An FM Career - Now With Added Bitterness.

[AK22]

Wow, tough sacking. I'd carry on with the save, but maybe have a break from the Premier League for a while. Parma or Deportivo would be good challenges

[deltablue]

They did what!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hursty2]

Hurst Italy Bound

After a few months out of management Hurst has just recently signed a 3 year contract with Serie A club, Atalanta.

Following Hurst’s unexpected departure from Stoke City at the end of last season, Hurst has surprised the press by expanding his horizons into Italy. He takes over a club currently struggling in the Serie A in 15^th place, a long way from last seasons 3^rd place finish. This meant that they would also participate in this seasons Champions League, however, they are all but out of it with only 3 points in a group consisting of Borussia Dortmund (12pts), Man City (9pts) and FC Groningen (0pts).

Serie A Table

Atalanta Fixtures

Here’s a few words from Hurst that have been posted on Atalanta’s website.

“How do you feel about this opportunity?” Jianni Brusco asked.

“Well, I had several job offers over the Summer but none of them really appealed to me, so I just dwelled on things. Then, Atalanta approached and I thought, ‘Why not?’ The league is of a very high standard and so is the club, highlighted in their participation in the Champions League this season. I’m really looking forward to the time ahead of me, it feels right here.” Hurst responded.

“Are there any players that have caught your eye upon arrival?”

“I think that the whole squad has the potential to go a long way but yes, certainly there are a few standout players as there is with any team. The likes of Federico Nicoletti and Alessandro, it’s definitely a very large, talented squad.”

Final Comments

Atalanta are going to be a tough challenge for Hurst, they have a large squad and Hurst is in a country where he’s never managed before. Will he be able to overcome the language and cultural barrier or will the Serie A get the better of him?

[hursty2]

Atalanta – November 2020

Well a perfect start to my career at Atalanta with 3 wins from 3 and 12 goals scored. Our most impressive win the

4-2 comeback victory over Fiorentina, with two goals from speedster Vorgucic. We also won a champions league game this month which means if we can beat Man City in the final game by a score better than 3-1, we will progress through to the first knockout round. It may seem as if this has been an easy start but I have had my problems with many players wanting to leave because of the large squad. And it’s a large squad that has no full backs! I’ve had a central defender at right back and a central midfielder in the left back spot, Rui who you can see has scored 2 goals from free kicks.

Player of the Month: Miodrag Vorgucic

[Nobby_McDonald]

Good luck in Italy.

[hursty2]

Good luck in Italy.

Thanks!

How do I make the screenshots bigger and not so blurry? Do I have to adjust the resolution of my screen each time I want screenshots?

[hursty2]

Atalanta - December 2020

After such a good first month in charge you would forgive me for thinking we’d continue that form into December. Disappointingly we didn’t and that meant we couldn’t push on from the lowly 12^th position we sit in at the moment. In the Champions League, we unfortunately only drew 1-1 with Man City so now we’ll play in the Europa League. We will play Scottish side, Rangers in the first knockout round. There is one positive I can take from this month, it’s the January transfer window which will give me a chance to get rid of the surplus players and hopefully bring in some quality in the full back positions.

Player of the Month: Stefano Mauti

[SRL88]

I think you made the right decision moving abroad. Good luck with Atalanta.

[deltablue]

Ah, la bella paese. (Is that close?)

[acidmonkey]

Good Luck in Italy

[hursty2]

Atalanta – January 2021

January was a busy month for us and it started off quite well with a battling display against league leaders Napoli. Then up came Cagliari and we despatched of them with relative ease, Vorgucic scoring 4 second half goals. Our form then dwindled out with a lucky penalty victory in the TIM Cup, then 4 games without a win, including a 2-1 loss against Inter sending us out of the cup. January also brought with it the transfer window and I wasn’t as busy as expected. Only 2 players arrived, Ato Njoku and Karlo Cop who was the previous managers signing. Njoko comes in as a right back but I don’t expect him to light up the league. Departing were three fringe players, David Araujo (3.8M), Ricardo Capelli (1M) and Mauro Vigorito (FREE). Come the end of the season expect a larger turnover of players as many leave on frees and I have a lot more time to bring in players.

Player of the Month: Luis Uribe

[hursty2]

Atalanta – February 2021

Europa League Draw

Yet another disappointing month in the league with only 2 wins from 4 but surprisingly one of those wins coming against league leaders Inter Milan. The Europa League provided some better news with a 4-1 aggregate win over Rangers. After losing the first leg 1-0 we responded magnificently at home, smashing 4 past them, which since I have joined is the 7^th time we have scored four or more goals! Valencia are our next opposition in the Europa and the Spanish side will pose a tough challenge to us.

Player of the Month: http://i429.photobucket.com/albums/qq15/hursty17/Atalanta%20FM/RuiOverview_Profile.png[/img]"]Rui

[ManUTactician247]

That is one hell of a competitive Europa League, AC Milan vs Bayern, Villarreal vs Marseille and who could forget Galatasaray vs Besiktas!

[deltablue]

I've always felt it's stronger then people give it credit for, especially in FM.

[hursty2]

That is one hell of a competitive Europa League, AC Milan vs Bayern, Villarreal vs Marseille and who could forget Galatasaray vs Besiktas!

I've always felt it's stronger then people give it credit for, especially in FM.

Yeah, especially when you consider 3rd from CL groups go into it.

[hursty2]

Atalanta – March 2021

Europa League Draw

An unbeaten month in and what a month it was Europe wise! We managed to beat Valencia 9-2 on aggregate, a team that I expected a very tough game from but we completely outclassed them. A first leg away victory of 5-0, Vorgucic grabbing a crucial hat-trick, truly dominating the Spanish sides defence. We didn’t take our foot off the gas in the second leg either, out playing them for a second time with a 4-2 win and another Vorgucic hat-trick. That meant 6 goals for him in two legs of football! With that emphatic victory we now will play Ajax in the quarter finals. Domestic wise we struggled but still managed to pull off a good win over Nocerina but couldn’t capitalise against the other weaker sides.

Player of the Month: Miodrag Vorgucic

[deltablue]

Can probably beat Ajax as well.

[hursty2]

Atalanta – End of Season Update 2020/21

The final months of the season didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. We bowed out to Ajax in the Europa League 1-0 on aggregate, after scrapping a 0-0 draw away from home in the first leg as we simply could not score. This meant that from now until the end of the season we had nothing to play for and we just crawled across the finish line with no real notable results. Despite my best efforts since taking over we didn’t really improve on the previous managers results. Next season I will be harshly judged on my performances, therefore the clear out begins now.

In the end Inter Milan ran away with the league even when Napoli held pole position for so long throughout the season. The top 7 were the usual suspects minus ourselves of course, we were clearly the most underachieving club in the league.

With the large squad that I have you’d there to be a solid 11 first team players that I could rely on to go out and put in a good showing. Unfortunately this is not to be and I can safely say that there are only 7 players that deserve to be a part of this club. The rest were inconsistent, unreliable and lacked the winning mentality that I’m after. If we are to improve next season we are going to need; a centre back, full backs, wingers, central midfielders and a striker to compliment Vorgucic up front.

Key Players

Miodrag Vorgucic – Easily my best player this season, he scored 22 in the league and 30 in all competitions making him my top goal scorer by a fair bit. He was key in many of my emphatic victories.

Federico Nicoletti – When I arrived I found it unusual that this 24 year old was my captain and he showed why this was so, consistently putting in good performances from the centre of the park.

Jacob Zerbo – One of many Africans in the Serie A, he is a towering centre back and will be integral next season.

Player of the Season – Finances – Game of the Season

Europa League – Champions League

Premier League – Bundesliga – Ligue 1 – La Liga

Borussia Dortmund took home the Champions League with a penalty shoot-out victory over Barcelona. Dennis Heinze, my former striker at Stoke who arrived at Dortmund over the summer for 13M, scoring Dortmund’s goal and a penalty to help Dortmund to their magnificent victory in Europe. The Europa League was taken home by Marseille, clinching a 2-1 win in extra time against Bundesliga winners, Bayern Munich.

My former club Stoke returned back to the Champions League spots, finishing 4^th in the league after Neil Adkins first year in charge. Adkins basically got rid of my whole strike force I had brought in over the years, to his credit this seemed to work. Marquinhos left to Man Utd for 21.5M in January, Nagy to At. Madrid for a shocking 9M and as previously mentioned Heinze for 13M. Adkins also cashed in on Gaston Pizzo, who I had bought for 19.5M the previous season, Barcelona buying him for 3 million extra at 22.5M. Oh and not to mention John Fleck leaving to Bolton for a measly 1.7M, where he had an amazing season receiving an AR of 7.42 and took Bolton from a relegation candidate to a solid mid table side.

[SRL88]

Not bad considering when you took over. Shame you lost a tight affair against Ajax.

[hursty2]

Not bad considering when you took over. Shame you lost a tight affair against Ajax.

Could have been a lot better though!

Does anyone else dislike the transfer window, I always struggle to find players and it takes me hours.

[MeesterCat]

Could have been a lot better though!

Does anyone else dislike the transfer window, I always struggle to find players and it takes me hours.

Heh, the transfer windows are my favourite parts of the game I think. But yeah, it does take me hours - it's why my saves take me forever to complete.

I'd love to start a career save and post it in this forum, but I think people would get bored by how slow I am! :o

[hursty2]

Atalanta – Season Preview 2021/22

Transfers

I was looking to make some big moves in the transfer window and I was expecting a fair bit of activity. Although up to now, I’m not sure if I’m completely satisfied with the movements so far. Most of the deals aren’t big money signings and that’s mainly because they are young with bags of potential, according to my scouts anyway. There were also several youngsters with no futures at the club that left on frees, which will give me more time to focus on the better players. The players that I did sell were always on the way out from the moment the previous season was complete, they simply had no future at the club. Juanpe was aging, failing to perform and you could say that for most of the players, Rausch, Puncec, Jantscher and Candreva. Bojan also left on a free, never realising his potential from his Barca days.

Miroslav Dvorak

A young eastern European centre back who has a lot of potential but will be loaned out as soon as possible to gain some valuable experience.

Roque Larrivey

The 25 year old can play all along the back line but will be mostly played on the right and will most likely be my first choice right back, performance permitting.

Lima

This is the player that I am most excited by, a young 19 year old Brazilian centre back/midfielder who looks to have the determination to become an amazing player in whatever role I choose him to play. He comes to club on the back of International success, winning the U20 World Cup, defeating Italy 1-0 in the final.

Sevki Bektas

Another exciting young player making his way into the club, Bektas will provide more options out wide and judging from recent reports he well may be a starter.

Squad

It’s that same old cliché with me, I don’t know if I’ve improved the squad enough for us to make a push up the league. Have I invested too much in youth and not improved the first 11 at all? I’ll be looking to key players such as Nicoletti and Vorgucic to prove me otherwise and there might even be a surprise package.

Pre-Season

My first pre-season in charge of the club and I had arranged for us to play some very tough sides, including my former team Stoke. We looked poor in most games though and it has left me questioning my tactics but I will stick with them for the first few games of the season. However, this part of the season is about building up fitness, right?

Media Prediction: 10^th

Board Prediction: Top Half

Managers Prediction: 8^th

Title Odds: 150-1

Title Favourites: AC Milan

Relegation Favourites: Benevento, Bologna, SS Lazio

[hursty2]

Hurst Resigns from Atalanta

In a dramatic turn of events Hurst has chosen to end his spell at Serie A side, Atalanta. Hurst had become increasingly frustrated at his sides lack of consistency and will now be looking for his next management opportunity.

At the time of Hurst’s departure, Atalanta found themselves in 8^th with 24 points after 18 games, considerably better than last terms showing. However, Atalanta have still been disappointing and despite being in 8^th are only 9 points clear of relegation and well off a European spot.

Here is a press release from Liam Hurst himself;

“It was time for me to leave Atalanta. I’ve been with the club for over a year now but have still seen no signs of progression from the team. The players have been lacklustre all season and it is only damaging my reputation within football – sometimes you just have to look at the players. Don’t get me wrong there are some very good players at the club but some don’t have the heart and drive to play to this level. I had players coming into my office asking to be played more often but when they did they were rubbish, the likes of Cop and Maghnagi. I have no problem mentioning these names they have tarnished my name with their shoddy performances, as I will theirs.”

Clearly a very angry Hurst expressing his views on the situation but where will he end up next? Surely it’s time for him to start winning something? Rumour has it that he wants to make his way back to England but this time dropping down into the Championship to build his reputation further.

[hursty2]

Career Summary

[font=courier new]Year      Club          League            Pos.     Achievements
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/12     Stoke City    Premier League    12th     Europa League Qtr Final 
12/13     Stoke City    Premier League    7th      Carling Cup Qtr Final
13/14     Stoke City    Premier League    12th     -
14/15     Stoke City    Premier League    8th      Carling Cup Qtr Final, FA Cup Winners
15/16     Stoke City    Premier League    7th      -
16/17     Stoke City    Premier League    5th      FA Cup Runner-Up
17/18     Stoke City    Premier League    5th      Carling Cup Runner-Up
18/19     Stoke City    Premier League    4th      -
19/20     Stoke City    Premier League    10th     Carling Cup Semi Final, Champions League 1st KO *SACKED*
20/21     Atalanta      Serie A           9th      TIM Cup Qtr Final, Europa League Qtr Final
21/22     Atalanta      Serie A           8th*     Resigned in 8th[/font]

[deltablue]

Becoming a bit of a surprise wanderer I see.

[hursty2]

Becoming a bit of a surprise wanderer I see.

Yeah, the Swiss and Danish leagues are coming into the game at the end of the season too.

[hursty2]

And Nigel Adkins got sacked from Stoke about a month before me because he was coming 13th in the league.

Deco is now manager there.

[hursty2]

HB Koge – Season Preview 22/23

HB Koge is my new home in football, as I embark on a mouth-watering challenge in the Danish Superliga. This is the first time I have managed outside of the top 6 countries in any FM and it is sure to be one hell of a challenge.

HB Koge have just been promoted to the Superliga last season and it is my job to keep them up and away from relegation this season. The league itself it overjoyed at the prospect of such a well know manager as myself has made the trip over to Denmark.

Club Overview

Name: Herfolb Boldklub Koge

Formed: 2009

Status: Semi-Professional

Reputation: National

Balance: 925K

Value: 1.3M

Stadium: SEAS – NVE Park

Capacity: 8000 (3440 Seated)

Training: Adequate

Youth: Basic

Coaching: Adequate

Recruitment: Fairly Basic

Squad

After such a short time with the team I haven’t been fully able to analyse all the players. Therefore, I am going into my first game, just 4 days after joining the club, almost blind. First impressions are that the squad is aging and will need a lot of youth players to come in over the seasons in order to build. There are no youth players at the club that can come in and do a job so I will mostly be relying on the transfer market for the foreseeable future. Mikkel Albrechtsen, Marcel Rmer and Adeola Runsewe are the stand outs in the squad but the two Danish players are on the bigger clubs radars.

Transfer Budget: 104K

Wage Budget: 10.94K p/w

As I have only been here a short time though the scouting knowledge is poor and any players that are available in my opinion are not going to make the squad any better. It doesn’t help that I’ve got a minimalist budget to work with at a semi-professional club.

Media Prediction: 12^th

Board: Avoid Relegation

Manager: 8^th

[deltablue]

Denmark after Stoke and Serie A! You're turning into me!

[hursty2]

Denmark after Stoke and Serie A! You're turning into me!

I was almost going to go to a club in the lowest tier of Denmark.

[SRL88]

Interesting move and one which I will be interesting to follow.

[AK22]

I think someone split some beer on your pitch! Good luck

[hursty2]

Interesting move and one which I will be interesting to follow.

I think someone split some beer on your pitch! Good luck

I know, probably the players!

This semi-professional lark is really killing me.

[Nobby_McDonald]

“It was time for me to leave Atalanta. I’ve been with the club for over a year now but have still seen no signs of progression from the team. The players have been lacklustre all season and it is only damaging my reputation within football

So you leave Atalanta for Denmark.

[deltablue]

It makes a bit of sense. Smaller nations have a gentler difficulty curve so he probably has a far better chance of grabbing a trophy or 2 there than challenging the big guns in Italy. Would have made a bit more sense had it not been a relegation battling team though, but who am I to judge career moves as a little strange

[hursty2]

I thought I could win something in Denmark. But then I wanted a challenge there so for some reason went for the worst side in the league!

[hursty2]

HB Koge – Winter Update 2022/23

I knew this was going to be a challenge but I didn’t expect is to be this tough. We started off the season reasonably well with some good victories over superior opposition but it was when we hit the big boys that the problems started. Two successive games against Brondby and FC Midtjylland began the run of 11 games without a win in the league. In some of these games we led by two and even three goals only to be pegged back and succumb to a draw. It was to my surprise that the last match before the winter break, against FC Midtjylland, resulted in a 1-0 victory. The winter break couldn’t come soon enough, I need to strengthen my side and build their morale up for the last 15 games of the season. Stefan Hansen has been my best player, if only for his scrappy goals from corners.

Transfer News

Even when the pre-season transfer window was open I didn’t have any options available to me, no one wants to come on loan to me and any players I do want to sign will not accept part-time contracts. This meant that recruitment was poor and my only option as the season progressed were to sign players under 21 who need not be registered for the league. I went down this route and signed players who could do a job but because of their young age I might be able to make a bit of money on them. My only money signing of this part of the season was Nigerian, Jude Ozokwo a 23 year old striker. He started the season well before getting injured which has since kept him out of action. Wim Schreuder came in on a free and the Dutch player has been disappointing since he arrived but has some potential, however as with most of these free signings it is always going to be a gamble. Joshua Denge and Lee Cable have only just arrived so I hope they can help keep us away from relegation.

I have never been a part of a Winter break in FM so this is very new to me. One thing that I need to press on with though is improving the quality of the squad, even if it’s just that one player that can help me avoid relegation. Several friendlies will be arranged to keep the players ticking over and hopefully build some morale in the team, that’s what you do in a winter break right? They all don’t just **** off on holiday?

[Nobby_McDonald]

Getting relegated won't increase his reputation.

[hursty2]

HB Koge – Season Review 2022/23

We survived relegation by the skin of our teeth even without winning one of our last 6 games. It still came down to the last day though, AC Horsens needing a win to survive and it looked as if they would win leading 1-0 for most of the game, only to be clawed back by Brondby, 2-1. As you can tell it was a very tough season for me but an exciting one at that! Next season I’m hoping that the board will turn the club professional which will hugely benefit the squad. We spend 600K a year on wages whilst the top spending side spends 9M per annum and if we want to progress as a club we need to close that gap to at least give us a fighting chance. In fact none of the current squad I’m spending the wages on are good enough for this league in my opinion.

Even with the additions of Patrick Jorgensen, Markku Sovalainen, Evgeni Panayotov and Alexander Soderquist we couldn’t stave any further away from the relegation places. And these signing were more panic signings than anything else, in a desperate attempt to save my season.

Key Players

Stefan Hansen – The centre back was solid if nothing else but is approaching 35 now so next season may well be his last.

Jan Budtz – He’s the only real quality we’ve got in centre mid and even then he isn’t good enough for this league.

Lee Rochester Sorensen – When he would play, he would score but would also get injured pretty much every game.

Comments

Next season it is going to be imperative to our survival that the club turns professional. However, the current chairman is looking to sell the club and we have just had one failed takeover attempt. Without this I feel that the club will just be left behind and will struggle to stay up next year but we will see how things pan out. Instead of turning professional the board decided that we need undersoil heating and therefore spent 500K on it, I wish they would have just given me that amount for some better players. But to do that I am going to sell some of the young players I took on during the season and some of them have values approaching 1M which will help me massively.

Premier League – Bundesliga – Serie A – Eredivisie – Swiss Premier – La Liga

Champions League – Europa League

World Cup

[SRL88]

Brilliant work on survival .

[deltablue]

Not the most comfortable one though.

[Thomasmc135]

JULY – OCTOBER 2013

Transfer News

This season I needed to bulk out my squad for Europe and this saw me bring in five new faces, four transfers and a loan signing. Into the team came, Tomas Hubocan (2.3M), Fabian Delph (3.5M), Tom Cairney (3.6M) and Joe Mattock (1.4M) – three of these signings being English. Hubocan was on loan for me last year and impressed me so much that I duly signed him up. This years loan signing is Andrea Mantovani from Palermo for a fee of 525K, I opted for a loan signing again as no other left backs offered value for money.

Europa League

I strolled through the qualifiers with ease, beating teams by over 8 goals on aggregate. This then allowed me to progress through to the group stages to face, Sparta Prague, Spartak Moscow and Sturm Graz, all with 700+ mile away trips involved.

Squad Overview

The squad is getting younger by the season now and with the addition of three young English players, it stands us in good stead for the forthcoming seasons. That along with the retirements of Higginbotham and Almunia has brought our average age down to 25, far from the aging team I had at the start of my career. I now have depth on the wings too, which I never used to have. The progression of Nagy has also been pleasing and he adds another option up front.

I also have a new assistant manager in the form of former Barnsley goalkeeper, David Preece – who said feeder clubs are just for players!

How did Charlton qualify? :confused:

[hursty2]

Brilliant work on survival .

Not the most comfortable one though.

Definitely one of the harder seasons in this career!

How did Charlton qualify? :confused:

Iirc it was through the league cup.

[hursty2]

HB Koge – Season Preview 2023/24

Transfers

With a wage budget and transfer budget of a minimal amount, it is quite hard to attract players of a high calibre to the club. I had to release a great deal of players to free up some money and in the coming month Panayotov and Schreuder will leave for a combined total of around 1.5M, which will stand us in good stead. The squad has been slimmed down massively but still needs investment in some areas.

Dominique Hornig

A young German defensive midfielder arrived on a free and will slot right into my new 4-1-2-1-2 formation. He’s only 20 and hopefully he’ll develop into a great player and perhaps, if needed, he can be sold at a later date to make me some more money.

Enock Antwi

Another defensive midfielder who will share the role with Hornig. Antwi is a Ghanaian former U21’s player who will be looking to make it further in his career.

Oumar Diallo

This striker will provide back up to my strike force and maybe even push for a start but I’m not expecting any immediate fireworks.

Squad

The squad is a small one and needs to be improved massively if I am to have a successful season in the Superliga. I am going to need a left back, centre back, goalkeeper and even another striker in order for us to push on in the league. This is harder than it looks though because the pool of players available to me is quite poor, whereas all the best players are plying their trade up with the top clubs in Denmark.

Pre-Season

Media Prediction: 12^th

Board Prediction: Avoid Relegation

Managers Prediction: 9^th

Title Odds: 1000-1

Title Favourites: FC Kobenhavn

Relegation Favourites: HB Koge, Silkeborg

Wage Budget: 13, 829K p/w

Transfer Budget: 320K

[hursty2]

HB Koge – July

We began our season up against last seasons 4^th place side, so it was expected to be a tough game. Despite that we dominated proceedings and took a comfortable 2-0 lead into half time, the worst score line to manoeuvre your team talk around, in my opinion. Fortunately, we held onto the 2-0 lead and got a brilliant victory in the bag. Next came AGF, who are considerably worse than OB but somehow we lost to them 1-0 on our own turn, a disappointing first game for our home fans.

Transfer wise, Mladen Cosic came into the club on the back of a trial after being released by German giants, Bayern Munich. He is young but should do a job in the centre of defence.

[deltablue]

Could be much better this year.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Charlton won the League Cup?

[hursty2]

No sorry, they won the FA cup in 2013.

[hursty2]

HB Koge – August 2023

Again we started off the month with a win but it was all downhill from there and we even managed to struggle against a lower league side in the cup. A great 3-1 victory against AaB, including a brace from veteran Stefan Hansen was the only positive from this month. 3 straight losses followed and that was in line with an injury to Hansen which clearly weakened the side. I was hoping that we would build up our morale with a big cup win but that was not to be with a scrappy 1-0 win over a very poor team.

The performances of this month made me question the squad even more than usual so I quickly leapt into the transfer market, just before it was about to close. Coming in was Yusif Bakir (5K), an attacking mid who I appreciated more than my scouts did. Nicolai Leth-Nielsen, a player that I must have been scouting for around 10 months now so I knew that he would fit the bill. Two Belgian youngsters came into the side too; Raf Van de Velde (FREE) and Wim de Bruycker (FREE) both have 5 stars for potential and already are of a reasonable ability. If they don’t succeed here though, I can always sell them for a profit much like I did with Schrueder and Panayotov who made me 1.4M this month.

A massive plus for this month is that the board have finally agreed to go professional, well at the end of this year that is. I really could have done with this news last year! Although it does bode well for the future as I am enjoying my time at HB Koge!

[SRL88]

Plenty of time left yet.