[FM17] Failtball Manager (AKA A Randomly Generated Career)

[Minuy600]

What have Thailand, Guinea, the Seychelles, Saint Martin, Lebanon and Estonia got to do with each other?

Literally nothing!

Though for me...

...They're where my management career is going to unfold. In these countries and these countries only, I will be managing. And this time, the explicit rule is to enjoy myself. Not take the game too seriously. It's just that, a game. I'll be starting unemployed and will holiday untill today, as is the case with most of my other journeyman saves nowadays. Let's hope I don't get frustrated this time out!

[BoxToBox]

Good luck!

[ManUtd1]

4 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Good luck!

Seconded!

[Minuy600]

Meet the Dude

This Dudé Guyan, a New Caledonian inhabitant with roots from the Philippines. He's out to dominate everyone in football... at least in those afromentioned countries. He's probably wrong, but who could not encourage him, right? Also worth noting is that he has an obsession for FC Egypt. Don't ask, it hurts his feelings.

12 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Good luck!

 

8 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

Seconded!

Cheers guys! I can feel in Benjoe's ween that this is going to go well.

[ManUtd1]

1 minute ago, Minuy600 said:

Cheers guys! I can feel in Benjoe's ween that this is going to go well.

[BoxToBox]

6 minutes ago, Minuy600 said:

Cheers guys! I can feel in Benjoe's ween that this is going to go well.

It's the FMCU good luck charm, just, uh, unlike a rabbits foot, probably best not to give it a rub...

Without permission at least.

[Minuy600]

9 minutes ago, ManUtd1 said:

Maybe. Maybe maybe maybe.

[rodesire]

isn't that a single nation in each confederation, so you can dominate them all and become the king of the world? #Fraud

[Minuy600]

The Choice

We actually have quite a lot of choice here. However, since I have next to no reputation, it's best to not attempt to go to the top divisions of Thailand or Lebanon. I also would prefer to have actual money, so the clubs with insecure finances aren't that interesting either. This leaves us with 2 clubs from Guinea, 1 from the Thai third division, one from Saint Martin and one from the Seychelles. Let's view the clubs real quick.

Club Industriel de Kamsar are currently 8th in the GPL, free from any relegation troubles with 4 matches left to play. They're professional, definetly a big plus there. Definetly will be interested to take over.

Flamme Olympique are currently 13th in that same competition, 10 points away from safety...

Horoya Athletique Club, though they have no good amounts of money, are very tasty otherwise. Professional, decently good facilities, the lowest placed of a clearly dominant top 4, and last but not least, they're owned by the club right above them in the standings. Righty.

Ayutthaya FC might be the most probable and best option on this list. They just got relegated out of Division Two, and instantly found themselves in a tricky situation in the league below them. The advertisement says all I have to do is avoid relegation, and with just one point seperating us and safety, that seems easy enough to do. There's 17 matches left anyway, if we don't get out by match 1 i'm pretty sure we can do so later. Worth noting is that the Thai Division Three is of higher quality than the Premier Division (second tier) of Indonesia, which is in the game by default. I'd be silly not to apply for the job TBH.

FC Marigot finished 3rd in the Saint-Martin Championship last year and this year they have found themselves in 7th. Not too great considering the league is only 12 matches long and we have to wait another 7 months before the 2019 season kicks off. Still going to apply, since the afromentioned teams might not want my duties.

Côte d'Or is the final option and suprise suprise, they're neat to manage. Just like Ayutthaya, they have the atmosphere of fallen giants, being in last, two points from safety, while in 2016 they finished 2nd and even won the league 5 years ago. Not to mention they won the Seychelles FA Cup + Super Cup duo one and a half years ago.

Looks like this is the order of interest i'm going for:
1. Côte d'Or
2. Ayutthaya
3. Horoya
4. Kamsar
5. Marigot
No Flamme Olympique here, thank you very much.

[Minuy600]

The Process

Part 1:

Well, that's not the best of starts. If only I started this save yesterday.

All other clubs have shown interest in me.

Part 2:
Two new members of the 'could be managed by a New Caledonian weirdo' have joined the fray! We're talking about Ranong United FC and Surat Thani, both clubs from the same division as Ayutthaya. They do have slightly less reputation and the latter wants me to finish mid-table, though. Ranong actually got overtaken by Ayutthaya in the process, leading them to up their expectation to be competitive. Decisions, decisions...

Part 3:
Another two clubs surfaced. While Bangkok University Deffo FC would Deffo go just fine, we finally have a representative from Lebanon as well. Al-Irshad just got promoted to the Second Division and as this is FM, they're without a man to ger. My patience is starting to wear out a tiny bit by now, would be happy if I got an invite or rejection by anyone else than Côte d'Or in the next part.

Part 4:

Horoya and Kamsar also have bit the bait.

Part 5:

You all must know what this means.

[Minuy600]

The Start

Here we go.

I've definetly seen worse teams than this.

Has the potential to do a little better.

15 matches left, shouldn't be too insanely difficult to leave the gap towards relegation at 4 points or more. With a little bit of luck we could also climb up to the top 10.

[Minuy600]

1 hour ago, rodesire said:

isn't that a single nation in each confederation, so you can dominate them all and become the king of the world? #Fraud

No, it's 2 countries from Asia, 2 from Africa and 1 from North America and Europe each.

[makovn]

@Minuy600 Good luck! i will be following

[ryanlion28]

Very nice set of countries, will be following.

Also i'm probably one of very few people on FM who've actually managed one of those teams, Cote D'or, they did feel like a fallen giant to be fair and there is actually a little bit of Seychelles talent

[Minuy600]

July 2018

Well, this is a tad different to the fraudulent save I had over the last few days!
Absolutely stoked with this start.

From 14th to 7th in the span of a single month, feels good. 10 matches to go and the gap to the drop zone is at least going to be 4 points after the others teams have played their matches. Tasty.

35 minutes ago, ryanlion28 said:

Very nice set of countries, will be following.

Also i'm probably one of very few people on FM who've actually managed one of those teams, Cote D'or, they did feel like a fallen giant to be fair and there is actually a little bit of Seychelles talent

Thank you! (this goes for everyone reading this by the way )

I'll be watching Cote d'Or closely. See if they return to glory eventually or fade into obscurity instead.

[Minuy600]

If I did not enjoy my time at Ayutthaya as much as I do now, i'd probably be kicking myself right now for missing this golden opportunity in Guinea.

Ah well, I could always go to Guinea whenever I feel like it.

[Minuy600]

August 2018

Threw away two leads, both within 5 minutes.

Don't quite know what happened against Nakhon, extremely poor performance there.

Still no problems here though. We have a gap of 5 points with a game in hand, so as long as we get a victory and some draws here and there, we should be just fine for the last 7 matches.

[Minuy600]

2018 Youth Intake

First intake on FM for me in ages, not exactly the greatest one though...

He could be quite alright. At least he could patch up the holes in the midfield for the time being.

These two have got 3 stars of potential as well, but they're really not going anywhere near my first team for the forseeable future.

The others will be signed too but most of them will be out on loan or into the reserve/U19 team.

[Minuy600]

September 2018

I have no clue as of why I sometimes completely dismantle clubs above me, only to have horrid matches against ones below me. At least now I know 'attacking set pieces' is the worst of the worst when it comes to match prep and the opposite the best. At least for me.

It's not an issue as of right now as we're safe! The gap towards the drop will be 8 points at the very least and both me and the board are very happy with that. The final few matches will actually be against both top 2 sides, so i'll be the big influence into who will be promoted automatically and who has to battle in the play-off against the second placed team of the other third division.

[BoxToBox]

6 hours ago, Minuy600 said:

I have no clue as of why I sometimes completely dismantle clubs above me, only to have horrid matches against ones below me.

What's your tactic like?

Sounds like a classic case of playing aggressively, which catches strong teams that play open against you off guard, but not weaker teams who set up to counter you.

[Minuy600]

34 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

What's your tactic like?

Sounds like a classic case of playing aggressively, which catches strong teams that play open against you off guard, but not weaker teams who set up to counter you.

A basic 4-4-2 with a Control mentality and a Structured shape. An ever more attacking set up worked pretty well in a Croatian save I did a while ago, and it seems to at least get the job done here. Definetly would love to stop having sudden setbacks though.

[BoxToBox]

Try switching to standard early on in a match or two against a weaker side, see if you leave less space for them to hit on the break.

 

[Minuy600]

The Recap (of 2016 and 2017)

Quite overdue, but here's what been popping in the first two seasons of the 6 countries in terms of domestic top divisions.

Saint-Martin

St Louis Stars and Concordia seem to be the dominant forces here. Everyone else is pretty close, but can't quite catch up just yet. Concordia seem to have the most potential, going unbeaten in 2018. Marigot completely collapsed after the first season, that's why they've been managerless for a pretty long period of time now.

Seychelles

St. Michel's United are clearly rampant here, losing only thrice in 44 matches and right now also being well underway to add another title to their tally. Anse Reunion and La Passe are also eyeing on filling out a top 3 much stronger than the rest. Côte d'Or... we've talked about them before. Losing the title in 2016 proved costly to their future.

Guinea

A bit of an extreme competition, this. THREE clubs on exactly the same amount of points, Fello Star rolling out as victor on goal difference at the end of it all. That same Fellow Star went ahead and did the unthinkable the season after, crushing the league with a gap of 8 points. With just 26 games, that's huge. Kaloum, Horoya (hello missed opportunity) and Hafia end off a top 4 that have a clear advantage over the rest, leaving the other teams to trail by respectively 11 and 10 points. And to round off this crazy competition, the promoted teams basically have next to no chance of survival. Just look at poor Flamme Olympique, who wanted me to drag them out of there! Sad.

Estonia

It's Nömme Kalju that has suprised the most. Before the save started they had only finished second twice and third once, now they got a third second place and their first title to boot. @MarcxD's giants Flora Talinn missed the boat a bit, not being quite able to get their act together and add an eleventh title to their cabinet. Paide Linnameeskond apparently couldn't cope with being succesful, so after their title win they faded back to the obscurity they're used to. Last thing to note is that FCI Talinn is Arsenal in disguise.

Lebanon

It's Al-Ahed that's going on with the buisness they have recently been used to doing, and that's winning the league. While I could say 5 teams are better than the rest, I don't think that's entirely fair towards Tripoli SC and Shabab Sahel. They've given them a good run for their money.

While the league may not be the very definition of interesting, Ahed have actually managed to win the Asian Confederation Cup in 2018, beating arguably bigger clubs from Oman and Syria, before smashing Bengaluru from India 5-0 in the final. My genuine compliments!

Thailand

What is it with these competitions and having pretty uncanny cases of domination?

Good going from Muangthong United who defied Buiram United from getting 5 titles in a row. Let's see how Buiram will perform before I will dethrone them with Ayutthaya... I hope.

50 minutes ago, BoxToBox said:

Try switching to standard early on in a match or two against a weaker side, see if you leave less space for them to hit on the break.

 

Kinda difficult when you have to play the top two and the season is done after that

Will attempt this next year depending on form of course, thanks for the tip.

[Minuy600]

October 2018

Did quite alright considering we were up against playoff-secured Phuket.

Hope to cause an upset and beat Samut Sakhon so we can get the nicer looking 10th place.

[Benjoe]

On 11/06/2018 at 16:03, Minuy600 said:

Cheers guys! I can feel in Benjoe's ween that this is going to go well.

[Minuy600]

2018 End of Season

We couldn't get it done, but the match stats show potential for next season.

If we had the form we had in July and September all season long, things could've been very tasty indeed. Top half should be doable next season.

Would've personally picked Bruno as man of the season, being deadly in the second half of the season, but oh well.

I thought the media predicted me to end high up, but hey, we got complimented for solid results, i'll take it.

Good.

[Minuy600]

Woo! Seems like we won't be bleeding money little by little anymore.

[Minuy600]

Double woo! Wonder how much effect this is going to have on our future youngsters.

[Minuy600]

Just seeing if I can make this happen. Champions League football is something you always should aim for, of course.

If it doesn't happen, we're up against just-relegated Prachuap in the cup. Could generate some good incomes.

[Minuy600]

Probably for the best.

Oh great. Now the pressure is really on. It wasn't even changable to something more reasonable like battling for a promotion spot.