[FM10] An Englishman Abroad - Tales of Waffles, Croissaints, Chocolate and Tulips...

[rlipscombe]

An Englishman Abroad - Tales of Waffles, Croissaints, Chocolate and Tulips...

Game Setup:

10.2 patch

Large Database

Start Date: June 2009

Leagues Loaded: Top two leagues from - France, Belgium, Holland & Switzerland.

Welcome to my attempt at forging some sort of managerial career for myself in the heartland of Central Europe! Please excuse me if my updates are a little slow as i plan to run this career alongside my game with Venezia in the Big Euro Nation challenge. Hopefully you will enjoy the trials and tribulations i will no doubt find myself in over the coming seasons. Hopefully we'll have a little success too.

This is the story of a 29 year-old ex-professional footballer inspired by the great English manager Steve McLaren, who has shown young English managers that you can indeed make a name for yourself managing abroad. If i can achieve only half the success of the great man, it will be a great managerial career!! i chose to be an ex-professional footballer as i was running the top leagues in countries and jobs may have been harder to find otherwise....

Career Summary:

Trophy Cabinet:

International Career:

[rlipscombe]

(reserved for future posts....)

[rlipscombe]

AC Bellinzona - Swiss Super League - Season 2009/10

Just days after starting my career i received a call from the chairman of AC Bellinzona, a club located at the foot of the alps near the border of Italy. He was offering me a three-year contract to take over the Swiss club who were looking to make a name for themselves in Swiss football. Bellinzona had won the Swiss Super League only once before, in 1948, and they felt i was the man to break the Basle monopoly. Having finished 6th last time, they were looking to make further progress.

After quick research into the club and the town, i hopped onto a flight and was paraded as the new manager the next day. i was offered a transfer budget of £58k and a tight wage budget of £24k per week. the club have links set up with Lecce and Roma already, due to the proximity to Italy and the large Italian-speaking population in the town.

Looking at the squad, we have some decent talent already. However, the players are short of what i believe is needed so i would like to wheel and deal a little. Given we are already at the limit of our wage budget, this may be a little tricky. We are particularly lacking at RB and ST, so these are my main areas to target. Money is very tight though so i might have to start with the existing squad and go from there. however, i took over with only three games of pre-season left and precious little time before the league season so i may be making a slow start to the season.

My target for the debut season is to try and achieve mid-table mediocrity this season, before being able to mould my own team for the next season. A good cup run would be nice too.

(our stunning stadium.......)

[rlipscombe]

after two league defeats we've finally secured our first win, away 2-1 at St Gallen..... Was beginning to doubt if i'd ever win!!

and then we follow it up with a 1-0 home win vs Basel......

[crouchaldinho]

Inspired by the Steve McLaren? :confused:

Nice picturesque place to start your managerial career anyway!

It's always tough running two saves at once. One always tends to dominate. Hope you manage to keep them both going.

Will be following your career. Good luck.

[iacovone]

Oh I've just got in from a rather tipsy night with work and rlipscombe I'm just delighted to see you embark on a career. I tell you what, as much as I LOVE CSE, the new career forum is really giving it a run for its money. It seems the vast majority of the reliably strong users flock to these here shores. Hope it continues to grow because I do love reading fellow careers. They're great

[rancer890]

Welcome to the Careers Forum rlipscombe and good luck on your career. Never managed in Switzerland so I'll be following. Good luck.

And the CSE migration to the Careers Forum continues...

[iseemonsters1]

Good luck with the career - I'll be following with interest! Had a pretty fun few years in Switzerland back on FM09, so I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like this time around!

[m1234566778]

Good luck mate, very interesting learning about a new club.

[rlipscombe]

thanks for the encouraging words guys. whilst in no way am i abandoning the CSE thread as i do love it, it's time to spread my wings and appreciate something new! lovely warm and slightly tipsy comment iacovone!

I chose my countries based on the fact i hadn't managed their for at least a couple of years, with the exception of france as i wanted to try to learn in other countries. i have never managed in Switzerland before so it's a little new in that respect.

i have managed to wheel and deal a little and brought in some new players, whom i'll introduce soon. as for the league, our record is LLWWLL after 6 games. we are short in my opinion of the top spots, but i am hoping to fininsh at least 7th and avoid the relegation play-offs or even worse automatic relegation. time will tell.

[crouchaldinho]

Welcome to the Careers Forum rlipscombe and good luck on your career. Never managed in Switzerland so I'll be following. Good luck.

And the CSE migration to the Careers Forum continues...

I think this is a great alternative to CSE, as it allows people to make their own personal challenges and to share them with others in the same way as you can on the CSE forum.

Anyway, good luck rlipscombe. Sounds like you've had a fairly tough start to life at AC Bellinzona.

[rlipscombe]

it is tricky at the moment. the finance situation has been tough and i'm still working on a tactic - not having much of a pre-season didn't help.

[rlipscombe]

A little indroduction to a few of our key players:

Transfers

Alexandre Oukidja - Young French GK brought in from Lille to replace the sale of Zotti. Decent player for this league, he was pretty much the best i could do on a tight budget.

Andrea Russotto - Italian U21 midfielder already at the club. By far the best player at the club, he wants to leave and has handed in a transfer request. may have to cash in in the winter.

Mauro Lustrinelli - veteran Swiss striker who was already here. Club captain. he is a decent striker but is erratic.

Gaspar - Brazillian winger / striker. Along with Russotto, our best player. Another who is inconsistent.

Eyemen Haidani - French striker brought in from Sedan at £85k - out biggest outlay. We are woefully short upfront so hopefully he will add to this area.

Overall, the squad is ok, thought it's a long way short of where i'd like it to be. The sale of Zotti helped a lot in terms of me being able to stretch the wage budget to strengthen and Oukidja isn't that far behind Zotti's level.

[rlipscombe]

Results - July to September

Results

Table

So at the end of September we find ourselves marooned in 8th and already losing touch with those above us. We just can't seem to settle on a formation and find some consistency. We have tried 4-5-1, 4-4-2 diamond and most recently a flat 4-4-2. I just can't seem to settle as yet and it's a bit of a struggle to be honest. i also managed to break a new club record in September - not one i want to mind.

to compound our misery, we crashed out of the Swiss Cup in the first round 1-0 away at non-league Meyrin.

So, as we head into the Autumn, we seriously need an upturn in fortunes or i might well be on my travels again soon......

[jackripper]

Russotto looks a good player

[rancer890]

A tough start there rlipscombe. Russotto looks solid for the Swiss leagues but I'll cash in on him with his expiring contract. Hope you can stay above the relegation zone until January and improve the squad with more freebies and get a loanee or two to the club.

[rlipscombe]

cheers guys - that's the plan. with a tight wage budget i need to tough it out and get rid of the high earners i think and raise some cash. then hopefully i can improve the squad further and push on.

[iseemonsters1]

It's always tough when you take over a team where wages are tight and the players already at the club just don't seem to be up to the task - I know you were hoping for mid-table this season - what are the board's expectations?

[rlipscombe]

the board are wanting a safe mid-table finish and according to their confidence i'm achieving that. We shall see whether that continues!!

[rlipscombe]

ten games without a win..... slipped to 9th now and in desperate need of a goal from somewhere. that's the major problem. We're getting close to the bottom too...

[rlipscombe]

Halfway Stage

Results

Table

Pretty much sums it up. 14 games without a win. I have a two month winter break to work some sort of miracle...

[rancer890]

Not looking good rlipscombe.

What's your job security?

[rlipscombe]

stable still and the board are satisfied....... don't know why!!

[rlipscombe]

With Russotto out of contract at the end of the season i have sold him to Cagliari for £1 million plus add ons. The money would've been nice had the chairman not decided to keep 90% of it.... Still his departure, along with a few others on frees has given me some wage budget to play with again and i am frantically scouring the free transfer market in order to find some quality to come in and fight for the club and our future.

[DodgeeD]

A tough start to your career rlipscombe. Take heart from iacovone and his thread though - he got to winning ways after a couple of clubs.

I'm sure you can turn it around though - does 9th go into a relegation play-off? That's your best chance of survival.

[rlipscombe]

cheers DodgeeD - yeah, i always knew this season would be tough so not too down hearted. i've made a few new signings which will hopefully help, which i'll post later. as for 9th, it is indeed a relegation play-off against 2nd in the Challenge League. With the gap already about 12 points to 8th, 9th and a play-off win has to be my target for sure.