FM24 | Wanderer

[RogerC]

After playing for a few seasons with a lower league team and taking them to a Champions League victory I feel like starting a save in which I'm not tied to a single club and have the pressure to stick with them and make them grow, this time around the 'only' one growing will be the manager, at least until I don't reach a club where I can settle to achieve the last targets I set, IF, that time ever comes and I don't get bored/demotivated before.

I've been (and still am) hodgepodging a skin together, mixing and matching panels and ideas from many of the skins. I'd like to go attributeless but after testing it out I found it very strange. That made me go another route with my skin, it doesn't feature attribute values but instead stars (thanks Sebastian_starttrbts), well actually circles (thanks Ben for the graphics), I've also added another range of attribute colours, I feel this gives me a good mix of feeling like I have attributes but I don't exactly know what the value is, basically each colour is a range of 3 values, I can have an idea of the attribute but not complete knowledge. I hope nobody gets mad, I certainly won't release anything (not that anyone would want it), it is just for me to play and feel more comfortable. I want to add some more stats to the skin too but my 0 skinning knowledge makes it quite hard. Rensie, Ben, Sebastian_starttrbts, Zweierkette, Mustermann, Zealand take credit for anything you see.

 

 

 

________________________

Brief introduction (already used before). I'd like to introduce you to Arnold Drama. He is a totally fictional character, the name is inspired by an also fictional character from the TV show Entourage, based on Johnathan Chase's aka Johnny Drama's character. Born in 1992 in Barcelona, Spain. His coaching style is that of a proper modern day coach. In Koeman's words; 'taki taki' football, fluid 433/4231 formations utilising positional play and controlled build up. Discipline is a must. No arriving late or mediocre training, you have to train as if you're playing a proper football game otherwise you won't be playing matches for the team. If possible, youth and home-grown players will be given a chance to prove themselves. This said, he is a great fan of moneyballing (yes another moneyball save) and loves to extract and analyse stats both from the own team as well as the league.

The saves starts January 1st 2028. Before going out to the wild, Arnold passed the test for a National C badge, the lowest possible coaching badge one can acquire. There is no clear path for the save, the end goal would be to be succesful and reach the top, be it winning the 'Pentagon challenge' or aim to win a WC or Champions League. Maybe ending up in a 'smaller' team and building (Porto, Ajax, Brighton) towards CL or finally ending up signing for Barça or Madrid and aim for total domination, or both.

Let the simulation begin!

[RogerC]

24 days later, we have a job!

Williamsville Athletic Club | "Les Güepes"

              

Based in Marcory Suburb, Abidjan lies Stade Robert Champroux stadium. Multi-use stadium home of various football teams, holds 10.000 people when/if sold out.

WAC lived a very special year in 2018 qualifying for CAF Champions League playoffs via a 2nd place finish in the Ivorian top division. They then went on to beat Stade Malien 2-1 in aggregate in the preliminary round but fell hard (7-2L & 0-2W) after a 7-4 aggregate loss against Moroccan WAC in the 2018 CAF 1st Round. Things only went south from then on, holding in the Ivorian top division a few years and finally going down to the second tier in 19/20.

 

24th January 2028

Second tier Ivory Coast Williamsville Athletic Club hire Arnold Drama as their new manager. After a 20 day search, WAC have finally settled for the unexperiencied Spaniard to take the reigns of an unsettled side. Former manager, Georges Diarrasouba, was sacked after only 181 days in charge of the Ivorian side. It feels a bit strange because the team currently seats in 11th out of 14 teams with a 5 point margin to relegation zone although the 3 teams below have a game in hand. The xG table shows how the expected position of WAC is 8th, 3 positions above the one they're currently sitting in with 5 points less than ideal.

 

Finally, obviously the game doesn't have kits for a Ligue 2 G2 team in Ivory Coast. Enter Kitbasher; now, there's barely any info on the team, I can only find random images from various years and various kits. Luckily Kitbasher have Givova kits which are the ones the real team USED at some point (2018 I believe) in their short life. No sponsors for now, I don't think we deserve them yet, hopefully these will evolve with the team. Based in Marcory Suburb, Abidjan lies Stade Robert Champroux stadium. Multi-use stadium home of various football teams, holds 10.000 people

HOME                                                         AWAY

 

 

[RogerC]

First order of business is to have staff! We only have 4 bodies to work with, including the manager. Obviouly the quality is pretty low, luckily their contracts expire in 6 months, this will give us a (small) chance to improve on what we have. I won't be showing their stats individually as it's quite pointless.  I have made offer for suitable 4 coaches, 2 scouts and a physio, all on a free, obviously.

 

We now have a week to work on training and tactics before our first match on Sunday against ADFCA, 7th placed. 7 matches to go to save the team, I have the feeling this can go really great or really really bad. 

Here is a quick squad overview, I'm not too fussed, we have a at least 1 decent player in each line of the field. GK Kaboré, CB Adjimani, FB Diallo, CM Touma, AM's Nanou & Kouamé, ST GlazaÏ. Let's see how they compared to the rest of the league when we've scouted our opponents and have played a few games.

This is the U21 squad, ordered by potential ability, we have proper prospects (relative to the first team), which, in 6 months when most contracts will surely be contemplated for the first team. Now, as I said before, we barely have staff in the Senior team, things are much worse in the U21s where there's noone, this means that I have to take charge of their matches until we find a proper manager for them! Now I can't show any match reports as they're not available to me, but I had the chance to test out the first team tactic and things went quite well. We dominated possession and with Valéry Doua's stupidly good performance, we managed to beat Mossou FC U21s.

 

Not a great set of attributes really, but amazing performance by the 16 y/o. I also wanted to use this image on the right to give some context on the attribute colours, showing what I explained in the opening post, I'm essentially using attributes but slightly blurred by Sebastiann_attrbtstars and the addition of a new range of colours (5 instead of 4) which I am still tweaking.

No circle = 1-6 | Dark grey = 7-10 | Light grey = 11-13 | Yellow = 14-16 | Green = 17-20

 

Let's start with those staff signings and matches!!

Edited February 1 by RogerC

[RogerC]

   

 

First 3 games! We did what the board expected. Still in the very early days, both tactically and in terms of squad selection. Still figuring out which is the least bad player for each position We have had quite a good amount of time on the ball even, and even though we've been out-xG'd we still looked comfortable (in the first two games). Against ADFCA we scored right after their goals (twice) and managed to clinch the winner after a high press by our CM Touma which layed the ball onto Glazaï (ST) who dropped deep and allowed Kouame (AML) to run through the middle and receive a through ball. Against AFAK, things started great with a 3-0 and 4-1 up  but complacency made them get close up to the 4-3 where things ended, Kouamé with a hat trick leading the game from the left side.

Against second placed AS Tanda we stood no chance, we got completely outclassed. We had good enough possession but it was completely worthless, as soon as we tried to progress the ball the passes went directly to the opposition, it was quite frustrating. But to give some vague context, this is their squad, short, but way better than ours. This is how the league stands right now, with 4 matches (all away from home) left to the end. We're 9 points clear from relegation but with 2 games in hand. Both Alliance and AFAK have lost their last 5 matches so hopefully they can keep up with their form and go to the end like this.

 

Upcoming fixtures in order, 11th, 6th, 3rd and 2nd (again).

 

Let's go!!

Edited February 1 by RogerC

[RogerC]

The board have been very busy in these last 3 weeks filling in the staff vacants since Arnold side for the side.

The only empty position for now is the DoF one which I don't really see the point in filling, nevertheless, I have delegated the responsibility of hiring one to Adama Konaté, the president of the club. Manager & assistant, HoYD and 3 coaches compose the coaching team, 3 scouts, 2 physios and 1 SpS. The scouting department is working full steam and has already compiled 30 reports, mainly of Free Agents and/or players ending contract in June, because we will certainly need reinforcements come the time. I have also offered 8-10 trials (not all at once) to check out some players. As you can see, and with quite subpar staff hirings, we're right in the mix in terms of staff quality, which is quite satisfying.

    -----     U21s

 

Edited February 2 by RogerC

[RogerC]

Season end

 

      ___________  

 

COMPLETELY unexpected end of the season. We have won 4 out of 4 and ended 19 points clear from relegation, we could say we ended closer to the top if it weren't for Olympic Sport Abobo ending 22 points ahead of second place AS Tanda. Our top 3 guys have been running riot against everyone, scoring loads and from everywhere of the pitch... This 4-3-3 is how I've set the team up for now, quite minimalistic (at least for me), I'm really glad with the shape and possession we've amassed throughout the 7 games we've played. There's certainly a lack of quality both in midfield as well as the defense seeing how we've conceded quite a few goals, usually late in the game, making things quite nerve-racking on match endings. Luckily we've managed to outscore the opposition.

 

Now it is time to close the season, compile all the data and check statistics, both from the team as well for the league to find potential players for next season, we have 26 players in the first team squad but I've barely played 14, the rest are pretty much useless. Luckily for me, 16 players end contract when this season ends and I've already set for release around 12 players. We've managed to extend 3 important players first XI players which contracts were also running out this June, Kaboré (GK), Nanou (AMR) and Glazaï (ST). Not so luckily, our first option left back Outtara retires, at the age of 35 and finally Yacouba Kouamé, our most in-form player doesn't have much interest in renewing his contract and will probably be leaving come the end of the season.

(Click faces)

   _______     

 

I am not very fussed and have been compiling reports and trialists, and even though we've managed to secure most of our best players I will still try to improve as many positions as I can, because we have quite the gap to bridge up to the 1st position which provides promotion. I think it is a quite realistic objective if we managed to reinforce the squad apropiately. Here you can see the league table divided between 1st and 2nd halves of the season, the image on the left is how the team performed in the first half, ending 10th out of 14. I picked up the team in 11th place and we managed to climb up to 6th, but we were actually the 2nd best team of the second half of the season with 18 points out of 21, 3 behind the league champions.

                                                      1st half                                                                               2 - START                                                            2 - END                                                                 

   _______       

 

Now I'm not absolutely confident of winning the league but I think we should be able to fight for the top places, which for me would be more than satisfactory, getting promotion would be great and maybe something to build upon for the future. Or maybe then looking elsewhere if there is interest in me... We will see, let's not get ahead of ourselves!

IFER and ASC Ouragahio are the relegated teams from League 1, one of them will be replacing Olympic Sport Abobo (OSA) in my league (there are two League 2 groups). They have scored 10 and 3 points in 26 matches, this gives me some hope that they won't dominate like OSA did...

 

 

Finally, I had the youth intake. Quite a good intake for the level we currently sit in. We have some first team performers in Aymar Dja Djédjé (GK) and Adama Koné (ST).

 

________________________________________

 

 

Edited February 6 by RogerC

[RogerC]

28/29 Preseason

 

Extremely busy summer break...  Following what I explained in the previous post, we gladly let go of the expiring contracts. that meant 24 U21 contracts, 8 first team and one retirement. Now this may seem like a lot, but at the end of the season the club had 72 (!!) players in its roster over 2 squads (including the late youth intake of 16 players). This made the budget look like this: spending 8.544€ p/w, over the wage limit of 8.385€.

Now I wouldn't be annoyed if it meant we had a great and rounded squad and great future prospects, but, as I said before I only ended up using 14 players out of the 26, and barely any of the U21 squad are even useful in a near future if we were to challenge for winning League 1 or even challenging for it. The following images show the squad depth charts for both last season as well as the season coming. You can see in bold the players that have stayed at the club, most of them youngsters who were first XI but that have been relegated to a secondary role, which suits them much better for their age and ability. We've essentially stepped up a (big) notch the first XI.

                 2028                                                                                                                          2029                      

  > 

 

The following images show the incredible step up the team has done with the 19 (!!) free signings, The top 3 are the previous squad, lower 3 are the new one, the images are small, just to have a reference of the evolution of the squad as a whole.

PHYS | MENT | TECH

 

 

In general terms, the squad is 1 year older, 1 cm taller and 1kg heavier, our average wage is also almost double of what it was before. The best thing is that we are now spending 896€ p/w less than before, leaving us at 7.648€ p/w with a full roster of 'just' 46 players, 26 in the first team and 20 in the U21's. We have a core squad of 22 players and an addition of 4 youngsters who are training with the senior squad but also play matches for the U21's.

 

 My aim for this save is to be more analytic and take stats into account when picking players and also for signings but I don't see much point in doing so in such a low level league with free signings and such volatile contracts (1 year contracts). I also don't think I will be staying long enough at this club to really make youngster develop as much as I'd like so unless there is an almost-ready to play prospect, they won't be getting as much first team action as I'd enjoy, nonetheless, these 4 mentioned above will be doing so. Let's start the season!

[RogerC]

28/29 Mid-season

Not too shabby huh? I clearly did not expect this in pre season. Only 2 points dropped in 18 matches, we have conceded more goals than I'd like to but we've been free scoring (3 per game on avg), absolutely clinical in front of goal, scoring 9 more than xG expects (we would still be first). We currently sit 3rd in goals conceded so I guess that is not bad either, 19 goals in 18 matches is actually good.

 

 

On a quick glance you can see we're overperforming in pretty much every aspect of the game compared to the rest of the league. To note shots and dribbles per game stats are pretty much double of our opponents.Two noteworthy performances are the ones in Coupe de Côte d'Ivoire against League 1 sides, AFAD Plateau, currently sitting second in Ligue 1 and CO Korhogo, 5th in the same league. Clearly shows how the recruiting has worked magnificently.

 

 

 

Our 3 players up top have been absolutely clinical as you can see below (ordered by goals). Koné (ST), Nanou (AMR) and Sou (AML) have scored 41 goals combined, Arouna Meité was on an even better form with 8 goals in 8 starts before injuring himself for 3 months. Sindou Yéo with 14 assists, as a DLP in center midfield. I have extended Meité's, Yeo and Fofana's contract in January, so we have secured their services for next year, hopefully in the top division!

Seeing how the season has been unfolding, I will post the next update once it ends... I'm not planning to change much in the current transfer window (January). Will probably let go of anyone who wants to leave,  maybe explore some (free) signings, but with sights set on performance next year when are promoted, I really don't see see how we can bottle it although ES Bafing are decent contenders.

Let's see how the last third of the season works out!!

[OYTNANAK]

Hey dude, looks like a nice save. Been thinking about making a new semi-attributeless(?) save like what you are doing rn. Is the skin available for downloads? Thanks ahead!

Edited Tuesday at 05:09 by OYTNANAK