TheLutterworthFox

December/January Update We're back after the Qatar World Cup, France won it, hammering Argentina 4-1 in the final It was a good break, I managed to get some scouting done, it also gave the lads time to rest up and come back firing. The last 6 weeks since the return has been utterly incredible! Before we go through the results, let's talk about transfers. There has been some business both in and out. Out-wise we lost a couple of players. Sarlija was one of my backup central defender, he asked to go, £300k is a good deal. Palacios has been one of my better player this season out on the right wing but at 30 I felt the offer was too good to turn down especially as it seemed he had his heart set on the move. Two good deals though. So I needed to replace both of these in my first team squad and I did exactly that. Alex Pascanu - Central Defender - £700k from Ponferradina A really good looking player for a relatively cheap fee. I wanted to bolster my defence even without losing Sarlija, Pascanu will go straight into the back line Fabian Reese - Winger - £87k from Holsten Kiel What a cheap deal for a really decent player, he can play on either wing and at only 25 has time to improve. We also eventually got Moukoko on loan from Dortmund after waiting until Jan 1st. Much needed as we were struggling for goals. So with those deals in place it was time to take to the pitch and continue our good start to the season and my word did it go well! 6 games, 4 wins and you can see the effect Moukoko had on the goals scored, Ok we got utterly battered by Aris at home but that prompted a change in formation from a 41221 to a 4231 and it worked a treat. After that we were amazing. It also included a 3-0 hammering of Olympiakos who are having a terrible season. So we sit in 2nd place, well clear of the chasing pack but too far behind AEK at the top to be mounting a title challenge. We now have 7 games remaining until the league splits, there will be a Championship group of 6 teams who play each other twice meaning 10 games. So 17 games left to seal that 2nd place and that will mean qualification for the Champions League next season. Now to the cup and in the Quarters finals we had to face Olympiakos over 2-legs. They had been really poor this season and I felt we had a chance to beat them. Away leg first, we did not play well, chance creation was non-existent. It was lucky we came out with only a 1-0 defeat. The second leg came after beating them 3-0 in the League so I knew if we went with a similar formation and line-up we'd be good. I switched back to the more conservative 41221 for the match and also left out Moukoko who was unfit. Sporar came in and did the business sealing a 2-0 win and one hell of a turnaround! So far, so good! I have to say I didn't think we would be doing this well. Looking at the squad of AEK, PAOk and Olympiakos I felt we were well behind in quality but the lads have pushed themselves and played incredible. The switch in formation after the Aris defeat has really helped. I felt we were struggling for goals and also struggling to create goals, I changed the DM to an AM and gave him a Shadow Striker role to help support the Striker and it worked a treat. The only game it didn't work was the Olympiakos cup first leg but it was one blip in a great run. The control possession has worked really well so far. Lets hope it continues

Pre-World Cup Update I said I'd be back in December but seeing as now have a 5 weeks break for the World Cup I thought I'd update you all on how it's gone. Let's firstly take a look over our Europa Conference League campaign, we had a tough group, really tough in my eyes with only Shamrock the team I felt we could beat. It went exactly how I expected it to and unfortunately it wasn't enough. Home and away wins over Shamrock was expected but we lost the other games against West Ham and Koln, we were especially unlucky in that Koln game at home, we levelled the tie in the 93rd minute only for Koln to score a minute later. Overall though I'm happy, it shows you we have a lot of hard work ahead though to be anywhere near challenging. Now on the face of it we did OK, Koln and West Ham are miles better than us but clearly the board were expecting more and after we failed with qualification for the knockouts I was called for a board meeting. Not happy! I apologised (that was the only option) and now we move on but they expect better next time. Now to the League and my word it's gone well! 12 games played and only 1 defeat which was away to Olympiakos, the scoreline doesn't reflect the game though as we did play well. Defensively we have looked relatively solid but in some game we haven't been clinical enough, we've made chances but fluffed our lines. Overall though I have to be happy, we smashed PAOK who were expected to be above us and also held AEK away, who are currently top. With 30 points from our opening 13 games we now sit in 2nd place. 2 places higher than expected. Just look how bad Olympiakos are doing though, surely we have a chance to end above them, the top 3 is a real possibility! Now it's time to break up for the World Cup, a nice 5 week rest for me! Time to do some much needed scouting.

On FM22 I did a challenge called "The All Nations Challenge" where I had to get a player from every nation in the FIFA World Ranking to play 10 games, score a goal and win POTM. I've decided as a little side challenge to do this but just for the European nations. It wasn't something I planned to update on in this thread as this is solely for the Nearly Men but I am updating about this within a Discord server. If you're interested in joining drop me a PM and I'll send you an invite

July/August 2022 Update The opening games of the season have taken place, we had a good pre-season but as ever with a team in the qualifying rounds pf a European competition the competitive games start early! But firstly let's discuss transfers. There's still 2 weeks of the transfer window to go but I don't expect anymore business. Out's wise I said I wanted to ship out one of my goalkeepers and Xavier, my left winger. Both happened. Xavier left for £150k and joined Charleroi and 2nd choice keeper Dioudis left for £575k and went to Real Socieded, the other three players were in the u19s team. So just over £700k made and around £10k per week of wages freed up. Now to the in's, I wanted a new midfielder and a new striker, both were sorted but one I did sort of cock up! Firstly, is central midfielder Antonio Vacca, after a successful trial spell I decided to bring in on a free transfer, another experienced head! Now to the second "signing". I really wanted another option up front and when my DOF recommended Dortmund wonderkid Youssoufa Moukoko I had to bring him in, £5.25k per week loan for the rest of the season, fantastic... Deal done, I clicked accept and then realised I had royally ballsed up, the deal was for him to join on Jan 1st! Sure it'll be worth the wait though! I looked for another Striker but there really wasn't anything worth it for the short term so I will deal with what I have unless something amazing pops up. Now to the results and firstly the Europa Conference qualifying rounds. We entered in the 3rd round of 4 and firstly we faced Polish side Rakow. The first leg was at home and did not go well, we battered them but were not clinical enough and lost the game 2-1, we had to go to their place and win and we did just that! A 2-0 win and we were through to the playoff round, now we had a 2-legged tie over Molde for a place in the group stage. First leg at home again but this time we didn't screw up, a 2-1 win is great but it was a shame their goal came with the last kick of the match giving them hope for the 2nd leg. To Molde we go and my word we tried to chuck it away, we found ourselves 2-0 down within 17 minutes but a goal right on half time levelled the time. Then, with 28 minutes, we scored what would be the goal to seal our group stage qualification, great play from Winger Palacios down the right, he squared the ball for Verbic to tap in. Full time and we go into the group stages! That also gives us £2.5m in prize money, much needed! Now I like the new European draw feature but my word they need to speed it up, if you let it auto play it takes 10 seconds for each team to get drawn, I know that's much quicker than real life but still ssssssllllllloooowwwww. After many clicks of advance we eventually have our group and it look tough. West Ham and Koln are going to very tough with only Shamrock the team I think we can beat. Wish me luck! Into the League and so far we have only played one match, we faced Atromitos at home and played really well, 27 shots, 13 on target, an xG of 3.46 but it took us until the 90th minute for us to eventually find a winner! A good start, we've played some decent football but we need to be more clinical and tighter at the back! My next update will be as we get towards the end of December, unless anything interesting happens.

Welcome to Panathinaikos Well I've spent the last couple hours looking through the game, seeing what's changed (there isn't loads) and also getting my game set to how I want it and then looking about my new club. Things I do prior to starting my save properly Set up Notes - I like to have reminders to do certain things, being 42 my brain is pickled so I need something to remind me when to assess training, assess scouting, etc Sort out Views - I need to get myself set up with views to cover what I want to see, a Squad View, Fixture View, Player Search View, Shortlist View are musts to get done Sort out my own spreadsheet - I see there is a new squad planner but it made my head hurt, I'm sure I'll use it at some point but for now I'll use my own squad builder excel sheet and also I have other tabs in there tracking save progression, season by season trackers, etc. Link here if you want to look at it - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z0l9n5p_GejdrSJ3gM55BAAepJCzEWPOiiFbFTsST1c/edit?usp=sharing Preferences - So many thing I like to change here, getting those sidebar icons shrunk down, changing the zoom to 95%, setting up some screen flow to give me updates on the leagues I have available to move to in my game and much more I will also sort my graphics out but as this is the Beta and there may be bugs it's best to do that when the full game comes out. Now that's done it's time to delve into my new club!! First things first, check out the opening news items, here is where something new immediately pops up and that "Supporter Profile" I like this, it adds a new dimension to the game, not only are you trying to keep the board and the players happy but now you have to keep the fans happy (Brendan Rodgers I'm looking at you!!!). So there are a couple of interesting things to keep an eye on here. Finish in the top 3 is the first big one, the season preview has us ending 4th which is where the club ended last season so we need to beat media expectations. Secondly is "Finish about AEK and PAOK in the league". So let's look further at the season preview... So they are expected to end 2nd and 3rd! Another tough one! Let's pray we can give those fans what they want. The next news item is the Club Vision... # It seems to have shrunk this version with the 5 Year Plan separated into tabs. The big requirement from the board is to keep within wage budget. So a quick look at the budgets and it's already quite tight. Only £5.75k spare so we may need to move people on before improving the squad. The board also agree with the fans that we should be ending in the top 3, they also expect us to qualify for the Europa Conference knockout stages, let's hope we get an easy group (if we get past the qualifiers!) The other "desired" vision is maximum one year contracts for over 32s, I'm gonna forget I know it!!!!! I've quickly looked there at the wage budget so let's take a quick look at how the finances are expected to go. As you can see above we have a bank balance of £2.5m, not bad but the projections have it planned to drop away considerably over the season. So a £4m+ loss this season but I guess that will change is we get into the Europa Conference Groups Stage. That 3rd season shows a big jump, I think that's because nearly all our players will be out of contract. Transfer budget is low, £430k to spend, I may need to look to raise funds for players alongside freeing up some wages. Facility wise it looks OK, personally I feel it could be better for a relatively decent sized club. The stadium capacity is quite small, it's the 6th largest in the Greek Super League. We also have good youth and training facilities alongside good academy coaching and adequate youth recruitment. These need improving. Now it's time to look at my staff. I'm not too fussed about looking at every single one, my main three are Ass Man, HOYD and DOF and on the face of it it's not great. Assistant Manager - Christos Kontis Not great! The only issue I have is my max wage budget I can spend on a new ass man is £625 per week, most ones better than him want £4k+, looks like I'll have to stick with him for at least this season. HOYD - Vangelis Samios The same goes for this fella, really not great. I may look to replace him a bit sooner but again it depends on wage budgets. DOF - Konstantinos Tenekes So this guy isn't bad. 13 for JPA and 15 for JPP is decent. Let's hope he can find me some decent players. One thing I always do is set my DOF to "initiate player signings", it gives me an extra way finding players I may not see. Staff down, I think it's time to eventually look at the playing squad! Above is the first team squad and it looks decent, not a huge squad but I'm not fussed about that. Looking through the players there are three that take my eye. Ruben Perez - Defensive Midfield The highest rated player in the squad and you can see why. Top quality and will add much needed experience to the side. My plan is to play him a DLP in the DM slot. It's a shame though he is 33, in the next couple of seasons he will start to decline. Alberto Brignoli - Goalkeeper A top quality keeper is always needed in a decent team and Brignoli looks really good. He lack quickness, especially as I want to play a high line but I'm sure he'll do fine. Andraz Sporar - Striker The 28-year old Slovenian Striker joined in the Summer from Sporting Lisbon and overall looks decent, he has a 1:2 goals ratio so should do well at this level. All round he look good with decent finishing, heading and good pace. Let's also take a quick look at the B team and the U19 and as you will see it's stacked! B Team U19s As you can see LOTS of players but hardly any are decent. There will be a lot of mutual terminations or sales! So now I've assessed the squads there is one final thing to do before I go looking for new players and then EVENTUALLY clicking continue and then use my own squad builder to assess my squad, it's very basic! My plan is to play a 41221, it's my normal go to at the start of a new version. Each player is put in to the squad builder with what I think is there best position in that formation and then are colour coded dependant on their playing time. Overall we have good coverage with only a gap in central midfield. I'd also like to have a 3rd striker. With so many players in our B and U19 teams I have back up in case players are injured. The one thing I will do is try and sell my 3rd choice GK and LW to free up some wages. Well that's it for now. It's now time to get on with playing the game. I'll report back either at the start of the Super League season if there is much to say or at the end of the Summer transfer window which is September 15th.

Game Setup and First Club Choice So here we are. FM23 is open and the game is ready to go. Firstly I have to decide my save setup. Now usually I'd load a couple of nations and then add/remove as required but after issues with that function on FM22 and the fact I have a much better laptop this year I've decided to load all the nations I need to complete the challenge domestically. 9 Nations, 20 Leagues. Most have the top two tiers, England has the top 4 as I like to see how the lower clubs are doing in my home country. I've also loaded a large database, removed the attribute masking and prevented use of the editor. Once the game loads it's now time to sort my manager out. I'm not one for the facial recognition stuff, mainly because I always come out looking like Quasimodo. So I always clcik randomise a few times until something funny-ish comes out and here he is..... Next it's onto club selection, which we'll come to in a moment and the the manager attribute allocation. I always tend to sway the balance towards the mental attributes, at the bigger clubs you can get coaches in to fill the coaching attribute side. Adaptability, Motivating and Determination are put higher, as I'll be moving clubs quite often it's good to show I am adaptable. On the coaching side I've swayed the balance to Attacking, Tactical, Technical and Working with Youngster. That's where I feel I am best suited as a manager. Now it's club reveal time. I've spent the past few weeks swaying from one team to another, I fancied Italy, then I fancied St Etienne but I've eventually decided to start with a club in one of the lower ranked nations, one that is in Europe but not in the Champions League. A club where there is potential to win the league quickly but where it'll take time to progress in the Europe, so let's not hang about any longer, I'm starting with.... Panathinaikos FC in Greece! I actually don't remember a save where I've managed in Greece so this one is new to me but one I am very excited for. Panathinaikos are one of the bigger clubs in Greece but haven't won the Greek Super League since 2010. Last season they ended 4th giving them qualification to the Europa Conference League. The club are classed as nearly men because they lost in the European Cup final in 1971, where they lost 2-0 to Ajax. Time to take them once step further! The next update will contain some information on the club within the game, facilities, players, staff, etc

Welcome to The Nearly Men Challenge Some of you on the SI Forum will have heard of this challenge before, the challenge was started by @smp20 on this very forum way back on FM15 but I found it via FMCheapSeats or @ManUtd1 as he is known here. Ian and I have chatted lots over the past few years and I have loved conversing about his Nearly Men saves, whether that be in Europe or Africa. I did try this on FM21 but in a different guise, for FM23 though I want to play the challenge as it was initially created. The premise of the save is simple. To win the UEFA Champions League with teams that have previously got to the final of the competition but have never lifted the trophy (whether that be the Champions League or the European Cup as it was knew prior). There are currently 19 clubs that fall into this category and here they are: CLUB COUNTRY DIVISION YEARS RUNNERS-UP Club Brugge BELGIUM BELGIAN PRO LEAGUE 1978 Leeds United ENGLAND PREMIER LEAGUE 1975 Arsenal ENGLAND PREMIER LEAGUE 2006 Tottenham Hotspur ENGLAND PREMIER LEAGUE 2019 Manchester City ENGLAND PREMIER LEAGUE 2021 Reims FRANCE LIGUE 1 1956, 1959 Saint-Étienne FRANCE LIGUE 2 1976 Monaco FRANCE LIGUE 1 2004 Paris Saint-Germain FRANCE LIGUE 1 2020 Eintracht Frankfurt GERMANY BUNDESLIGA 1960 Borussia Mönchengladbach GERMANY BUNDESLIGA 1977 Bayer Leverkusen GERMANY BUNDESLIGA 2002 Panathinaikos GREECE SUPER LEAGUE 1971 Fiorentina ITALY SERIE A 1957 Roma ITALY SERIE A 1984 Sampdoria ITALY SERIE A 1992 Partizan SERBIA SUPERLIGA 1966 Atlético Madrid SPAIN LA LIGA 1974, 2014, 2016 Valencia SPAIN LA LIGA 2000, 2001 Malmö FF SWEDEN ALLSVENSKAN 1979 Some really interesting clubs to manage. There is also the international side of the save. There are 5 teams who have reached the final of the World Cup but never won it. NATION YEARS LOST Netherlands 1974, 1978, 2010 Hungary 1938, 1954 Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia) 1934, 1962 Sweden 1958 Croatia 2018 So the aim of this save is to win the Champions League and World Cup with as many of these clubs and nations as I can in the one save. Now for the twist, the list is ever changing. If a club in this list wins the Champions League or World Cup within the save then they will be removed off the list, this also works the other way as well, if a club not on the list gets to the final of the Champions League or World Cup and loses then they will go onto the list. I am hoping this save will last me all the way through FM23 and all my updates will be on here. I plan to put small updates on a month by month basis, just with results, the league table and any interesting news, there will also be a preseason and postseason review with transfers, awards, etc. I really hope you join me on my journey. The next post will reveal the game setup and the club I will be starting with.

Going to give this a go with my local team