Some Amateur's Unemployed Thread (expect shenanigans)

[tastaiwan]

Maybe you want to watch someone make mistakes and grow as a result, or maybe you just like to watch people suffer at the hands of FM. Either way, I'm taking a crack at unemployment since I've proved myself not completely inept by winning the league with Arsenal. Tips are appreciated, slander much less, but it's much appreciated if people pop in and enjoy my career! Or don't, you know, that's totally fine too, I'm doing this mostly to give myself a little extra motivation to keep on keepin' on. I'm looking for some fun and updates will be monthly in-game.

I'm not quite sure how to add pictures, so if someone could be kind enough to give a pointer?

I'll be on track to start the save in a few hours. I'll be adding all the leagues in Europe from the base FM pack, no added databases, only logos and faces. I look forward to getting fired (or maybe not, who knows), I hope others are too!

[Deisler26]

I use Flickr for my in game photos.

And use the tags.

Good luck. If you want any layout tips, just check out a few other people's threads.

[tastaiwan]

I use Flickr for my in game photos.

And use the tags.

Good luck. If you want any layout tips, just check out a few other people's threads.

Thanks, I'll take a look and see if Flickr works for me.

[tastaiwan]

Here we go! Kyle Greenwich is a 20-year-old German American with no coaching experience and had a semi-pro playing career, mostly because I don't trust myself with Sunday League. Heck, I don't even trust myself with semi-pro, but I'm going for it anyway. Right now, I'm taking a look at Belgium Third Division clubs Rupel Boom and VW Hamme, Cambridge in Sky Bet League 2, I don't really see anything else that interests me right now, maybe Varzim in Portugal's Segunda Liga?

My first suitors?

[tastaiwan]

VW Hamme it is! It'll be interesting playing in Belgium, but it looks like I have a lot of work to do...

History?

It's in Belgium.

Thanks for that, Wikipedia. Very helpful.

What a wonderful start. I'll be hoping to play a 4-1-2-3 DM, but it'll take a lot of tweaking. Squad breakdown:

And brought in a little loanee to help out my defense. Bad, but better than what my own player.

[deltablue]

I love it when I post and it doesn't show up. Great start to this thread.

*waves magic wand*

[tastaiwan]

It's the 1st of August, which means I can start lining up the dates, so hurray for that. I'm doing my best to find free agents who fit the bill, and I've been doing an okay job. I have three players who I've offered a contract to who should be accepting soon enough, and hopefully you'll see of them soon. I do have an immediate signing though, too, one meant for the future who can help me fight in the Proximus league if and when I get there. For now, he's a backup.

In terms of games, I think we're getting better.



Not winning better, but at least we've subtracted two from the scoreline every game. We still haven't learned how to score yet, so that's kind of worrying. We've been dominated in possession and shots in all the games, so I need to either improve it or work around it. I vote for work around it.

[tastaiwan]

*waves magic wand*

Thanks deltablue! Assuming that you made the original post reappear.

[tastaiwan]

VW Hamme, August 2015

Looks pretty flashy, aye? Just kidding, it's about as flashy as a needle. Looks nice though.



Very low-scoring month. I would have been happy with a 2-2 in the friendly because we finally scored something, but Francs Borains is in the division below us. We should have thrashed them. In cup news, we finally showed some of our quality against Beringen, a low league team, with a 3-0 win, and we pulled of an expected but hard-fought win against Izegem. Lommel United is a decent Proximus League side, so I'm not to disappointed with a 0-2 loss, we had some decent chances. In the league, we played garbage, we played more garbage, and then we finally got punished for polluting the area. We should have lost that game against second place Acren, but we held our ground and scored in the eighty-somethingth minute. Not too shabby, I expected worse so I'd say we're off to a good start. Here's a shot of the league at the end of the month:



Points aren't that important yet unless you're RC Gent, 7 points off the leader. Good grief. At least we hit the expectation in the cup.



Three more players for me to show off, if there's anything to show off.

[Deisler26]

Jeez, is that how many teams are in the relegation playout?

[tastaiwan]

Jeez, is that how many teams are in the relegation playout?

It's quite daunting. I'll feel good if I can make the top six, it'll be super difficult though.

Okay it's part of a new system starting in 2016. 7th and lower, not including last, go into Amateur Second League. Last place from Third Division A and Third Division B (one league has 18, the other 19) go into Amateur Third League. Winner and runner up of the leagues, bottom 9 from Proximus League, and three winners from qualifying playoff of 3rd-6th place teams will go into Amateur Superleague. Fun stuff.

[tastaiwan]

VW Hamme September 2015

It's been an okay month overall. I've been tinkering with the tactics a bit, and after the dreadful loss against Torhout I brought my wingers back to ML and MR so that I'm playing a 4-1-4-1 now. It's worked for two games, hopefully I keep doing well. I set up an easy friendly at the end of the month because I had a little extra time between fixtures and I thought I'd give all my players a run out and give them an easy win to keep morale up.

In other news, we have an affiliate now, so that should be useful come January. And not just any affiliate.

I'm really happy that I have such a reputable club linking with me, it should help me out a lot. Hopefully they have some great youngsters who can step up and help me push forward in the future. Maybe I can sign some too if I'm feeling lucky (probably not).

The league looks very tight around my area, and I think that with a little bit of luck I can move back out of the relegation zone.

[tastaiwan]

VW Hamme October 2015

We deserved to lose those first two games. We equalized in the dying seconds against Gullegem, and Londerzeel were shooting for fun and were unlucky not to score. Sint-Niklas proved to be way too good for us, and I'm still figuring out how I should play my forwards.

Still trying to climb out of 10th.

[deltablue]

Must be rather tense with all those relegation spots.

[tastaiwan]

Must be rather tense with all those relegation spots.

I have no idea why I didn't think of this earlier, but with only six spots to survive the drop, I should probably raid the loan market and scan Club Brugge for the best players possible, and I can worry about strengthening my own team later when there isn't a 66% chance of getting relegated.

[tastaiwan]

November 2015

My job status is still stable, but I have no idea how. I thought if I organized a friendly against a similarly rated team I could give my players a challenge and give me insight into what they can do. All we did is drop the ball and put on a terrible performance for the supporters. I stripped away all the fancy roles from my tactic, and after figuring out that my goalkeeper was gifting free balls to the other team, I changed his instructions and we finally pulled off a win. Very worrying though, I really hope that this is a turn in our fortunes, or else...

One more month 'til the halfway point, maybe we can pull something off.

[tastaiwan]

December 2015

Honestly, I thought we had a pretty good month, I didn't really expect to take something away from Bornem, but keeping them down to only one goal is pretty decent. We took two wins when it mattered. It's a shame we didn't move up at all, I thought 6 from 9 points was a pretty good number considering our recent form. I mean, we took more points this month than last month, and we had twice as many games...

In other news, Lionel Messi won the Ballon d'Or this year, as MUTD's Juan Mata took second and Madrid's James Rodriguez took third. Same exact lineup for World Player of the Year. World Team of the Year has Manuel Neuer in goal, Mats Hummels and Jerome Boateng at centre back with Alaba on the left and Danilo on the right, James Rodriguez and De Bruyne take the center mid spots, Mata gets AMC, Messi on right wing, Ronaldo on left, Suarez on top.

[tastaiwan]

January 2016

We've hit another big rut, and this one's a doozy. I'm still trying to figure things out tactics wise, we've kept people out but goals are starting to creep in and it's hurting. The board gave me a visit after the game against Temse to tell me to fix stuff or else.





We've dropped down a bit to 15th, and I'm starting to doubt I'll last until the summer. In other news, I've brought in five loan signings to help me out, hopefully they can make a difference, especially Ahmed Touba.











Good thing this save is more about learning and getting better, because this is getting worrying. Off to February. Can we keep our spot?

[tastaiwan]

That's that then. It just took one tie with second place Torhout to get fired. I saw it coming when the players were telling me to start being a better leader.

Ouch. When did my relationship with the chairman get so bad?

I still need to figure out how to be a good leader so there's that, but definitely not what I wanted to happen on my first job. I guess I'm on the job hunt again, and I really hope I can do better. The main thing I need to figure out now is how to make a good tactic. Do I want more simplistic? More specific roles and instructions? Limit instructions to one or two things? We'll try to figure that out at my next job. For now, I just want to get out of Belgium and give it a second shot. Hopefully my rep isn't too tainted.

[tastaiwan]

I'm off to Nuneaton Town, England in the Vanarama North! I've inherited quite an amazing standing in the league, so that's great.





I didn't play the AFC Fylde game, so I'm 1-1-1 so far. Not good, not bad. I hope I can really get something going in England!

[tastaiwan]

Welcome to Nuneaton Town FC! Originally Nuneaton St. Nicholas, the club changed its name to Nuneaton Town five years after its birth in 1889. The club was disbanded in 1937, and Nuneaton Borough FC days later. The highest league they've ever competed in is the Vanarama Championship, which they were promoted to in 2012. After two seasons of 13th and 15th, they dropped down to last and were relegated in 2015. In the 2015-2016 season, they seek to return to the highest level of Vanarama soccer and perhaps rise to Sky Bet Land. Can Kyle Greenwich give them that glory?

Squad:

Aaaaaand we don't have a decent left-back.

[tastaiwan]

March 2016

A good and bad month as we start on a rough patch but clean things up. The Gloucester game was two days after the last one but whatever.





Picked up a few more players to help strengthen up top and at the fullbacks.

[Deisler26]

WHAT THE HELL???

I have never seen that bad a comment from the chairman!

[tastaiwan]

WHAT THE HELL???

I have never seen that bad a comment from the chairman!

I wonder, do different chairmen have different personalities? I wonder if that had an influence.

[noikeee]

They do, it's the same as all staff, just not visible.

Tough start in Belgium, take it as a learning experience, maybe a few years later you'll go back to Belgium and dominate it there. It's what I plan to do in my current career, as I was terrible in my first job in Scotland and now I've settled with much better results elsewhere, I want to return there at some stage to prove a point!

[tastaiwan]

They do, it's the same as all staff, just not visible.

Tough start in Belgium, take it as a learning experience, maybe a few years later you'll go back to Belgium and dominate it there. It's what I plan to do in my current career, as I was terrible in my first job in Scotland and now I've settled with much better results elsewhere, I want to return there at some stage to prove a point!

Yeah, I'll go and stick it to those VW Hamme fellows problem is they've started winning games since I left... Good luck to you though in Scotland! Do you have a thread for it, I might want to give it a read

[tastaiwan]

Oh, I've read that thread so far, Costa Rica was quite a nice read, you're doing a bloody good job!

[deltablue]

Wow, that chairman was a dick!

[tastaiwan]

April 2016



We had an absolutely stunning first half of the month, especially that win against Alfreton that brought us the potential to overtake them and take second, but our last two games let us down against weaker sides. We really should have won those games but it's like we didn't turn up after we secured a playoff spot.



Promotion playoffs start now, but I don't know about how I feel about our chances. I'm definitely hoping for it though.



We can take on Tamworth, right?

[tastaiwan]

Promotion Playoff Semi-Final vs Tamworth

Let's get straight into it then. Tamworth are apparently our local rivals, so there's that. A little more motivation to get one over them and give it a shot in the final. We get the away game first, so if things go awry we can try to fix things at home. No significant injuries, but I'm a little worried because my loan striker, Byrne-Hewitt, is quite ff-form. He hasn't been scoring and it's worrying. I'm starting this first game on control because I believe we can win and if we get a few goals in immediately that would be great.



Playing with this, it's been working for me. I have a wide target man because I noticed we played down the right a lot, so I put in an AP to give him passes and made him a target man so we try to get the ball to him more often because, hey, it's working.



What a terrible game. I was worried the promotion was down the trash when we let in two goals in eight minutes. Luke Hubbins, their right wing, was giving us a lot of trouble. I was a bit happier when Williams gave us a goal back, but we couldn't seem to get any more good chances. Hubbins' goal was annoying, he shot it from a super awkward angle and it kinda bounced off our keeper and in off the post. We still have one game left to correct that. I'm going to play this one with a standard mindset though, because these guys can give us problems if we're not responsible in the back.



That away goal from last match should be helping us out too.



Their goal actually pissed me off. The goalkeeper kinda sorta blocked it, and it trickled in in slow motion, bounced off the post and stopped a few inches across the line. Totally ridiculous. Liam Marrs is there giving me false hope that we can make it. I know that I'm not that good and it's unlikely for me to get a promotion this easily, but the chance was there and we blew it. I'll have to wait for next season, hopefully we can try again. Oh, and I hope my 200k over the payroll budget won't come back to haunt me.

[noikeee]

It's obviously always annoying to lose in a playoff, but I think you can be pretty happy with that half-season, pretty positive to have climbed to 3rd. Now with a proper preparation for a full season I think you can aim for promotion in a more confident way.

[tastaiwan]

It's obviously always annoying to lose in a playoff, but I think you can be pretty happy with that half-season, pretty positive to have climbed to 3rd. Now with a proper preparation for a full season I think you can aim for promotion in a more confident way.

That climb was definitely a nice little boost. This next season is going to be a fun one, I've been looking forward to playing in the lower English leagues!

[tastaiwan]

Summer of 2016

Lots of stuff going on, but I'll just take you through it step by step, starting with the end of last season. We had a good final run in the league to climb up to third, and were beat out of the promotion playoff against Tamworth. The season review came in, and I basically sat around until the transfer window started so I could start bringing in loans and seeing where I needed to cover retiring people and leaving stars.



James Clifton pulled off player of the season. Sadly, as you'll see later, the summer saw him leave as I got a nice offer for twice his value and brought in a free man to cover him who is almost as good but has potential. Aaron Williams is good and well, except I brought in a new right winger by the name of Isaac Vassell who should give him a run for starting spot.



Next up, we have the Euro Cup 2016! Since I'm not managing internationally I'm not going to show the group stages, but the knockouts are easy to show and are right below.



Summary: The English still suck, Andri Yarmolenko is doing great things for Ukraine, Italy won, Wales made it to the knockouts somehow, Belgium beat France in a difficult second round draw...good stuff.

Awards for the Euros







Very fascinating, have a look at that if you feel compelled to. Like I said, nice for Andriy Yarmolenko to do well, and Spain got a bunch of Best Player awards despite getting knocked out in the Quarter Finals...what about that. Van Persie is in the Dream Team. A bit of a stretch.

Off to preseason, starting with the preview.



We're predicted to win, so there's that.



Phenomenal preseason by my standards. We blew past Whitchurch and Nuneaton Griff, as expected. We beat League 1 side (last year, I don't know about this year) Coventry, our senior affiliate. I'm sure they fielded a weak team, but still, I feel great about that win. We held off Crystal Palace for most of the game until we lost stamina in the second half. But we scored! How about that! And Everton U21 can stick it somewhere else because they barely beat us.

And the last bit of news is, of course, the transfers.



I've learned, for naught or for good, that it's better for me to be less attached to my players and let them go because they want new contracts that I can't afford to afford, so I just brought in a bunch of loanees and a few players who can learn from them. Made a nice profit of around 50k (James Clifton has some addons, I sold him for like 42k) which will help keep the club's finances afloat. My squad looks like this:



Great keeper, strength at the full backs but much to be craved at center back, very powerful center mid that I can rotate, extremely strong wingers and attacking mid (the only problem is I have like no cover for them, if they get injured I'm playing with fire), and....an injured striker. Great. Might want to get one more in.

[tastaiwan]

Bad news. I completed the month of August and then the game crashed. So I'll be redoing everything. Yay!

[tastaiwan]

August 2016 - Nuneaton



Looks like we're on track for a pretty good season. You have no idea how excited I am to have our new forward with us. My poor experience in Belgium payed off as we snatched a gem of a player, Ivan Yagan, if you compare him to the rest of our side. Sadly, he's Armenian, which means he plays for the national team because literally no one else plays for Armenia. I've already lost him to international duties a few times, but I brought in an extra player, Tyrone Marsh, who's appeared in one game so far, scoring two goals. He has great potential and will cover Yagan for the next few seasons, unless I use Yagan to an interested side.



Only costed around 15k.





So the first time I went through the month, I went 4 wins 1 tie 1 lossand the AFC Telford boss went 3 wins 3 ties, so I won the award. This time the manager decided to go 6 for 6. What a *******.

[tastaiwan]

September 2016 - Nuneaton



Solid month, a few blips, although the one against Blyth was played with a fully rotated side to give other people some play time, came back the next game full force to ensure a spot in the next round.



We're giving ourselves a bit of a cushion. That's gonna come in handy if we have a slump in form.



Second again.

[Rikulec]

I've just read through all this, seems to be a nice thread shaping up. Good luck with this.

[tastaiwan]

I've just read through all this, seems to be a nice thread shaping up. Good luck with this.

Thanks mate! It's a goal of mine to stick with a long-term save, and I think this is the way to do it. Knowing that people are reading this definitely motivates me to keep it up.

[deltablue]

Very good start to the season.

[tastaiwan]

October 2016 - Nuneaton



Good month, yada yada. I'm thinking about changing the roles a bit because I think the other teams are starting to adapt to my tactic, maybe put a playmaker in the midfield instead of a AMC and change the role of the forward and the wings to something else. I might need to try a change defensively too, see where we're conceding goals.



Solid, still unbeaten, now let's get to the main story of this month.



This is Steve Chettle. Good chap, he's my assistant manager, he has surprisingly good stats for his level. I'd hate to do something that might upset him.





Oh yeah and I sold his son to Dartforth. Sorry about that mate, I didn't realize. :p

[vossmaj]

Excellent career, mate. Love following it especially because I have no idea where this will lead you to...

[tastaiwan]

Excellent career, mate. Love following it especially because I have no idea where this will lead you to...

Pretty much describes my favourite type of save, just kinda rollin with it. Thanks for keeping up with my save!

[noikeee]

Pretty smooth job so far this season.

[tastaiwan]

November 2016 - Nuneaton

Hey, guess what! We have a new skin, so we can now enjoy these updates without harming our eyes (light skin yay)! I can finally go back to my updating ways (hopefully, maybe not, we'll see), and we start off with a great month of football.



I'm pretty sure York are in Sky Bet League 2, so...pretty good game in that perspective. Ivan Yagan is still doing us proud by having, what, 17 goals in 19 appearances? What a beast.





I'm just gonna take it and run. Because Keith Briggs definitely didn't win more games than me.

[Jason the Yank]

Being top has its privileges.

[tastaiwan]

December 2016 - Nuneaton

The year's over, and I can say that I've settled into this job waaay better than I did with VW Hamme. I don't know what it is, but it clicked better. Only problem is that I have a lot of debt, we'll see where that leaves me, especially with a lot of my staff leaving me at the end of the year. Some players are leaving too, most notably Ivan Yagan and David Morgan. It'll be hard to replace them.



This is actually very worrying. We barely beat AFC Telford, we scored in like the 86th minute or something? And look at all those ties. Sometimes we just can't find the net, I'm pretty sure Ivan Yagan hasn't scored in a while.



As a result, Harrogate and Chorley are starting to creep up on us. I'll need to change the attacking roles a bit until I find something that gets me goals. Awards for 2016:

[tastaiwan]

January 2017

You know, sometimes the cards are against you. And it's okay. But sometimes the cards are on your side and completely annihilating the other sides, and it's even more okay. Then there's that one card, the two of clubs, nobody wants it, and you get it. Of course you do, and you were so close.



I'm gonna cry.

[tastaiwan]

February 2017



I really don't know how I feel about what's happening. Ivan Yagan is underperforming, and Tyrone Marsh is putting in good performances but they're too dang inconsistent. We made it all the way to the fourth round of the FA trophy, which is great. Gateshead was too good for us and our forwards in poor form. People keep scoring against us, and I'm not sure what I want to do there. We were predicted to win easily against Lowestoft. I only played one young player with great potential in that one, and he's not a defender, he should in no way cause a loss such as that.



Still safe.



If you guys could offer an interview, that would be great. They're in the league above me, so a small step up but a step nonetheless. I don't think I'd take it anyway though, I'm bound to be in that league next year.

[Jason the Yank]

Yeah, might as well stick with Nuneaton. Worst case scenario, you're still 21 points clear for the playoffs with 30 points left on the table.

You're still effectively 3 games ahead with 10 to play.

[tastaiwan]

Yeah, might as well stick with Nuneaton. Worst case scenario, you're still 21 points clear for the playoffs with 30 points left on the table.

You're still effectively 3 games ahead with 10 to play.

I don't know if we're gonna win the title, I really hope we do, but after that FA Trophy loss everyone got super depressed and we can't seem to do anything right. I don't even think my tactics have anything to do with it, they just can't handle two losses mentally. I'm struggling to find the weak links because everyone is sucking right now, the only one I can pinpoint is Darragh Leaghy.