holes in the squad but there was a lack of Home Grown players. I identified a couple to bring in but only needed to bring in 2. Kalimuendo was a perfect backup to Mbappe & Areola came in as backup GK and never stepped foot on the pitch once! Lucca was initially bought in as backup to Osimen but turned out to be a fantastic rotation peice who could always score a goal when needed. Everyone else was bought in as backup/rotation until it came to January. Kvaratskhelia's contract was expiring at the end of the season so we offered him a contract which he accepted. I didn't plan on bringing him in straight away, but with a slight jig of players realised that we could bring him in and play him straight away. To make this happen Mount was loaned out to Liverpool for the rest of the season with them agreeing to make his loan permanent for £55m.

On the pitch it was easy. We walked the league winning all of our first 31 games. We only lost our 2 games because we were resting players before big Champions League games. Mbappe & Osimhen would have scored a lot more if they weren't rotated so much, as you can see with Lucca scoring 25 goals. 

The Coupe de France was another walk in the park. We got a favourable draw with Lyon, Monaco & Marseille all being in the other half of the draw and losing before the final.

In the Champions League it was pretty smooth sailing. We won 7 out of our 8 games in the League Phase losing only to Milan. In the knockouts it was pretty hard work. The Dortmund tie looks one sided but the first leg finished 3-3! Man City was a pretty easy tie. We won the game in the first leg winning 6-2 at home. We drew 0-0 away to Arsenal in the semi final before beating them easily 2-0 at home to put us into the final. We comfortably beat Milan 2-0 and got revenge for the defeat earlier in the season. We did have to play the game without Mbappe who was out with a torn hamstring. Thankfully it didn't matter.

I also took over as the Manager of England to try and win the two international competitions.

Transfer History

 

Ligue 1 - Winners

 

Coupe de France - Winners

 

Champions League - Winners

 

* * *

The next part of the challenge is where it could get trickier. My aim was always to get through Spain, Germany and France as quickly as possible beacuse I had a club in mind to complete England & Italy. In England I'm hoping to complete their part of the challenge with Aston Villa and in Italy it will be with Venezia. I support both teams in real life so I thought what better way to finish this challenge then with winning with both of them. 

The problem however is that I'm now waiting on 2 specific jobs instead of any job in a Spain, Germany or France. The fact that we have completed those three nations so quickly does allow me some time to wait for those jobs to become available. Unai Emery is doing a fantastic job with Villa and of course because he's Unai Emery he won the Europa League with Villa in 25/26 so I don't know if he will get sacked or look to move to another team. Venezia are still in Serie B so that job might become available if they start to struggle but for the last few seasons they have been in and around the playoff places which seems to keep the manager in his job.

I'm not sure if I am going to stick around at PSG or just resign like I have done at all my previous jobs. Maybe Unai Emery will take over at PSG again?!?!?

In terms of the challenge I don't think I will need many seasons to win with Aston Villa maybe 5 at most. Venezia probably 7-8 so that does give me a little bit of time to wait and see if I can get either of these jobs before I need to look at other alternatives.

Trophy Count: 8/16

England: 0/3
France: 2/2 (PSG 26/27 | Ligue 1 & Coupe de France)
Germany: 2/2 (RB Leipzig 24/25 | Bundesliga & DFB Pokal)
Italy: 0/2
Spain: 2/2 (Villarreal 22/23 | La Liga & Copa del Rey)

Europe: 2/3 (Villarreal 22/23 | Conference League . PSG 26/27 | Champions League)
International: 0/2

--------------------------------------------------------
Year by Year

1. 22/23) Villarreal - Won Domestic Double & Conference League
2. 23/24) RB Leipzig - Appointed in December. Didn't win anything
3. 24/25) RB Leipzig - Won Domestic Double
4. 25/26) Year off - Appointed as PSG manager at end of season
5. 26/27) PSG - Won Domestic Treble & Champions League

--------------------------------------------------------
Manager Stats

Played: 199 | Won: 154 | Drawn: 23 | Lost: 22 | Win %: 77%
Goals For: 616 | Goals Against: 178 | Goal Difference: +438

Villarreal: Played: 61 | Won: 47 | Drawn: 5 | Lost: 9 | Win %: 77% | For: 201 | Against: 66 | Difference: +135
RB Leipzig: Played: 74 | Won: 51 | Drawn: 14 | Lost: 9 | Win %: 68% | For: 183 | Against: 66 | Difference: +117
PSG: Played: 56 | Won: 50 | Drawn: 3 | Lost: 3 | Win %: 89% | For: 205 | Against: 41 | Difference: +164

England: Played: 8 | Won: 6 | Drawn: 1 | Lost: 1 | Win %: 75% | For: 27 | Against: 5 | Difference: +22

 

[Bubbles_DK]

I will give this a try   After a few "one club saves" it will be fun with some different teams in one save.

 

I´ll start at Fiorentina - hopefully I can get the ECL trophy first season

[Mijmeister]

On 12/03/2023 at 21:35, stevemc said:

I started a bit of a Glory Hunter save on the previous patch, but started with Wrexham so can't do it under 20 years, so I'm planning to start again now the update is out and see how I get on with this. I'm struggling to get fully immersed into FM23, I'm a bit stop/start with it, so I'm hoping this challenge gives me that bug and something to get my teeth into. I also enjoy DoctorBenji's Glory Hunter series (shout out to Lollujo's Non-League-to-Legend too), it's my kinda save.

Going with the trophy options (14) from the opening post, but swerving International competitions as its dire, and I know it'll just be a chore for me personally.

Not 100% sure who to start with yet (figure it out over the next day or so), but thinking a Europa Conference League team to help knock the lowest European competition off this list first.

I've knocked up a template that I'll keep updated throughout the journey...

If anyone wants this template let me know and I'll send it you (created in Adobe XD but can send you as a blank PDF).

Hi Steve, I would love one of these templates. Could you send it to me please and maybe add the Portuguese League & Cup, Dutch League & Cup, Belgium League & Cup along with the World Cup and Euro Trophies too? That would be an amazing help.

Thanks!