Finally got childhood dream and headhunted achievements! The challenge starts now!

[roberto201]

Hi Guys,

I'm pretty new to Fm13 but am loving the new version already. True its a lot harder than FM12 but i've been enjoying the challenge. I decided to start as Newcastle, been ups and downs as expected. Highlights were winning Capital One Cup in my first season. Reaching final of FA Cup and Europa Cup second season but unfortunately lost both. And finally just finished my third season and won the FA Cup. Regarding the league finding consistency has been an issue. I've finished 8th, 8th and 7th respectively (fairly disappointed I didnt progress too well here).

Anyway I'll get to my point. At the end of my third season Fergie decided to retire after United finished 8th (I got 7th! hahaha!). I didnt think much of it, AVB of Tottenham was the favourite to replace and would be a fine choice as he managed to steer his team to finish 3rd. Surprisingly I expressed interest and almost immediately got offered the job. I couldnt beleive it, I didnt think twice I just accepted. Board have given me £70mil to spend and I have already lined up a £25 mil bid for 28 yr old Cavani (will sell RVP hes 31 and only a 3 star player now).

I guess my real question to you guys is what do you do first when you take over a new club? Sort out backroom staff already done, united have a good set up anyway so was easy. I guess picking a formation and tactic. I had mixed results with newcastle and I hope with better players I can get away with more fluid and attacking play without conceding most of the time once ive taken a lead.

Any thoughts or advice on how I should take united forward would be much appreciated. Especially from those of you who are gifted with the knowledge of the ME.

[Red till i'm dead]

With a team like United i'd start by making sure u have at least 2 (3 if possible) top class players in every position, as they have so many games and competitions to compete in, check not just a player's stats but their performances before u arrived to see who might be inconsistent or injury prone etc, so u know who to replace or upgrade.

[deknegt1990]

I would also sort out staff asap.

A team like Man Utd already got good staff all-around, but you can always do it better and make sure you got great scouts (15/15 judging, 10+ Determination etc.) and also a great 4*+ coach in every training category.

Even though you are swimming in mad money it's always smart to keep focusing on having your scouts find top class talent around the world, and making sure you can coach them to live up to their potential. In FM13 you can really dominate with a newgen based strategy, especially if you don't give yourself any inhibition about where you sign them, the EU is swimming with top class newgens after 2-3 seasons in.

Back to the staff, just try to fill out every position as good as you can, most boards will have no problems in extending the caps when you fill them up and I have had occassions where I had 25 odd scouts flying the globe and also 13 or so coaches too.

Especially with a team like Man Utd there is no reason to be stingy on the backroom, you are rich and have a metric efftonne of sponsors to rake in the cash.

Also finally a personal tip of mine, when playing with a team like Man Utd, try to impose some sort of challenge on yourself to keep it challenging. I tend to get bored managing top-teams and spicing it up is always a fun way to increase the challenge. The easiest challenge to do is to keep your range in the UK only when buying/scouting players and taking what the UK and Ireland produces in terms of players.

[gunner86]

I had a similar experience in FM2012 after moving from QPR after 2 seasons.

My advice is to make sure you put your mark on the club gradually, too much change player wise will lead to more inconsistency.

Maybe sell one or two ageing players, and bring in one marquee signing.