The FM08 Career Thread

[wisla_krakow]

Right, started this a while back, but will update quickly now.

Started with the following leagues:

England (BSN/S and above)

France (CFA and above)

Germany (Regional Divisions and above)

Italy (Serie C2 and above)

Holland (First Division and above)

Scotland (Third Division and above)

Spain (Second Division B and above)

Went with a semi-pro reputation, and it wasn't until March 2008 when I got a job offer of....Cambridge City. But did I accept? No, I delayed a week, and funnily enough, got a much better offer, Havant and Waterlooville a club about 20-25 mins away from my house.

2007/08 Season Mini-Update - Havant & W - BSS - Finished 7th (7th when taken over)

Had a decent end to the season, mainly because I played EVERY team in the top 5! Managed to win 5 and lose 2 (to winners Eastleigh and Newport Co), but annoying lost out on a play-off spot on goal difference, which was a problem attained before I had joined the club.

Final League Table

2008/09 Pre-Season - Havant & W - BSS

Despite being a bit annoyed that we didn't get into the play-offs, and also that I only realised after July 1st that I had about 11 players staying on for next season which I deemed "good enough" for this level.

So went on a transfer search, trialled a lot of players off the "World Transfer" screen who had been released until I found about a few that were dubbed BSP and even League Two standard, which seemed to be a lot of Dutch players! Infact I can field an entirely Dutch midfield if they're all fit to play, though the AMR seems a bit injury prone. Of course, there's no transfer fees as we're £250k in the red, and I'm barely under my wage budget, but I lost a lot releasing the likes of Guy Butters and Rocky Baptiste.

Thought from what I could see and what my assistant was saying that I had a team ready to challenge for the play-offs, but I got a bit of a suprise in our first league game to Welling away. We won 6-0 . Perhaps it was a fluke, but I'll press on with the season when I can, could be interesting if we could keep that form up.

[wisla_krakow]

Finished the sentence in the first paragraph of the Pre-Season part a bit prematurely .

Should have ended with "we've started well".

[ToMexico!!]

11/12 - Gratkorn

Transfer Budget - 0

Wage Budget - 820k per annum

Media Prediction - 7th from 12

The board for some reason were expecting me to avoid relegation, for me another mid-table finish seemed suitable for this season. Although after a few transfer coups i thought i had the squad to make some sort of viable challenge to gain promotion, although only 1 place was available to achieve this. I managed to offload a couple of foreign fringe players to free up some spaces to bring in some better overseas players. Transfers

Always forgetting to mention the cup/s in previous updates at whichever club was due to my team failing to make any real progress and thus not getting anywhere near the latter stages. Or in other words CUPS SUCKED ASS!! 2nd round this time iirc.

As i said above i felt that i thought we could push for the title this season and we did just that. We had a great start to the season sitting a respectable 2nd after 11 games, Wacker Innsbruck were our main rivals, we continuously traded places throughout the season, yet again after the next 11 games and at the mid-season winter break we still sat 2nd. After losing all our 3 friendlies during winter to premier division opposition, we began the last stage with a cracking 7-0 win over Schwadorf. The turning point of the season was 3 games to go when we had to play Innsbruk. We were sitting in 1st and 3 points ahead with a lesser GD to them. A game we needed to win it ended like this. v Innsbruck Just ridiculess!

So was our season over? They had the greater GD, a telling factor. We went to Austria Amatuere needing to win and win big. We did that 5-0. The difference in GD was now only +4 to Innsbruck. The last game of the season was crucial. Innsbruck visited Austria Amatuere knowing a win without conceding would seal promotion and the title. Yet again we had to win big, we needed to win by 4 goals more than what Innsruck did. we only managed 5 goals, whilst conceding 2. Not good enough. Innsbruck won 4-0. So we finished level on points with Innsbruck. Losing the title by a mere 3 goals. Table

Although our season ended in anguish i was pleased with the way we played throughout the season, we managed to score a fantastic 96 goals in the league. My strikers were on red hot form throughout the season, notably Abass, Kropfl his strike partner and Brauneis. However we did share some of the goals around only the keeper from the first eleven not scoring. A few first team players contracts are up this summer and are not interested in renewing which is a bummer but i should be able to attract some players of the same quality/ or persist and get them to renew the contracts. Sqaud+Stats

Finances are pretty gash for this season. I was over the 1mil mark when i took over but slowly it has delcined nearly to under the 100k mark now, with such a small ground of 1500 capacity, gate receipts are pretty pants and my only option to increase my finances would be to sell a player or 2, something that i don't want to do. So gaining promotion next season is a must to help balance the books and possibly increase the ground size.

Club Info

Manager Profile My profile changed a bit this season, hands on approach declined although i did every contract renewal and team talk possible. Nevermind. Tactical consistency increased as i haven't changed it this season.

[Sidnv]

You can start a career game with Semi pro status right?.

I started one on 8.0.0 and have found a club .

St pauli in german second division.

Won first 2 games.

[rlipscombe]

Originally posted by Sidnv:

You can start a career game with Semi pro status right?.

I started one on 8.0.0 and have found a club .

St pauli in german second division.

Won first 2 games.

yeah, you can. no strict rules on reputation really. most people are semi-pro or automatic.

[ToMexico!!]

Originally posted by Sidnv:

You can start a career game with Semi pro status right?.

I started one on 8.0.0 and have found a club .

St pauli in german second division.

Won first 2 games.

yeh you can, if you read back if gives you a beter chance of getting a bigger club interested in you as their manager, which in my opinion is isn't right...but Good Luck anyway

[rlipscombe]

Originally posted by ToMexico!!:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Sidnv:

You can start a career game with Semi pro status right?.

I started one on 8.0.0 and have found a club .

St pauli in german second division.

Won first 2 games.

yeh you can, if you read back if gives you a beter chance of getting a bigger club interested in you as their manager, which in my opinion is isn't right...but Good Luck anyway </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

each to their own though - imo semi-pro doesn't get you into 'big' clubs. you might jump a level, avoiding the bottom league or so, but you still only go in at second or third level. for those who haven't the time (or patience) to play for 20+ seasons, it just gives them a bit of a head start.

choice is yours

[happy slappy]

I think my recent signing may help us get closer and closer to the play-offs this season.

[iacovone]

Good signing happy slappy. I know him IRL, good lad.

On the Wigan front. I made wholesale changes really. Managed to sell off all my want away players for good prices. 5 big rep players went for around £18mill

Coming in has been only loans and free transfers and I'm 70k under wage budget. And yet, I'm still losing close to £2mill a month !!

We're sitting 4th after 21 games so promotion is still possible. Playoffs most likely bet I reckon I think if we don't get promoted this year it'll be years and years until we can again. I'll be forced into selling the key assets every year and cant see how its sustainable to mount a promotion push. But fingers crossed, this year will be the year. Just need to improve the away form

[dafuge]

I had taken striker Charles Ademeno on loan from Southend for the new season. He scores a hat trick on his début then his loan is cancelled because his contract with Southend has expired

He won't sign for me either

[iacovone]

That's so frustrating. Happened to me a few times

[rlipscombe]

yeah, that's a real pain in the arse.... so frustrating.

[Sidnv]

I don't run too many of the low leagues. Comp can't handle it.

Very frantic end to the transfer window as a i found i needed a good striker because one signing i made strangely will come only next year.

[Sidnv]

Double post but how do you upload screenshots after saving them.

[dafuge]

Originally posted by Sidnv:

Double post but how do you upload screenshots after saving them.

There's instructions in the opening post of this thread.

[happy slappy]

Well, I must be doing something right? Lincoln are currently 9th in League 2, 2 points outside the play-offs with 4 games to go.

Please go for me \o/.

[iacovone]

Without meaning to put a downer on your hopes happy...I must have been linked to about a hundred jobs in my 14 seasons. It's only very very rare that you get an offer. So don't expect to climb the ladder quite so soon! But good luck

[happy slappy]

Let's do one of these updates things now.

Happy Slappy. 2008/2009. Ebbsfleet United. Blue Square Premier.

So, when I took over The Fleet were languishing down in 21st and in the relegation places, but, with a few additions in January, we managed to get up to 12th.

As you can see, steady progress.

Picture of the lads, nice to see that all 3 main strikers got into double figures.

Charlie, my best player.

We won the F.A. Trophy \o/

Which kinda helped the finances. Update of my profile.

Next Season.

Try and get into the play-offs.

A good cup run.

Hopefully get a better job.

BRING IT ON!!!

[bermybhoy]

Made a start on this over the weekend. My world record breaking attempt (titles with 5 clubs in one country) did not exactly get off to a flying start.

Took a job mid season in Russian 1st division with the romatically named outfit FC Tekstilshchik Telekom Ivanovo, with them hovering slightly above the rather harsh 5 relegation spots (out of 22). Had an up and down time, but utimately was unable to keep thm in the division. With only top two leagues playable, I had to do the honourable thing as I'd have been pushed anyway.

Then went to Partick Thistle, 9th in Scottish 1st div. Made a fine start with good results against the top teams, made some decent looking signings, before going on the worst run ever. Took them all the way to the bottom, being overtaken by an awful Stirling Albion side. With 4 games left and due to face Stirling with the chance to go back above them on goal difference - the board pulled the plug

It's left me slightly disillusioned with the game in general. Oh well. Will find myself a new job and start having a serious rethink about how I approach the game...I think a lot more work on the tactical side is required.

[iacovone]

Yeah just keep plugging away - cant always have it your own way!!

[rlipscombe]

unlucky start bermybhoy - keep plugging away though. i'm sure you'll find the club for you soon and your career will take off.

good luck

[JoseBlanco]

Just making a start to it now. I have loaded up these leagues : English (League 2 and up)

French (Ligue 2 and up)

German (Bundesliga only)

Holland (Premier only)

Italy (Serie B and up)

Portugal(Liga Vitalis and up)

Spain (LIGA BBVA and up)

I have also loaded all players from Brazil and Argentina.

I have fix the Defoe problem on the DB and while i was aat it I changed some of the league names to their correct ones.

I started with a semi-pro reputation. - http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff215/JoseBlanco_photos/managerprofile.jpg[/img]]Profile

[rlipscombe]

Originally posted by JoseBlanco:

Just making a start to it now. I have loaded up these leagues : English (League 2 and up)

French (Ligue 2 and up)

German (Bundesliga only)

Holland (Premier only)

Italy (Serie B and up)

Portugal(Liga Vitalis and up)

Spain (LIGA BBVA and up)

I have also loaded all players from Brazil and Argentina.

I have fix the Defoe problem on the DB and while i was aat it I changed some of the league names to their correct ones.

I started with a semi-pro reputation. - http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff215/JoseBlanco_photos/managerprofile.jpg[/img]]Profile

good luck. i think you've loaded similar leagues to those i am running.

[rlipscombe]

i know that this will probably see my run come crashing down, but i'm currently top of the league with 9 games to go at Doncaster. basically, there's 3 teams broke away, fighting for the top two automatic promotion places. fingers crossed i can get the job done and get us promoted.

i'm not going to pretend i've done an amazing job to achieve this - they were 2nd at christmas when i took over, but we've had to maintain a good run to stay where we are, and i've had to strengthen the squad a bit. Notable signings you may recognise include Vincent Pericard (ST), Tony Warner (GK) and Dorian Dervite, CB on loan from Spurs)

hopefully i'll get the league finished tonight and will have a promotion to report on... fingers crossed, toes crossed etc...

[JoseBlanco]

Tuesday 25th December

I get my first job managering the mighty Rotherham in League 2. They are down in 14th place and had been expecting to finsh 2nd in the league.

[rlipscombe]

Originally posted by JoseBlanco:

Tuesday 25th December

I get my first job managering the mighty Rotherham in League 2. They are down in 14th place and had been expecting to finsh 2nd in the league.

good luck! got a tough job there. i live near Rotherham and irl they are in real trouble. there's a chance that come the end of the season they will be no more!!

hopefully you can keep them alive on this game....

[iacovone]

Good luck to both of you. My file crashed last night Sent me 3 months back, I was flying as well

[ToMexico!!]

Made a flying start to the season again with Gratkorn, not broken away from the chasing pack yet, i'm 2nd on the infamous GD level on points with Lustenau, who were relegated the previous season, both on 31points from 12 games and 2 other teams on 28 points...then a 11 point gap to the mid tabled sides...a considerable gap compared to last season.

made a few strategic signings, no foreigners, trying to play as many austrians(or of austrian decent) as possible. only registered 4 foreigners compared to the full 7 last season.

scoring for fun still, whilst rotating my strikers every game, seems to work well.

[happy slappy]

That's it, I'm starting again, the time it takes for my game to get through pre-season is a joke, it's taken 6 hours just to get from June to July!?!

I'll be starting again with different leagues.

[happy slappy]

So, after I decided to re-start my career game, I thought I narrow down the nations I was going to run, in the end, it came down to all leagues in England, Spain, Italy, France and Sweden.

And, by starting in March 2008.

I got this job offer.

Here I am.

Let the career begin........again.

[follow the blind]

Just got FM 08 and this looks like a lot of fun so i think i will get it started tonight.

[bermybhoy]

Cheers for the encouragement lads. It can't get worse. Think my issue is that I don't have the time I once did to sink into the game and therefore just try and fly through it...it's certainly got tougher than the 06 version, which is the last I had.

Anyway. Got another new job easily enough (my rep seems to have been surprising high for 'automatic' at the start) in Portugal, with Aves. Only 4 games of the season left, and mercifully, they are safe in mid table. Seems to be the biggest club I've been at so far in terms of budgets (£19k/week), and a couple of handy players. With a whole pre season to make a mark and play with tactical set ups, feeling much more confident about this one.

[bermybhoy]

One point. Finished 12th, where we started. ALREADY got the fans on my back, I actually got an 'it's your tactics, mate' news story...never seen that before, it was saying I looked unwilling to change my formation. Hmmmmm think I had worked that out to be fair.

In other news, Partick Thistle survived the play-off, meanign I avoided the distinctin of taking two clubs down in a season.

Fatima got relegated from Portuguese Div1 though, shame, I could do with a few miracles.

[Des Tiny]

Well I just started my unemployed career game with all leagues from Russia, Bulgaria, Belorussia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine. I have got myself a job and I will give a full update of my club and the early look as soon as possible. For something interesting I have 187 days before my first game...Started in Russia February 2007. And I got a job elsewhere, looks like I could have a fun 6 months of friendlies to test my players out with nothing to play for as there are no other leagues running only the Russian one...kinda funny really.

[rlipscombe]

Originally posted by Des Tiny:

Well I just started my unemployed career game with all leagues from Russia, Bulgaria, Belorussia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine. I have got myself a job and I will give a full update of my club and the early look as soon as possible. For something interesting I have 187 days before my first game...Started in Russia February 2007. And I got a job elsewhere, looks like I could have a fun 6 months of friendlies to test my players out with nothing to play for as there are no other leagues running only the Russian one...kinda funny really.

interesting to see you've given most of the 'big' leagues a miss. it'll be interesting to see where you end up...

good luck

[JoseBlanco]

2007/2008 Season. Rotherham United

When I joined Rotherham on Christmas Day they were down in 14th after begining expected to finish second. After some January signings we managed to get up to second and get promoted to League 1!!!.2nd

Transfers

Profile Info

Next Season

Next season we will be looking to avoided relegation from League 1 and also be looking to build on the current squad.

[iacovone]

I'm a 'popular manager' now.

[aaberdeenn]

Keep it up guys, you're all doing a great job.

[Des Tiny]

Originally posted by rlipscombe:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Des Tiny:

Well I just started my unemployed career game with all leagues from Russia, Bulgaria, Belorussia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine. I have got myself a job and I will give a full update of my club and the early look as soon as possible. For something interesting I have 187 days before my first game...Started in Russia February 2007. And I got a job elsewhere, looks like I could have a fun 6 months of friendlies to test my players out with nothing to play for as there are no other leagues running only the Russian one...kinda funny really.

interesting to see you've given most of the 'big' leagues a miss. it'll be interesting to see where you end up...

good luck </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I decided on this line up as I had wanted to play an Eastern European game for a while, and never found a way to get into one of the clubs and stick at it, so this way if I am no longer interested I have 10 other countries to move to and I have a choice of a fair few teams as well, also it stops me from the temptation of heading back to clubs I know in western europe by not having tham active. Running it all on a 1.7 GHz with 256mb of Ram, oh I do have 5 GB of extarnal hard drive converting to RAM to speed things up, Have found this method works well I can now run 30-40 leagues on playable comfortably with no major delays So anyone with low end RAM try it.

[Des Tiny]

Sorry for the double post, but I just remembered something I noticed about the Unemployed Rep at the start. If you choose a Nationality of the big nations, eg England, German, Italian, Spanish etc then your Rep is a lot lower on Automatic. As English Nationality I got offered only a couple of jobs in the countries, but changed to Czech/Croatian and all of a sudden all the bottom half of the second divisions wanted me. So choosing a smaller nationality affects the repuation with an unemployed status, I started as National Rep because of the country I choose as Nationality.

[dafuge]

2008/09 Season Review - Braintree Town in the Blue Square South

After joining the club towards the end of last season, this was my first proper season in charge. The media had predicted we would finish 15th, one place lower than we finished last season.

League Table (contains playoff spoilers)

League Positions Graph

Was having a fairly mediocre season, hovering around mid table before hitting form towards the end of the season. Nine consecutive wins helped me to snatch a playoff spot on the final day of the season.

Playoff semi leg 1

Playoff semi leg 2

Was pretty lucky only to concede one in the first leg, which was a good enough result for me to finish off the job in the home leg.

Playoff Final

Took the lead early, but soon after I found myself 2-1 down. My team were battling hard to get back into it and things were starting to go my way before we hit the self destruct button and had two players sent off in a few minutes. Gutted to throw it away like this.

Squad

Transfers

Brought in almost a brand new squad using free transfers and a few loans. Charles Ademeno played just one game for the club, scoring a hattrick, before his contract with Southend expired meaning he had to leave, he's now at Alloa. Scannell never broke into the team so he was sent back and Bellon was solid in DM.

Star Player

Released from Doncaster without playing a single game, he was my main source of goals with an amazing 33 goals in 41 league games.

Career so far

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">

Season Team Country League League Finish Achievements

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2007/08 Braintree Town England Blue Square South 15th Took over with 10 games left

2008/09 Braintree Town England Blue Square South 4th Lost in playoff final

</pre>

[aaberdeenn]

Unlucky, next sesaon will be the one, for sure.

[happy slappy]

Happy Slappy Update.

Decided to quit my job at Pitea, not only were we £1k over wage budget and losing money, but with the club languishing in 5th after they were expected to finish 1st after 14 games, and of course with the board being unhappy with my performance I decided to quit my job before I was inevitably sacked.

Here's to getting a new job.

[JoseBlanco]

2008/2009 Season. Rotherham United

A season of ups and downs ended with us finishing up in 14th place after beging expected to finish in 17th. But in all a good season with us doing everything i wanted to do at the end of last season.

League Table

League Graph

Squad

Tranfers

Best Player By far my best player of the season with 36 goals in 45 league games. Un surprisingly finished as the leagues top goalscorer.

End of Season

I have decided to resign from Rotherham this season. It was down really to the funds the board were giving which were making me have to scrap around for players without teams and get players on loan.

Next Season

My only plans for this season is to get back into a job maybe as a newly promoted team.

[iacovone]

Unlucky dafuge - nearly carried the momentum to the BSP. Better luck next year

Big to getting a new job for both JoseBlanco and happyslappy. Time for you two to get settled somewhere I think!

By the way dafuge I like your career summary at the bottom of your report - may have to nab that myself

[ToMexico!!]

12/13 - Gratkorn

Media Prediction 4th

Transfer Budget 0

Wage Budget 754k per annum

Another season over for Gratkorn, we managed this time to win the 2nd Division with a couple of games to play. Go me. Times were starting to get hard and this my 3rd season with Gratkorn was deemed to be my last if i did not make promotion this time round.

The players were starting to get bigger than the club and a couple of the better players decided it was time to move on and not sign a new contract in the close season. My ever progressing at the time second best striker, Klopfl who signed for Austria Wien, my title rivals and Haris Bukva my Bosnian/Austrian AM/F C who went to Schwanenstadt. Bukva scoring 30 goals in 29 games for them. Both sorely missed. Dieng Abass was once again my top scorer, this time round he scored a creditable 26 goals in 35 appearances. I brought in 4 other strikers as much needed back up and along with my other striker, the 5 of them used in a rotation method scored 17 goals. My diamond midfield once again worked well as all 3 attacking players chipped in with goals, as well as my back up MR. Transfers

We managed to only lose 1 game this season, which was fantastic as we then went on a 31 game unbeaten run in the league. That loss coming to Lustenau in the second game of the season. Them and Austria Wien were my title rivals along with LASK who finsihed 4th. I drew a few too many than i had hoped and our top spot looked threatened at times. Until around 6 games to go when Austria Wien decided it was time to lose a couple more. Table

The squad looking stronger did well throughout the season to hold off the strong competition from the likes of Wien, Lustenau and LASK in some tough home and away games. And with the added depth from the loan signings it helped when the injuries/ suspensions plagued our team. Squad/Stats

The finances are not looking healthy at the end of the season, for the first time we are in debt. I was steadily losing money throughout the season and rewards such as this did not help. Finances. Hopefully the board will do something about our p!ss poor stadium and decide to build our own, as mentioned on a few occasions we do not own the one we currently play in. So hopefully selling a few players to keep in check will not become and option and we can finally pull in some decent gate reciepts.

Club Info The club value has finally broken the 1million barrier after a third of a season loitering at the 900k mark.

My personal profile is looking a little better now, i'm currently a talented manager and have a national reputation. Profile History

Stealing Dafuges format, obviously not in code though, my club history looks like this...

07/08 - Nk Krka (Slovenia 2nd Div) - 1st - Promtion

08/09 - Nk Krka (Slovenia 1st Div) - 12th - Resigned 6 games into the season

08/09 - Aschaffenburg (German Regional Div North) - only lasted a day before resigning

08/09 - 1.FC Eschborn (German Regional Div West) - 11th

09/10 - 1.FC Eschborn (German Regional Div West) - 7th

10/11 - FC Gratkorn (Austrian 2nd Div) - 5th

11/12 - FC Gratkorn (Austrian 2nd Div) - 2nd (on GD)

12/13 - FC Gratkorn (Austrian 2nd Div) - 1st

[iacovone]

Nice update - good work on the promotion I think we all wanna see Gratkorn dominate Austrian football now

[happy slappy]

Wehay!

It's only been a few weeks, but I now have a new job, carp squad, no money to spend, no-one wants to come, but hey, I don't mind one bit.

[ToMexico!!]

Originally posted by iacovone:

Nice update - good work on the promotion I think we all wanna see Gratkorn dominate Austrian football now

Cheers, yeh as do I spent too long now at this club to see them fail.

Thanks board!! Your all heroes

[iacovone]

Originally posted by ToMexico!!:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by iacovone:

Nice update - good work on the promotion I think we all wanna see Gratkorn dominate Austrian football now

Cheers, yeh as do I spent too long now at this club to see them fail.

Thanks board!! Your all heroes </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thats fantastic. Well done distinguished members of the Gratkorn board