Here is the first Current Game of the Month award nominations process.

Ok, so due to a slow down of activity the nominations do contain games that were started before July but have been updated during July which is what we will look at. In future awards we will have a more scrutinising nomination process. For this month though here are the five nominations…

Alexander Vella – Football Legend by Terminal

This is the tale of fictitious football legend Alexander Vella told in a diary form, profiling his career in Football Manager.

Small Fish, MASSIVE Pond by AlexBRFC

Here is a story covering the growth of the Cook Islands under AlexBRFC.

Unemployed and Out of Touch by Terminal

Terminal’s second offering in the nominations. Here he takes on Hajduk Split with the challenge of only being able to stay with the club he is managing if he equals or improves on the media prediction.

Captain Obscurity by Nexus

Nexus delivers a fine current game here as Regensburg in Germany. Started in May he has carried it through in addictive fashion.

Viva Espana by ChrisOrmie

ChrisOrmie profiles the life and times of himself as Barcelona manager. How will he cope?

So there are the five nominated current games for this month. Niniev will organise a prize for the winner and voting will close at 11:59pm GMT on Sunday 1st August, 2010.

Well done to every current game thread that has been updated. Several came close to being nominated but in the end we couldn’t choose everyone. Hopefully this will encourage people to get involved and start more current game threads whilst updating them constantly as well as get people to give feedback.

Good luck to all involved. I’m going to vote for Terminal’s Unemployed and Out of Touch game. It was the most unique and offered a new challenge whilst also being done in the enthralling manner only Terminal knows how to do best.

For any of you that have read my previous exploits on FM2009 with Sandhausen you will know that the German leagues are where I usually to go, this time I decided that I wanted to step out of my comfort zone a little. I couldn’t decide on a club to start with so went with the tried and trusted method of starting unemployed.

I had to endure the monotony of applying and being rejected for jobs which were obviously out of my league until the Wrexham job came up at the end of September. Dean Saunders had an absolutely shocking start to the season, in his eleven games in charge Wrexham managed to pick up two wins and two draws before being given the boot. His last game was a 2-1 defeat to rivals Chester City resulting in being sacked straight after the game, I was appointed the next day and the following day took charge of my first game – A goalless draw away to Kidderminster.

In my first four games at the club I won one game and drew three which surprised me as I thought it was going to take longer to turn the team around. Don’t get me wrong this was never going to be an easy task as I spent the next couple of months getting a couple of good results followed by a few dodgy ones. With the help of my backroom staff I picked up a couple of free transfers and a couple of youth players on loan from my new parent club Manchester City helped me start getting some more consistent results. Unfortunately whilst I was turning results around on the pitch I was also watching the bank balance diving well into the red as I decided to cut some dead wood out of the squad especially as a couple of them were well below the ability you’d expect and creating trouble as an unwelcome bonus.

As the season continued, I was feeling more positive that a club that should be at the top of the table had some potential to reach those heights, slowly but surely we climbed up the table picking up some vital wins including a 2-1 win at Chester to ensure that I didn’t go the same way as Deano!

After a run of seven games unbeaten we managed to finish in a respectable ninth place. Fortunately I wasn’t judged on the under performance in the league as the promotion chase had been killed before I took over. We got knocked out of the FA Cup in the first round to Tranmere but had a surprising run in the FA Trophy managing to get to the final at Wembley losing narrowly on penalties to the favourites Oxford.

The second season started off reasonably positive but only winning three of my first eleven games made me understand why Dean Saunders only lasted the same amount of games a year before. Fortunately for me we were still unbeaten as we had drawn the other eight games. In total we were unbeaten for the first 23 games finally succumbing to a 1-0 defeat to League One Southend in the 2nd round of the FA Cup. In the FA Trophy we once again went to Wembley to contest the final, this time against promotion rivals York City. Beforehand I had a feeling we might be able to sneak a narrow win via a late winner. I was more than relieved that we opened the scoring within 5 minutes and doubled our lead just before half time to win the trophy 2-0.

The FA Trophy was my secondary aim behind concentrating on winning promotion from the Blue Square Premier. I’d spent Pre-season bringing in a few new faces to strengthen the squad after having a further clear out of players that were either not good enough or just weren’t fitting into my plans for one reason or another. Because of Wrexham’s preceding reputation and some spare cash in a fairly generous wage budget I was able to bring in players who weren’t getting a look in at some league clubs. After 46 games in the league we’d picked up 14 draws, 32 wins and 0 defeats. Finishing the season with 110 points was quite an achievement and the first time I’ve seen two teams in the same division reach 100 points as Ebbsfleet in 2nd place also dominated the league.

Initially it looks like I cheated my way through the season but with astute signings, an unconventional tactic, always doing press conferences, praising my players and well judged team talks all helped keep my players on top form for the season. Regular squad rotation ensuring that all of my first team were always match fit meant that any injuries or suspensions also had a minimal impact on the next game.

By this stage I had itchy feet due to the media constantly linking me to just about every job that became vacant but I was still living in a dream world that a struggling Premiership was going to take a risk on an as yet unproven League Two manager.

The Third season began after deciding that I was reasonably confident that my conquering BSP side had enough quality to achieve the mid table position that the board would be happy with. Myself I was looking to a possible outside chance of a play off place.

The first game of my league career was away to Grimsby Town, going into the game I was reasonably confident as they had narrowly avoided relegation in both of the previous seasons – We lost 2-1!

I was beginning to question how far this team was actually going to get me especially as our next game was in the league cup against Championship side Scunthorpe. We took the lead mid way through the first half and held on to it until the last 15 minutes when Scunny equalised. Needless to say I was more than happy when my newly signed winger scored an 89th minute winner. Unfortunately our League Cup was to end in the 2nd round as we were soundly beaten 4-0 by the superior Newcastle United.

The Johnstone’s Paint Trophy was another non event of a cup run losing to League One Walsall on penalties in the 2nd round.

Back in the league we went on an unbeaten run after losing the first game to Grimsby, at the half way point of the season we had played 23 games and only lost 1, leading Bristol Rovers by seven points at the top of the table.

Our biggest success in the first half the season was to our FA Cup run. In the first round we were drawn against League One Norwich. I was more than happy to come away from Carrow Road with a 0-0 draw and was more shocked when we won the replay 2-1. League Two strugglers Macclesfield Town were soundly beaten 4-0 in the 2nd round meaning that against everyone’s expectations we were in the 3rd round draw with all the big names. Burton Albion were the big name we managed to draw in the 3rd round.

We went behind three times in the match and it was only thanks to an injury time equaliser from my centre back that we managed to get what was an undeserved replay.

This turned out to be my last match as Wrexham manager the next day I was offered another job. It was a similar predicament I’d found myself in the season before when Hereford offered me the job (Ultimately Wrexham were promoted and Hereford were relegated). This time I didn’t really have anything to lose, if I stayed at Wrexham we were looking odds on to be in League One. I spent much longer that I should have done thinking it over but finally decided that trying to save Charlton Athletic from being relegated from the Championship was worth the risk. Even if I got them relegated to League One and kept my job I wouldn’t be any worse off than staying at Wrexham.

I’m now off to try to save Charlton from relegation in the hope there’s a part two to this ….

]]> http://www.fm-view.com/2010/03/roaring-with-the-dragons/feed/ 5 http://www.fm-view.com/2010/02/current-game-of-the-month/ http://www.fm-view.com/2010/02/current-game-of-the-month/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:44:07 +0000 John http://www.fm-view.com/?p=1117

One area of FMV that has turned out some great reads lately is the Current Game area and so we are starting this award: Current Game of the Week! Apologies for the trophy graphic but it’s the best I could do on short notice

Our inaugural competitors are AlexBRFC’s “AFC Telford United”, upthehammers’ “The Hammers”, Marshall’s “Feeling the Burn”, and Blaze’s “Espanyol”

Please cast your votes for your favourite thread and thanks to all those that have created CG threads.

Okay, so you have arrived in Germany, where you will be looking for promotion back to the 1. Bundesliga. The German league consists of 3 tiers known as the ’1. Bundesliga’, the ’2. Bundesliga’, and the ’3. Liga’. As well as these competitions there is a cup competition known as the ‘DFB-Pokal’ which is akin to the English FA cup in both style and stature. Being in Europe means there are the normal transfer windows (1st July – 2nd September, & 1st January – 1st February). One match bans appear after every 5 yellows or after each red card throughout the leagues, and the top 2 divisions are sorted in the same way: Points > Goal Difference > Goals Scored > Results Between Teams > Away Goals Scored.

The 1. Bundesliga is composed of 18 teams which play each other twice, meaning there are 34 games in a completed season. The rules for the competition are pretty straight forward, you can name seven substitutes and can use a maximum of three of them in a match. The bottom two teams are relegated to the 2. Bundesliga whilst the team in 16th position enters a playoff against the 3rd best side from the second division for the right to compete in Germany’s premier competition. The top three teams in the 1. Bundesliga qualify for the European Champions League and the 4th-6th place teams enter the EURO Cup (depending on the winner of the DFB-Pokal).

The 2. Bundesliga is also composed of 18 teams which play each other twice, meaning there are 34 games in a completed season. The rules for the competition are like above, except that the top two teams are promoted to the top division and the 3rd placed team goes into the playoff for 1. Bundesliga football. At the bottom the worst 2 teams are relegated automatically, whilst the 16th place team enters another playoff – this time for the right to stay in the 2. Bundesliga.

The 3. Liga is composed of 20 teams which play each other twice, meaning there are 38 games in a completed season. There are a few changes to the rules at this level. The match squad must have no more than 3 non-EU players, and must also have at least 4 German players aged 23. Teams in this division are only allowed to sign non-EU players if they are from fellow German clubs. The Top two teams gain promotion to the 2. Bundesliga, whilst the 3rd place team enters the playoff for the right to play in that division for the next season. The bottom 3 clubs are relegated each season, and league sorting is slightly simplified for this division: Points > Goal Difference > Goals Scored > Results Between Teams.

1. FUSSBALL-CLUB KAISERSLAUTERN

1. Fussball-Club Kaiserslautern, also known as 1. FCK or simply FCK, is a German football club based in Kaiserslautern. The city of Kaiserslautern lies in southwest Germany, located in the Bundesland (State) of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz) at the edge of the Palatinate forest (Pfälzer Wald). It is twinned with two towns in England, Rotherham and the London Borough of Newham.

On 2 June 1900, Germania 1896 and FG Kaiserslautern merged to create FC 1900. In 1909, the club went on to join FC Palatia (founded in 1901) and FC Bavaria (founded in 1902) to form FV 1900 Kaiserslautern. In 1929 they merged with SV Phönix to become FV Phönix-Kaiserslautern before finally taking on their current name three years later.

1. FCK won their second German Cup in 1996, but that victory was soured since the team was relegated to 2.Bundesliga with a 16th place finish just one week before the Cup Final. At the time, Kaiserslautern was one of only four of the original sixteen teams that had played in each Bundesliga season since the inception of the league, never having been relegated. This group included Kaiserslautern, Eintracht Frankfurt who went down in the same season, 1. FC Köln down in 1998, and “the Dinosaur”, unrelegated Hamburger SV.

The Red Devils came storming back in 1998 with an accomplishment unique in Bundesliga history by winning re-promotion to the first division from the 2.Bundesliga and immediately going on to win the national championship under famous coach Otto Rehhagel.

They saved themselves from fully falling off the radar in German football by escaping relegation to the newly formed 3. Liga on the final day of the 2007–2008 season with a win over already promoted 1. FC Köln.

Kaiserslautern is by far the smallest city (pop. 99,000) to ever have a German Bundesliga championship team (in 1991 and 1998)

KEY HISTORY
German Champions: 1951, 1953, 1991, 1998
UEFA Cup: Semi-final: 1982, 2001
UEFA Champions League: Quarter-final: 1999

The Fritz-Walter-Stadion

FCK plays its home fixtures in the Fritz Walter Stadion first built in 1920. The stadium and the adjacent street are named for the player who brought the club to prominence after the war. The stadium has a capacity of 48,500 and was a 2006 World Cup venue, hosting four preliminary round and one Group of 16 round matches. The facility underwent a major refurbishment for the tournament with addition of new grandstands and a roof.

Chairman Stefan Kuntz has called you into his office and asked you to turn around 1. FCK into the former German powerhouse they were by any means necessary. Your task is to improve FCK back to the heady days when the club won the 1. Bundesliga and also made the semi-finals of the UEFA cup & quarter-finals of the Champions League. The club have never had money worries for many years now so this won’t be an easy task, but he hopes to be in a position to provide enough funding to return the club to the 1. Bundesliga.

Your first season minimum goal is to get into the top half of the 2. Bundesliga and to do so Mr Kuntz will provide you with a transfer budget of around £425k, and a wage budget of £165k per week (current wage bill is around £162k per week).

Your captain, Martin Amedick, is a 6’4″ central defender who, at the age of 26, is probably your best player. Also one to look out for is your young German keeper Tobias Sippel, who is under pressure from American Luis Robles for the starting birth – Sippel could become a star with the right management.

CHALLENGE DYNAMICS

This challenge will last for five years, upon completing your fifth season in Germany, you can consider your excursion to be over as far as earning points for the challenge.

You must start set your manager experience as “Automatic”.

You have until the 4th March 2010 to accumulate as many points as you can within the confines of a maximum of 5 seasons.[/color]

HOW TO SCORE POINTS

1. BUNDESLIGA
Relegation – -10 points
Win the Relegation Playoff game – 0 points
15th/14th – 1 point
13th – 2 points
12th – 3 points
11th – 4 points
10th – 5 points
9th – 6 points
8th – 7 points
7th – 8 points
6th – 9 points
5th – 10 points
4th – 15 points
3rd – 20 points
2nd  – 40 points
Win 1. Bundesliga Title – 60 points

2. BUNDESLIGA
Relegation – -10 points
Win the Relegation Playoff game – 0 points
15th/14th – 1 point
13th – 2 points
12th – 3 points
11th – 4 points
10th – 5 points
9th – 6 points
8th – 7 points
7th – 8 points
6th – 9 points
5th – 10 points
4th – 12 points
3rd – 15 points
Win the Promotion Playoff game – 20 points
2nd (Promotion) – 30 points
Win 2. Bundesliga Title – 40 points

3. LIGA
Relegation – -25 points
Survival – 0 points
7th – 1 points
6th – 2 points
5th – 3 points
4th – 4 points
3rd – 5 points
Win the Promotion Playoff game – 10 points
2nd (Promotion) – 15 points
Win 2. Liga Title – 20 points

DFB-POKAL
1st Round Win – 1 point
2nd Round Win – 5 points
3rd Round Win – 6 points
Quarter Final Win – 8 points
Semi Final Win – 10 points
Winner – 25 points

EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Qualify from Groups – 6 points
Win in Round of 16 – 12 points
Win in Quarter Final – 20 points
Win in Semi Final – 50 points
Winner – 100 points

BONUS POINTS
Beat FC Bayern – 5 points (Every time you do it in a competitive fixture)
Beat Mainz – 3 points (Every time you do it in a competitive fixture)
Beat Frankfurt – 3 points (Every time you do it in a competitive fixture)
Beat Karlsruhe – 1 point (Every time you do it in a competitive fixture)

FIVE YEAR ONE OFF ACHIEVEMENTS BONUSES
Increase bank balance to £20m (After Debt) – 20 points
Increase bank balance to £40m (After Debt) – 40 points
Sell a Regen from your youth team for £5m + – 30 points

POINT DEDUCTIONS
Sacked – -25 points

So there you have it. Kaiserslautern need you to get this fallen giant of German football into the Bundesliga and try to get into Europe once more – Do you have what it takes to put them back onto the map?
Give the challenge a go and see what you can do. Any good quality Current Game threads that result from this will be repped by myself, and the best one may also be entered into the next Current Game of the Week – Good Luck!

To take part of ask any more questions, please check out the forums!

Transfers In;
Sylvan Ebanks-Blake – Ln Fee £1.6m
Wayne Hennessey – Ln Fee £1.6m
Kevin Doyle – Ln Fee £1.9m
Nicolas Burdisso – Free
Mario Santana – Ln Fee £1m
Pape Diakhate – £2.8m
Ignazio Abate – £2.3m
Leigh Griffiths – £2.4m
Emir Babic – £2.3m
Jose Paolo Guerrero – Free
Eliaquim Mangala – £1.3m
Wayne Hennessey – £800k*
Henok Goitom – £1.3m*
Julien Faubert – £2.8m*
Johan Djourou – £2.7m*
Jo – £5.25m*
Paul Dixon – Free**
Total = £30m

Transfers Out;
Madjid Bougherra – £7.75m
Marek Sapara – £3.4m
Maurice Edu – £2.6m
Yassine Chikhaoui – £5m
Glauber – £2.7m
Andy Webster – £1.7m
Neil Alexander – £1m
Javier Chevanton – £2.5m
Steven Naismith – £3.1m
Sasa Papac – £3.1m*
Pedro Mendes – £4.2m*
Ignazio Abate – £3.2m*
Nicolas Burdisso – £7.25m*
Jose Paolo Guerrero – £9.5m*
36 players released – Free
Total = £57m

*Deal was concluded during January window.
**Deal was concluded at end of season.

After being given some money to spend, in the regen of £13m I finally could start to assemble a team I was happy with. As you can see it was a majorly busy summer and January was the same. Some players left for major profits which obviously didn’t do my team any favours but boosted my balance a lot. Burdisso and Guerrero both came for free and left just over 4months later for over £16m profit. Wolves were relegated from the Premier Division so I raided them for loans, Doyle and Hennesey were revelations and I later activated Hennesey’s clause by bidding just £800k for him, not bad for a player worth £3.4m \o/ Doyle was stubborn and wouldn’t join unfortunately as he was pretty good for me despite picking up a bad injury he managed 14 in 15.

Subs: Hennessey, Jo, Fleck, Mangala, Diakhate, Djourou, Guerrero.

Hennessey was that good he made it onto the subs bench as well as the first team! Suprised Jo didn’t make it in although he was signed late January he still bettered Doyle’s games played and goals scored. Six new faces from last season in the first XI, says a lot.

Top Scorer: Kris Boyd (43)
Most Assists: Mario Santana (40)
Fans Player Of Year: Kris Boyd
Personal Favourite: Mario Santana
Rising Star: Scott Durie

League;

Scottish Cup; Winners vs Dundee (2-0)
League Cup; Winners vs Celtic (2-1)
Champions League Lost in Qualifying Rounds vs Dinamo Buc
Euro Cup;

1st KO Round – Everton 6 – 7 Rangers on agg
2nd KO Round – FC Sochaux 1 – 3 Rangers on agg
1/4 Final – Rangers 6 – 4 HSV on agg
Semi Final – Rangers 3 – 2 CSKA Moscow on agg
Final – Rangers 1 – 2 Tottenham

Well what a difference a year makes. So close to completing a famous quadruple until a Crouch goal 8mins from time in the Uefa Cup final sent us home as runners up. The league looked unbelievably dim and was almost over in Jan as we were 11 points behind but some amazing form seen us storm all cups and eventually take over from Celtic after an epic end to the season. I have a squad capable of doing almost anything now and I definately want to make my mark in the Champs League proper as I’ve been disappointing in that so far. We have a bank balance of £50m and making profit consistently so we’re in a good position financially as well. Very pleased with how this season panned out but next season should be better.

View this current game thread on our forums

Transfers In;
Tore Reginiussen – Free*
Yassine Chikhaoiu – £3.4m*
Anthony Annan – £4.5m*
Javier Chevanton – £1m
Ezequiel Carboni – Ln Fee £180k
Rudi Skacel – Free
Glauber – Free
Marek Sapara – £1.8m

Transfers Out;
Andrew Shinnie – £575k*
Alan Lowing – Free*
Kyle Lafferty – £4.4m
Lee McCulloch – £900k
Kevin Thomson – £4.2m
Steven Smith – £600k
Gregg Wylde – Loaned to Partick

*Deal was concluded during January window.

It was always going to be an extremely tough first season transfer wise. I started with a budget of £0 and an almost non existant wage budget. The only money I parted with was in securing Sapara who performed very well throughout the season although my other dealings weren’t so successful as I brought in a fairly average Chaventon and Carboni and Skacel whom although were both needed as injuries took their toll they were simply awful. Just before January I was given an £8m boost in my budget due to improved finances and I managed to bring in Annan and Chikhaoui, both of whom did well throughout the season. I was sad to see Thomson go as it certainly wasn’t planned but felt I couldn’t reject such a substantial bid.

As you can see with the official Best XI, most of the original team were relied upon. Davis didn’t play DM once despite being strangely rearranged with Mendes in this version, it was normally the other way about. Boyd was the pick of the bunch scoring 36 in 43 overall and 32 in 34 in the league. Beasley and Miller provided over 30 assists between them also. I remained with this formation for most of the season, relying on Boyd to lead the line although Miller and Beasley were never far behind. Mendes dictated play from his defensive mid position whilst the others in front were allowed to roam somewhat.

Top Scorer: Kris Boyd (36)
Most Assists: DeMarcus Beasley (19)
Fans Player Of Year: Kris Boyd
Personal Favourite: Kris Boyd
Rising Star: Danny Wilson

League;

Scottish Cup: Final vs Celtic (0-2)
League Cup: Semi vs Dundee Utd (3-4)
Champs League: 4th in Group C

I knew the season would always be tough but I finished with no silverware and not even a win against Old Firm rivals Celtic all season to boast about. We were ahead in the league for a while but then fell miles behind after a shocking run of results. In the end it looked closer than it was in all honesty. The Champions League was absymal. In a group that consisted of Lyon, Sevilla and Kobenhavn we finished with a sole point which came courtesy of a draw in Spain.

Overall I was disappointed obviously but had always known the first season was more of a transition period and I had a healthy bank balance going into season two. Season two was where the pressure kicked in however, I had to do the opposite of what I had this season.

View this current game thread on our forums

Picking a team to manage on Football Manager is possibly one of the hardest decisions a man (or a woman) will make in their life. This is assuming that whoever is reading this isn’t, for example, a brain surgeon, as the liklihood is you will have had to make slightly more important and meaningful judgements. But forgetting about making life or death decisions, choosing a club on Football Manager is still difficult.

After playing the demo of FM2010, I decided I wanted to go down the Lower League Management (LLM) route, as in previous editions, I had been successful in this kind of game; most notably with AFC Wimbledon (2009), Ilkeston Town (2009) and Oxford United (2008). The team I’d be managing in 2010 had to be in either the Blue Square North or South, and I decided that I had to have some kind of indirect affiliation with them. After scouring the two leagues, I decided on Harrogate Town; the reasons being they were only 70 miles away from where I lived in Hull, and their squad (according to their official website) included Matt Bloomer (an ex-Hull City defender), Curtis Woodhouse (another ex-Hull City player-turned-boxer-turned-footballer) and perhaps most alluringly, Trevor Benjamin (a journeyman striker of Leicester City fame).

When October the 30th finally came around though, and I’d waited what seemed like days for the game to install, I chose to manage Harrogate and rather annoyingly, only one of the three players appeared in their squad; Matt Bloomer. Nevertheless, I put that behind me and began to assess my squad. I signed several players, such as Ian Cox, Simon Heslop and Lawrie Dudfield (another ex-Hull City player who I’m especially fond of on Football Manager, not because he’s a particularly outstanding player, but because he lived three doors away from my Grandma whilst he was playing for Hull) but the squad never seemed to gel and unfortunately we were relegated on the last day of the season. Whether the board wanted to sack me or not was irrelevant; the Blue Square North and South were the lowest playable leagues, so therefore I had to go.

After my dismissal, I went on a job-application-binge; applying to each and every manager’s position that came available, even the Brazilian and Argentinian national sides, in the hope that one would accept me, even if it was out of pure pity. Needless to say, I didn’t get the Brazil or Argentina jobs, but even more realistic targets like Staines, Hyde and Dorchester chose to look elsewhere for a manager. Things looked grim for my managerial future; I was so close to retiring and starting again from scratch, but in December 2011, 20 months after being sacked by Harrogate, AFC Telford United approached me to become their new manager, and without much consideration, I accepted their offer.

It’s fair to say that Telford were struggling when I took over; after finishing just outside the play-offs in the 2010/11 season, they found themselves teetering around the relegation zone in 18th place. However, they were surprisingly wealthy for a Blue Square South club, meaning I had quite a bit of money to spend. Six players were signed in the first week of my new job, including Lewis Alessandra, Jake Simpson and the vastly-experienced Graham Coughlan, who I promptly installed as my captain. By the end of February 2012, I had got the club up to 6th in the league, and pushing for a play-off place; a vast improvement on the club’s early-season form. Lewis Alessandra was linking brilliantly with strike partner Ryan Charles, another played I brought in for little money, and the two new wingers, Jake Simpson and Netan Sansara, were coming up with countless assists and some vital goals themselves.

We ended up finishing 4th, therefore getting into the play-offs. Our rise up the league was incredible, and something that I would’ve never predicted when I first took over. We went into the second leg of the play-off semi final against Droylsden on the back of a 1-1 draw in the first leg, and without three key players; Alessandra, Charles and Sansara. However despite fielding a weakened side we won 3-1, with Sansara’s replacement on the left wing, Carl Tremarco, grabbing two goals to ensure our place in the final against Worcester City, who had rather unexpectedly overcome long-time leaders of the pack Hinckley in their semi-final. After 90 goalless minutes, the dreaded penalties were looming. Graham Coughlan had other plans though; in the 114th minute, he got on the end of a Jake Simpson cross and headed in to win us the game. It was like something out of Roy of the Rovers, and it’s fair to say I went pretty mental (in a good way) when he scored. It’s for these kind of moments that I play Football Manager.

We were tipped as promotion contenders at 14-1 before our first season in the Blue Square Premier, largely due to the fact we’d recruited some good talent, including Richard Offiong, Denis Behan and Lewis Montrose. A good season overall left us in 9th place; a very respectable position in our maiden season in the league, even though we’d occupied higher places for the majority of the campaign. Offiong and Behan both impressed all season long, getting 18 and 20 goals respectively, and Ryan Charles also broke the 20-goal barrier for the second season in a row. The unsung hero of the season award definitely went to Lewis Montrose though; at just 24 years old, he basically ran the team from the centre of midfield, contributing 20 assists and achieving a pass completion ratio of 86%.

The 2013/14 season was an altogether similar affair, but we finished two places higher than the previous year, ending in 7th place. The board were pleased with another good season, but part of me couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at the thought of yet another season being one step away from league football. The transfer market was very slow before the start of the 2014/15 season, but a good start left us in 2nd at the end of September; setting up what could be a very successful season, and hopefully our last in the Blue Square Premier.

A month-by-month blog of my exploits with AFC Telford United can be found here.

And we’re off, amidst all the snow and bad news reports, this blog is finally up and running.

This first post is going to be a continuation of my Current Game managing Leatherhead FC up from level 7 of the English leagues all the way up to the Premiership (hopefully). The first instalment of that game can be found HERE, but I’ll do a quick round-up as well as it’s been a while since I last updated.

I last updated at the half-way stage of the first season, and I was extremely happy with our position. Having told the board I could achieve a safe mid-table position we had surpassed all expectation and found ourselves in 2nd place on the 1st Janurary 2010

We were still drawing far too many games for my liking but I was confident we could rectify that in 2010, which would hopefully be aided by bringing in some new faces in the January transfer window;

Only two signings there, Michael Reed, a Striker who would provide valuable cover upfront due to a recurring injury crisis, and Gavin Dayes, who would provide the same as Reed except at Centre-Back.

Onto our league performance, here’s the final league table of the 2009/2010 season;

An outstanding performance, we were 7th with four games left, so I went all out and managed to secure 3 wins and a draw, which was enough to bump us up into 4th place. We then faced Met Police in the Playoff Semi-Final, a team we’d beaten twice in the league and once in the cup, so I was hopeful we could do the same this time;

We crept through with a 1-0 win, which had been the story of our away form this season, standing between us and promotion were the slightly more threatening Dulwich Hamlet, who had finished just one place above us in the league but a full 8 points infront of us. Needless to say I was nervous going into this one. As it turned out, I shouldn’t have been;

We hammered them. When we went 1-0 down I slumped back into my chair thinking we were doomed to a 5-0, instead we managed to claw one back before half-time and I just told the boys to go for it, which they did. We’d done it, promotion in the first season.

Here’s the Squad and Tactics screenshot for the 2009/2010 season;

A strong squad with goals coming from all areas of the team, this was the team that won me promotion.

So after a very strong and confident start to my Leatherhead tenure, I strode confidently on towards the 2010/2011 season and the new pastures of the English Southern League Premier Divison.

Thanks for reading,

TB.

As I mentioned in my previous piece ‘Deflated, dejected and loving every minute’ I decided to take up the challenge of managing what was perceived to be the worst team in the lowest playable league in Germany. For my sins that turned out to be SV Sandhausen.

For those that haven’t played yet alone thought about managing in the lower leagues it really isn’t for the faint hearted. Not only are you limited by the talent (or lack of) that your squad possesses but there’s other limiting factors to contend with like a very small back room team and an every decreasing bank account. Don’t let these put you off though as once you learn to ride the roller-coaster it’s very difficult to get back off.

My spell started off with what can only be described as a false dawn, 6 wins in 6 pre-season games including a 6-0 win over Bonner SC is enough to make anyone think it can’t go that badly over the rest of the season. two defeats and three draws in the first five games took me back to the realisation that beating Lower league opposition in pre season doesn’t guarantee you results in the league. By the time the mid-winter break had come around we’d picked up 6 wins in 20 games which when as spaced out as they were seemed worse than it was. The first six games went much better after the winter break, three wins and 2 draws helped push us up to mid table, what was looking like a possible top half finish was dashed when we failed to win any of the last seven games. We ended the season in 14th 18 points clear of relegation. At this point in most games I’d be looking for a new challenge as I get itchy feet quite easily but I was determined to see if avoiding relegation was a fluke or if I could better it.

Better opposition in Pre Season meant 3 defeats before the league was underway, once again we didn’t win a game until the sixth game of the season. Entering the winter break we had six wins in 20 games (I see a pattern emerging here!) but with the summer reinforcements I’d signed we were getting better performances than the previous season. Unlike the first season though we finished much stronger finishing the season unbeaten in five games. We finished the season in 11th, three places higher and 2 points better off than the previous season.

At the beginning of the third season I used my assistant managers network to recommend some players that we might be able to strengthen our weak spots with, Four players arrived from the reserve squads of Stuttgart, Hoffenheim, Leverkusen & Kaiserslautern. Coupled with a couple of youngsters I picked up on free transfers from Duisburg and Dortmund meant I was much more confident of our chances and hoping for a top 10 finish.

The start was our best yet, it only took four games to win our first game! 8 wins and 6 draws leading into the Winter break was beginning to put my head in the clouds a bit. Thankfully a 5-0 defeat to Kaiserslautern bought the teams confidence down a peg or two in the mid season friendlies. Not for long though, in the first 8 games after the break we picked up seven wins and one draw. Leading in to the end of the season we suffered only one defeat in our last six games as we finished the season with 21 wins and 8 draws from 38 games to finish the season in 3rd place with 71 points, 22 more than the previous season!

For those that don’t know how the German League system works the 3rd place team in the 3rd Division plays off against the team who finished the season 3rd bottom in the second division. Unfortunately for me after leading my team of relegation hopefuls to the promotion play-offs was always going to end in defeat when you find out that the team you’ve got to play is Armenia Bielefeld! We played the first leg and home, which for us you would think would be some advantage. We lost 4-0 and then drew the second leg 1-1 with a much better performance.

At this point I’d love to tell you that I’m still managing Sandhausen and that we’re going places – Unfortunately neither is true. At the end of the 3rd season I’d managed to reduce the growing debt by selling a couple of players. The wage expenditure had been around the budget’s level for most of the last season without going over budget, season tickets were up on last year and gates had been rising year on year. Unfortunately for me I had a stingy board who decided that they would reduce the next season’s wage budget by 25% and demanding I sell my best players. Rather than seeing sense and agreeing to the boards demands I decided that my three years of improving the team were of more influence than the board trying to manage a bank account majorly in the red. Needless to say that my ultimatum to make more money available for wages was met with a swift goodbye and my P45 in my hand.

My successor didn’t make any effort to reduce the wage bill and led the team to a 10th place finish so in hindsight maybe I left at the clubs high point. I spent a short spell at then bottom side Union Berlin before resigning just before the seasons end after leading them out of the relegation zone but frustrated by the inconsistency shown by the team. I later found out that if I’d paid attention that my predecessor had employed similar tactics to me leading them to the bottom of the table. My successor on the other hand went for a completely different tactic and got much better results. On that thought I’ll leave you with an oft repeated quote regarding repeated failure in Football Manager

It’s not the game, It’s your tactics!