The third challenge of the ’12 FMV Tour brings us to Croatia.

GNK Dinamo Zagreb are the biggest side in Croatia, and they will be your club to manage for this stage of the tour. As you are the biggest side in the country you will have the best players, the best facilities, the best youth, and the most money to spend to help you dominate your rivals and qualify for European competition. Despite the fact you are the colossus of Croatia, you will be severely overmatched in Europe and can expect to struggle greatly against the major European sides. Do you have what it takes to keep up the nigh impossible domestic expectations saddled upon the Bad Blue Boys and get results in Europe?

GNK Dinamo Zagreb

Founded in 1945 as a replacement for three clubs disbanded by the Yugoslav Communist Party, the Modri (Blues) are the most successful club in Croatian history. Home matches are played at the Stadion Maksimir in Zagreb, one of the largest stadiums in the nation. The supporters group of the club, the Bad Blue Boys, are one of the most notorious and dangerous supporters groups in all of football. The club contests the Eternal Derby with their bitter rivals Hejduk Split, who are the clear #2 in Croatian football both historically and in the modern era. With more silverware than any other Croatian club (including the only European silverware in Croatia: the 66-67 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup), and having spent their entire existence in the top flight in both Yugoslavia and Croatia, Dinamo are a force to be reckoned with. Many of the top Croatian players in the world have played for Dinamo, and Dinamo have a track record of being a tough draw in Europe.

Prva HNL

The top flight of Croatian football, established in 1992 following the breakup of Yugoslavia. For the 2011-2012 seasons the league has 16 teams, however that number will be reduced to 12 for the following year due to restructuring and thus 5 teams will be relgated for this year. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Champions League Qualifying Round, while the runner-up and second runner-up qualify for early Qualifying Rounds in the Europa League. Teams play each other twice with 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw.

CHALLENGE DYNAMICS
This challenge will last for three years, upon completing your third season in Croatia (1st May 2013), you can no longer collect points for this destination.

You must start set your manager experience as “Automatic” and play in a new save from June 2010.

You have until the midnight of 31st January 2012 to submit your screenshots in this thread, and accumulate as many points as you can.

You may not manage any other teams, or use other programs to aid you in this challenge.

HOW TO SCORE POINTS
Submit screenshots via reply within this forum thread of your progress.
Unclear or doctored screenshots will not be rewarded with points.

Prva HNL
Relegated: -10 points
16th -12th: 0 points
11th: 1 point
10th: 2 points
9th: 3 points
8th: 4 points
7th: 5 points
6th: 8 points
5th: 10 points
4th: 12 points
3rd: 15 points
2nd: 20 points
1st: 25 points

Hrvatski Kup
First Round Exit: 0 points
Second Round Exit: 2 points
Losing Quarter Finalist: 5 points
Losing Semi Finalist: 8 points
Losing Finalist: 10 points
Winners: 15 points

Superkup Hrvatske
Winners: 5 points

Champions League
Fail to Qualify for group stages: 0 points
Group Stage Exit: 2 points
Second Round Exit: 5 points
Losing Quarter Finalists: 10 points
Losing Semi Finalists: 15 points
Losing Finalist: 20 points
Winner: 30 points

Europa League
>Group Stage Exit: 0 points
Second Round Exit: 3 points
Losing Quarter Finalists: 8 points
Losing Semi Finalists: 10 points
Losing Finalist: 15 points
Winner: 25 points

RIVALRIES
(Competitive Fixtures Only)
Beat Hajduk: 5 points
Beat Zagreb: 5 points
Beat Rijeka: 3 points
Beat: Varazdin: 3 points

POINT DEDUCTIONS
Sacked: -25 points (and the challenge is over)

LOGOS
To Come

Come join us on this leg of the Tour by posting your screenshots and joining the banter in this thread on our Forums. It’s free to sign up and the Tour is open to all participants , so what are you waiting for?

Rounding off our FM2011 Tours is a trip to a hotbed of football know as the capital of tango.

A place where you need good footwork on the pitch as well as on the dancefloor.

Welcome to Buenos Aires, Argentina!

Boca Juniors
The club was founded on April 3, 1905 by five Italian immigrants. The club currently has a fierce rivalry with River Plate, who are also from Buenos Aires. Boca are traditionally regarded as the club of Argentina’s working class, in contrast with the supposedly more upper-class base of their cross-town arch rival, and matches between the two clubs are known as the Superclasico – known worldwide for their heated displays both on and off the pitch. Boca’s home stadium is Estadio Alberto J. Armando, which is colloquially known as La Bombonera. The youth academy has produced many Argentine internationals such as Nicolas Burdisso, Carlos Tevez, and Fernando Gago, who have played or are playing for top European clubs.

The original jersey colour was pink, but this was quickly abandoned for thin black-and-white vertical stripes. Legend has it that in 1906, Boca played another team that used this strip to decide who would get to keep it. Boca lost, and decided to adopt the colors of the flag of the first boat to sail into the port at La Boca. This proved to be the 4146 ton freighter “Drottning Sophia”, a Swedish vessel sailing from Copenhagen. As a result, the yellow and blue of the Swedish flag were adopted as the new team colours. The first version had a yellow diagonal band, which was later changed to a horizontal stripe.

The League
The Primera División (English: First Division) is Argentina’s premier football division, sitting at the top of the Argentine football league system. The Primera División was founded in 1893 and turned professional in 1931 when 18 clubs broke away from the amateur leagues to form a professional league. Since then, sixteen clubs have been the Argentine champion, although only four clubs have won ten or more titles. The most successful club are your arch-rivals River Plate, who have won 33 titles to date.

Contested by twenty clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Primera B Nacional.Each season is divided into two tournaments, the Apertura (Opening stage) and Clausura (Closing stage), each with its own champion. In each stage the 20 teams play each other once, and the team with the best record is champion of that stage.

The average records are compared over the year to see who the best four teams are (who qualify for the Copa Libertadores), the fifth placed team (for the preliminary round of the Copa Libertadores), and the top six to qualify for the Copa Sudamericana. This aggregate table is also used to determine the two teams with the worst records over the course of the year, who are then relegated.

The match day squad may contain a maximum of four foreign players, with eleven starters and seven named substitutes to pick from. This promotes the development of youngsters in Argentina and ensures they continue to hold their place as one of the most consistent producers of young stars in world football.

The Job
Chairman Jorge Ameal has offered you a chance that comes along but once in a lifetime, to manage the great Boca Juniors! Julio Cesar Falcioni has been dismissed at short notice and you have been chosen to take charge. The fans are notably loud and proud when it comes to their club and you must provide the success they both crave and deserve.

The Staff
Both Javier Sanguinetti and Omar Piccoli are hired at the club as assistants, both are willing to be your number two – however it’s unlikely that both will continue to co-exist so a wise course would be to choose one, or bring in your own man.

There is a wealth of youth coaches at the club which is why they are known for producing such fabulous players. However few of them seem to hold any real coaching skill and this might be an area you need to rebuild. And finishing the tour of the backroom staff you can see that chief scout Ramon Maddoni and head Physio Jose Veiga are good at their jobs but it would be worth your while hiring them some help.

The Players
Known for their all-action 442-Diamond formation, the Blue and Gold’s thrive with a good playmaker in their ranks. Juan Roman Riquelme is that man in the Boca team, capable of stringing together plays that lead to goals every game. Even with an injury to the star man however, Walter Erviti is more than capable of causing problems in this league.

Captaining the side is Martin Palermo, the legendary striker provides a wealth of experience and also still one of the star players – even at 36 years old! Luckily for you there is a young star ready to take Palermo’s place up front by the name of Sergio Araujo, the highly rated striker is just 18 but could develop into a world class player.

It’s also been said that the squad is unbalanced at times by it’s lack of depth at fullback, something the new manager must deal with.

KEY HISTORY
Copa Sudamericana (2): 2003-04, 2004-05
Copa Libertadores (6): 1976-77, 1977-78, 1999-00, 2000-01, 2002-03, 2006-07
Primera Opening Stage (4): 1975-76, 1980-81, 1998-99, 2005-06
Primera Closing Stage (9): 1968-69, 1969-70, 1975-76, 1991-92, 1997-98, 1999-00, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2007-08

La Bombonera

The Estadio Alberto J. Armando is a stadium located in the La Boca district of Buenos Aires. Widely known as La Bombonera (the Chocolate Box) due to its shape, with a “flat” stand on one side of the pitch and three steep stands round the rest of the stadium. It has a capacity of 49,000 and thanks to it’s unusual shape has excellent acoustics – the Boca support being nicknamed “La Doce” (The 12th man).

Three sides of the Bombonera are made up of traditional stands. However, the fourth side had to be built vertically, with several seating areas stacked one on top of the other, to stay within the stadium’s property. La Bombonera is renowned for vibrating when fans start to jump in rhythm. In particular, the unique vertical side will sway slightly, leading to the phrase ” La Bombonera doesn’t shake: it beats (like a heart).”

It’s also worth noting that the pitch at La Bombonera is the minimum length required under FIFA regulations at just 105m x 68m.

CHALLENGE DYNAMICS

• This challenge will last for three years, upon completing your third season in Argentina (1st July 2013), you can no longer collect points for this destination.
• You must start set your manager experience as “Automatic” and be playing in a new save from June 2010.
• You have until the midnight of 31st October 2011 to submit your screenshots in this thread, and accumulate as many points as you can within the confines of a maximum of 3 seasons in the game.
• You must use the Official 11.3.0 database.
• You may not manage any other teams, or use other programs to aid you in this challenge

HOW TO SCORE POINTS
Submit screenshots via reply within this thread of your progress.
Unclear or doctored screenshots will not be rewarded with points.

Primera Aggregate Table
Relegated: -10 points
18th-11th: 0 points
10th: 1 point
9th: 2 points
8th: 3 points
7th: 4 points
6th: 5 points
5th: 8 points
4th: 10 points
3rd: 15 points
2nd: 20 points
1st: 30 points
Apertura Title: +15 points
Clausura Title: +15 points

Copa Sudamericana
First Round Exit: 0 points
Second Round Exit: 2 points
Losing Quarter Finalists: 5 points
Losing Semi Finalists: 8 points
Losing Finalists: 10 points
Winner: 15 points

Copa Libertadores
Group Stage Exit: 0 points
Second Round Exit: 5 points
Losing Quarter Finalists: 10 points
Losing Semi Finaists: 15 points
Losing Finalist: 20 points
Winner: 30 points

RIVALRIES
(Competitive Fixtures Only)
Beat River Plate: 5 points
Beat Independiente: 3 points
Beat San Lorenzo: 3 points
Beat Racing Club: 3 points

POINT DEDUCTIONS
Sacked: -25 points (and the challenge is over)

Visit our forum thread for this particular Tour challenge to see how our members are getting on, and also post your own screenshots to compete for the final leg here:

http://forum.fm-view.com/topic/14375-official-tour-challenge-boca-juniors/

As you should know by now, FMV celebrated it’s 4th Birthday at the start of this month. The celebrations continued long into the night and we awoke with two things we hadn’t had the night before – a vicious headache and a plane ticket from Qantas! We therefore decided not to let this opportunity pass us by and we’ll continue the party down under in the Australian sunshine.

So grab your passports, get out the budgie smugglers, and slap on the sunscreen as the Tour marches on!

Melbourne Victory
Melbourne Victory FC (nicknamed the Blues or the Victory) are an Australian football team formed in 2004, and plying their trade in the Hyundai A-League. The Victory have led the A-League in attendances every year since the 2006-07 season and is also considered the most successful club domestically in the A-League, having won two A-League Championships and two Premiers Plates.

Their colours (navy blue and white) are traditional Victoria state colours, yet they are known as an open and friendly club with many fans of all nationalities. Their main rivals are SydneyFC and Adelaide United FC, whilst their local rivals Melbourne Heart FC (recently formed in 2009) are quickly becoming a major rival in their own right. As all these clubs compete in the Hyundai A-League, there is a lot of pride to play for in the years ahead.

The League
The A-League is the top Australasian professional football league. Run by Australian governing body Football Federation Australia (FFA), it was founded in 2004 following the folding of the National Soccer League and staged its inaugural season in 2005–06. It is officially known as the Hyundai A-League. The league is contested by ten teams: ten located across Australia and one from New Zealand.

There are minimum and maximum squad sizes of 15 and 39 players respectively, which offers a good ammount of cover and flexibility. 23 of these may be over the age of 21, the rest at or under that age. This squad must come in at or under the wage cap of £20.08k per week (excluding Marquee Players). Up to two Marquee Players may be signed and registered – at least one of which must be and Australian national. A maximum of five foreign players can be registered as part of the squad, and one may be signed as a Marquee Player to avoid the wage cap.

The eleven teams play each other three times each for a total of thirty matches, the top side being crowned Premiers of the division. Once the regular season has finished there is a secondary stage for the top six sides, this series is called the Finals. In the Minor Semi Finals the teams that finished 6th-3rd in the regular season are drawn against each other, with the two victors going into the Major Semi Finals. The winners of the Major Semi Finals battle are drawn against the top two teams from the regular season to decide the finalists. The winners of the Grand Final are crowned as Champions and together with the Premiers (or the losers of the Grand final if one team wins both) qualify for the Asian Champions League.

The Job
Chairman Geoff Lord is waiting to hand the reins over to Anthony Di Pietro as as such has chosen you to replace the departing Ernie Merrick as head coach of the Melbourne Victory for the coming season. Nothing less than trophies will apease them as they look to build upon last seasons second placed finish and become one of the major players in the Asian Federation for decades to come.

Thier link with Tianjin means the pathway is open for Chinese stars of the future to showcase their talents in this well publicised league if the manager wishes to take advantage of this fact.

The Staff
Aaron Healey is happy to stay on as your assistant and the rest of the staff are looking forward to seeing what you can do. However it must be noted that a foreign face or two might be just what’s needed to improve quality in this emerging team.

Both the Physio and Scouting departments might need an overhaul to ensure the best possible future for the club.

The Players
Known for their creative 352 formations, the Blues need a good playmaker to open up defences and give you the best possible chance. Luckily Carlos Hernandez fit’s this role well and the dead-ball specialist offers a threat at set-pieces too!

Young strikers Robbie Kruse and Mate Dugandzic are showing a ton of promise, whilst experienced keeper Michael Petkovic provides leadership and quality at the back. There is work to be done at the team however with most pundits highlighting a lack of real quality in the defence.

One possible worry is the fact that Kevin Muscat is showing signs of ageing and the legendary captain must be replaced sooner rather than later. The question of how to replace such an icon is one the new manager must provide an answer for.

KEY HISTORY
Premiers: 2006-07, 2008-09
Champions: 2006-07, 2008-09

AAMI Stadium

The AAMI Stadium (also known as Melbourne Rectangular Stadium) is a 30,500 all-seater capacity stadium that was opened in May 2010. It is home to the Melbourne Storm (Rugby League), Melbourne Rebels (Rugby Union), Melbourne Heart (Football), and of course the Melbourne Victory.

The exterior of the stadium is also covered in thousands of LED lights, which can be programmed to display a variety of patterns and images. The stadium features a “Bioframe” design, with a geodesic dome roof covering much of the seating area, while still allowing light through to the pitch. The northern and southern sides of the stadiums are called the Olympic Side and Yarra Side respectively.

CHALLENGE DYNAMICS

• This challenge will last for three years, upon completing your third season in Australia (1st July 2013), you can no longer collect points for this destination.
• You must start set your manager experience as “Automatic” and be playing in a new save from June 2010.
• You have until the midnight of 30th September 2011 to submit your screenshots in this thread, and accumulate as many points as you can within the confines of a maximum of 3 seasons in the game.
• You must use the Official 11.3.0 database.
• You may not manage any other teams, or use other programs to aid you in this challenge

HOW TO SCORE POINTS
Submit screenshots via reply within the forum thread of your progress.
Unclear or doctored screenshots will not be rewarded with points for the stage.

A-League Regular Season
10th-7th: 0 points
6th: 2 points
5th: 5 points
4th: 8 points
3rd: 10 points
2nd: 15 points
Premiers: 25 points

A-League Finals
Losing Minor Semi Finalist: 0 points
Losing Major Semi Finalist: 2 points
Losing Grand Finalist: 5 points
Champions: 10 points

ASIAN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Group Stage Losers: 0 points
Lost at in Second Round: 5 points
Losing Quarter Finalists: 10 points
Losing Semi Finalists: 25 points
Losing Finalist: 30 points
Winner: 50 points

RIVALRIES
(Competitive Fixtures Only)
Beat Sydney FC: 5 points
Beat Adelade United: 3 points
Beat Melbourne Heart: 3 points

POINT DEDUCTIONS
Sacked: -25 points (and the challenge is over)

Visit our forum thread about this Tour destination to see how our members are doing and post your own screenshots here:

http://forum.fm-view.com/topic/14374-official-tour-challenge-melbourne-victory/

FootballManagerLive went “live” again last week so I decided to test it out once again. I had a 4 month subscription last year but didn’t really get into it. Don’t get me wrong, the basics were brilliant, but there was just so much of an advantage given to managers who play it 24/7 I just didn’t really enjoy being at the bottom of the barrel all of the time.

Since this time they’ve added and tweaked a lot of features which I won’t go into as they’ve been covered numerous times elsewhere, but I feel they’ve really evened up the game. Obviously managers who are online more than anyone else will have an advantage – and rightly so, but those who cannot commit as much time can still stay competitive which is all I want.

My Team and Aims

The birth of John Trewick Football Genius came in the Ramos Gameworld. I chose a returning stars gameworld over a fantasy world mainly because I knew I’d have to focus on epic scouting to do well in a Fantasy World which is not something I initially wanted to master. My chosen skill to start with is infrastructure.

One of my main qualms about Football Manager 2010 is the lack of input you have into the youth system. You can upgrade via asking the board, or just sign random 16 year olds you find, but there’s not much more you can do. However, FM:Live allows you to construct youth academies which is pretty much where I will be pinning my hopes. I will, of course, keep cherry picking the best youth I see on the transfer lists, but I will not be going for big stars like Ronaldo, Messi etc. I will not be building a Youth Academy for a few days to gauge the interest that each country holds. I want to go into a top 10 country (Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, England, France etc – but I want to go where there’s not so much interest… Maybe I’ll go down the route of a Russia, a Turkey, a Paraguay or another slightly lesser of the footballing nations.

Getting Started

Getting started on FM:Live you have a pool of 50 players of which you can sign up with a budget of £50,000 per day for wages, and £500,000 acquisition fees. Initially I was quite cautious about the size of my squad, selection just a minimum of 18 players but after playing a few friendly’s it was clear fitness was going to be an issue, you get a huge amount of injuries every game so a larger squad was required. Of the 50 players in my pool, I immediately highlighted 3 key players who’d be central to any success I may have over the next few years. [click name for stats screenie]

Name: Ricardo Faty

Nationality: French
Age: 23
Position: DMC

Name: Lorenzo Crisetig

Nationality: Italian
Age: 17
Position: DMC

Name: Wilifred Niflore

Nationality: French
Age: 28
Position: ST

Other than these 3 though, my pool was quite weak, it was clear I’d have a massive decision to make. Do I select the bare minimum of players and then hope for some luck in the transfer auctions? Do I select a squad that’s large enough for me to carry on in case I don’t win any auctions – after all, I don’t really know what the “average” wage for players are as of yet, I’m still learning…! Or, do I select a huge squad and spend my entire budget on average players hoping a few do better than their stats suggest, but then have no room to manoeuvre in the following transfer auctions?

I played it relatively safe; I decided to pick 20 players. My squad consisted of 6 youngsters (17-19), 6 early 20s (21-24), then 8 peaked players (26-32).

After the unveiling of this squad I still had a healthy bank balance and enough free wages to sign a few players if I so wish, although I wanted to see out the first 5 days or so without spending to get an idea for the average wages etc. My previous experience on FM:Live taught me the economy gets ridiculous after a few seasons, but hopefully the re-launch has attempted to fix this!

Coming up – my views on the Youth Academy and if they’re worth it plus my weekly review of the goings on in Ramos and John Trewick Football Genius!

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.