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Gundo's FM08 Small club from a small nation European adventure challenge


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City Stars FC - Finnish Premier Division - 2009

Prediction: 14th

Final Position: 11th

Finnish Cup: 4th round

Finnish league Cup: 0-1-5 in group stage.

Top Scorer: The Tank = 14 goals (2nd highest scorer in the league!)

Final Standings

YES! Survival! The season’s objectives were met and the board are still grumpy farts who are merely ‘satisfied’ that I have taken them to promotion and Premier Division safety with a semi-pro team and ZERO transfer funds. Oh and I did that in two seasons!

It could have been a bit of a disaster and I really feared for the worse when I started the season off with 5 losses. However a win against KuPS who had a nightmare of a season gave me a minor boost and I steadily clawed my way out of danger. Towards the end of the season, I was never in danger of going down as I opened up an 8 point gap between myself and the dreaded playoff place.

The Finnish Premier Division is genuinely a case of two leagues. One of the professional sides who have the muscle to sign amazing players and that of the semi-pro sides who sign all the crap the above don’t want. I again used the loan system well and brought in three players from my ex-feeder team. One player Kaarlo Ranaten, who formed last season’s charge towards promotion was more than happy to join. My greatest signing was probably the Tank, along with Tomi Koski, who I signed last season and gave more of a active first team role this season – mainly because the rest of my strikers are useless.

Bar Jaro who didn’t win a game since May, the bottom 5 sides are all semi-pro, which is where you can see the huge gap in class. Its all about going professional now, because the pro sides are very good. I never broke out of 10th all season and given the absolute quality of the teams above that threshold it would unlikely that I would be able to break that unless I turn professional very soon.

Financially I keep making a lot of money and I am 180k and shooting upwards into the sky, averaging around a profit of 12 to 20k a month. I am still the second poorest team in Finland and still have the worst facilities in the Premier Division. Let’s hope that changes soon.

Next season:

- Stay up again

- Strengthen squad

- Get rid of dead wood

- Nab some decent loans

- Keep turning a profit

- Ask board to at least consider upgrading the training facilities.

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Best of luck. Mosside kit and logo is here if you want to pretty up your game :)

Cheers looks great now

Good Luck. Give me a shout if you need any advice, I think I've encountered most problems that Northern Ireland can throw at me.

I'll hold you to that one. I'm not exactly a FM god :)

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Just a quick update on my new season at Blsany:

I breezed through the Champions League 2nd Qualifying round (when I say 'breezed' it actually took a last minute goal to get a 3-2 at home in the 1st leg but we sorted ourselves out for the away leg and won 2-0) against an Albanian side. I then had one of my greatest games in my time playing FM as my boys destroyed Hamburg SV 4-0 at home! I even had the cheek to field a load of reserve players in the away leg, which finished 3-3 putting us into the group stages! :D

My joy was shortlived as the group draw gave a reality check. The group:

Chelsea :eek:

Inter Milan :eek:

FC Twente

Chmel Blsany

I think 3rd place and a spot in the UEFA Cup is a realistic target. Anything more than that would be amazing but unlikely.

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I'll hold you to that one. I'm not exactly a FM god :)

No pressure on me now then! Knowing my luck you'll encounter something that I haven't.

Just a quick update on my new season at Blsany:

I breezed through the Champions League 2nd Qualifying round (when I say 'breezed' it actually took a last minute goal to get a 3-2 at home in the 1st leg but we sorted ourselves out for the away leg and won 2-0) against an Albanian side. I then had one of my greatest games in my time playing FM as my boys destroyed Hamburg SV 4-0 at home! I even had the cheek to field a load of reserve players in the away leg, which finished 3-3 putting us into the group stages! :D

My joy was shortlived as the group draw gave a reality check. The group:

Chelsea :eek:

Inter Milan :eek:

FC Twente

Chmel Blsany

I think 3rd place and a spot in the UEFA Cup is a realistic target. Anything more than that would be amazing but unlikely.

Good luck with the group DodgeeD, look forward to hearing how you get on.

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It's all about what you want from your game.

I chose Northern Ireland because of all the cup competitions that we get to play in, altough now that might not be such a good thing due to the fixture build up. But I've also tried games in Belgium, Romania and the Czech Repbulic before getting into my current game.

What is it that is making you stop playing after half a season?

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Consistency was always a little hard to come by at the beginning due to not being able to be too fussy about the players that you sign. It took me a couple of season to build a team that I could trust to perform well.

I know that there is an issue with teams being promoted in ROI, you might want to check what needs to be done to correct that before taking up the challenge.

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Razer will simply pace for a striker be enough to get goals in N.I Div 2? Beacause I can't find too many strikers with good finishing so will loads of pace be enough to make sufficient chances?

Leeds_Oasis maybe you should try N.I. as it's easy once at the top to win domestically and all the cup games give you a chance to blood youth players although from reports it's solid to do well in Europe due to money problems

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Razer will simply pace for a striker be enough to get goals in N.I Div 2? Beacause I can't find too many strikers with good finishing so will loads of pace be enough to make sufficient chances?

A striker with pace should serve you very well, he should be able to score a few just from the sheer number of chances that his pace will allow him to create.

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First up, Gundo, please remove my completely abandoned entries in Sweden and Austria from your challenge table, since I dont even know the last time I touched those.

Now for a new attempt! This time I have gone for Pontardawe Town in Wales. This is looking just like the sort of hard challenge I enjoy and hopefully I will stick at this one for a bit!

Profile

First job, get some staff, some players, and survive the first season.

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ok , dont worry . thanks

at the start of this challenge when your in the lowest league and you are playing fairly bad standards of football, is it better to use a long ball tactic like most LLM do in England or in other countries are other tactics more succesful?

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I've always used the default 4-4-2 with some forward arrows for the wingers and a one of the midfielders up to AMC. I've never fiddled around with any instructions or sliders.

You'll just have to see what fits your team, but to begin with the long ball should do you well.

Which league have you started in?

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Well as I said I'm running more than one

im managing a team called Kolejarz in Poland division 2, while im managing Coleraine Crusaders in NI.

I always thought that to have a good formation you always had to change the sliders and instructions?

It's not something that I've ever had the need to change, I've played this formation for a while now and haven't had any problems with it so don't see any need to change it.

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Finances were always a problem until I made the Premier League and then the All Ireland Cup, you get prize money of £200k for turning up.

I always had to sell players in order to keep the finances up - remember that sell on fees are always a good thing. I add them into all my transfers.

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That's the way it goes. I was about 200k in debt at one point in N.I. before my chairman accepted a bid on a player. You'll need to scout the free transfers and see if you can find any gems...and then be prepared to sell them for the good of the club.

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That's the way it goes. I was about 200k in debt at one point in N.I. before my chairman accepted a bid on a player. You'll need to scout the free transfers and see if you can find any gems...and then be prepared to sell them for the good of the club.

True, I've sold many a player for the good of the team but after a couple of years struggling to get by we made enough money for me to be able to be selective in my player sales.

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ok sounds like a good plan :

search for good player - find good player - put good player in team - sell good player to keep the club afloat - start again.

haha.

Pretty much.

The best freebies for N.I. games will be the guys from the Caymens, Bermuda etc. Do a search for unnattached players ages 19 or less around the 20th-25th of September each year. You'll need to trial them first before signing them to stay within the rules of the challenge but you'll normally pick up a gem or 3 from these.

Also run the same search around the 7th-8th of January when the Irish League resets and you'll get some good freebies here as well.

Players I picked up from these searches were sold for 1m plus a few years into the game.

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ok sounds like a good plan :

search for good player - find good player - put good player in team - sell good player to keep the club afloat - start again.

haha.

That's kind of it, it'll work better if you get some islanders into your team as you can sell them with fees to be paid after an international appearance. Eg £1 million after 10, the buying team will think they've got a bargin then about a 2 years after you'll get paid.

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Stick with it. Once you get out of the Challenge League and get established in the Super it gets pretty easy in Switzerland. And when you do complete it, we will all celebrate with you.

Don't worry, I can't really see myself giving up unless I get sacked again!

I know once I get promoted the fun and games will start. It is just the getting out of this bloody division which is frustrating...

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Don't worry, I can't really see myself giving up unless I get sacked again!

I know once I get promoted the fun and games will start. It is just the getting out of this bloody division which is frustrating...

Keep plugging away at it, I'm sure all the effort will be worth it once you get promoted.

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ok sounds like a good plan :

search for good player - find good player - put good player in team - sell good player to keep the club afloat - start again.

haha.

That's a pretty apt summation for playing small clubs up (and I have been doing that since CM2) :)

Seriously, you often get to a point where some of your players get overvalued by larger clubs (if you are having any kind of success, or if the player is a standout). At that point, you have to extract max value for them and find value investments.

As an example, in my time with Grorud (Norway) in this challenge, I haven't sold any player (of any value :) ) for less than 20K. I have sold some of my top players for 250K, which was a huge boon when we were still in Second Division. The problem I ran into in my first season was- despite my frugal ways- the Board built a new Stadion and we were 9 Million in the Red. When that happened, the Chairman began interfering wayyyyy too much- accepting decent bids for some top players (when I was willing to sell them, but I wouldn't have unless I got more of a premium from them). Thanks to cash infusions, some players sales and continued frugal approach to weekly wages we are finally down to only 250K in the Red and will likely get out of the Red altogether this season (through other player sales, increased money from the gate, etc...). I am hoping that will temper the Chairman a bit. Good signings off the free transfer market (all in Norway still) are the key to the success of the club at present.

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Gilbster - 2008/09 Pontardawe, Welsh Premier League

Decided to attempt this challenge and since I have missed signing islanders, I decided to go for Wales. I picked Pontardawe as they seemed like a small club that I havent seen anyone manage yet this year on this thread.

They started with no staff and a couple of youth players. I brought in any old ass man I could find and some scouts, but didnt really start buidling a team until end of September where I picked up most of the available Bermudan and Belize players and started to figure out how to win occassionally.

Since I had been asked to avoid relegation, I wasnt too bothered by the near constant losses, and large score lines, since I know it will take a few seasons to strengthen to the extent of being able to survive comfortably.

As it so happens I finished 16th out of 18 in the league. I also made it to the 4th round of the Welsh cup, which was better than expected.

Aims for the new season - stay up and improve if possible and get more islanders.

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Baulmes - Challenge League - 24/25

We entered the Winter Break in a relatively dire 12th place.

Main occurance during the break was the selling of our only DR, Lausanne offering £45k was too much to turn down, so I was basically obliged to play with 3 at the back for the rest of the season. I mutually terminated a couple of players while I brought a loanee in who promptly broke his ankle so was sent straight back again.

We started with another defeat, but things improved as we beat Etoile-Carouge, hardly much to shout about though. Delemont thrashed us before we beat an awful Bellinzona side 1-0 thanks to frankly ridiculous last minute 30 yard screamer from a reserve MC. I sat in stunned silence after it, it was that good and that out of contrast with the rest of the match. And that was it. We drew with Kriens before UGS hooned us 6-0. Confidence destroyed we lost the last 6 via conceding 19 goals :o. We managed to hang onto 12th until the penultimate game but that dropped us to 15th place where we stayed. As you can see it was a downward spiral from around the 12th week.

Goes without saying that that was hardly what I was looking for, and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to work out the problem, 89 goals conceded with 3+ in 18 games. Upfront we actually managed to score more goals than last season :D.

The defensive problem was solely down to the fact I did not have a pair of fullbacks worthy of playing so was stuck with a dodgy back 3 (the 4 rotated players averaged 6.4 between them), the score-more-than-we-concede tactic had its moment but mainly failed tbh.

Final Squad

Final Summary

Transfers - Ferrari was stunning, Glowacki and Huybrechts were good upfront, the other loanees were acceptable while the 2 elderly E Europeans brought in in October did their job

Being so rubbish makes this part of the report easier to do!

Best Loanee - Nicola Ferrari - absolutely awesome, a goal or assist per game, makes me wonder whether I should have played him more at UGS, made the Team of the Season, he is available in the Summer, I shall try to get him

Best Baulmes Player - Renato - not as good as last season, but still top scorer, seemingly much worse than our other strikers but he bangs them in more than they do, pace is the reason, presume even if new players come in he will be in or around the team next season

The rest were **** basically.

Apart from the defense the main problem is age; a few times I went out with 7 over-30s in the line up. Each day that passes they are getting worse and above all they have no resale value. But they were the only interested and able players around. I sincerely hope that the Summer's activity involve less pensioners but looking at my shortlist I can't be too sure...:/

But, the first priority is the defense, I need FULLBACKS, anyone. If you are coming to the end of your contract and are on my shortlist an attempt shall be made to sign you, no matter whether you are the 10th best DR/DL there. I don't care, I need you. A back-4 is a must, or at least wing-backs at the very very least.

If you are coming to the end of your contract, on my shortlist but not a fullback, then ability shall make an appearance in my decision process.

Out will go some of the elderly and anyone else who gets a good bid. I am not getting any closer to the £5m at the moment.

Best Eleven

Overall Best Eleven

UGS

08/09 - 22/23 Challenge League - 3rd-15th

Baulmes

23/24 - Challenge League - 3rd

24/25 - Challenge League - 15th

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Oh yeah, and neglected to mentioned that Basel came down :scared:. That means that every side in the SL will have played at least one season in the CL.

Also there were only 17 points separating top from bottom in the SL last season :o. Which is, quite frankly, ridiculous. The champions only won 5 more games than the team in 10th (Basel) who were only 6 points from 4th!

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Oh yeah, and neglected to mentioned that Basel came down :scared:. That means that every side in the SL will have played at least one season in the CL.

Also there were only 17 points separating top from bottom in the SL last season :o. Which is, quite frankly, ridiculous. The champions only won 5 more games than the team in 10th (Basel) who were only 6 points from 4th!

Look at it this way, when you do go up you know the table will be close and a win could lift you a few places :)

On your defensive woes, I play differently to you it seems. I find a good tactic and then get the players to fit it even if it means a couple of guys who aren't up to it playing. Unlike real life, in FM the tactic really is king.

What tactic does the opposition usually play or are all the teams playing different formations?

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Gilbster - 2009/10 Pontardawe, Welsh Premier League

After just about surviving last season I was keen to get in some new faces. However my scouts couldnt find anyone that would be an improvement and I no new islanders seem to spawn this year, so I was stuck with the same squad as last year.

However since its a year on, the team had time to gel better and were a year older, wiser and more experienced and it clearly worked a bit better.

Managed to finish 11th in the table, which is definitely an improvement.

Hopefully will be able to stabilize in that position at the very least for next season. Hopefully will be able to find a few new players too.

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Gilbster - 2009/10 Pontardawe, Welsh Premier League

After just about surviving last season I was keen to get in some new faces. However my scouts couldnt find anyone that would be an improvement and I no new islanders seem to spawn this year, so I was stuck with the same squad as last year.

When playing in N.I. I found that the Islanders would be generated in September, the following January the Republic of Ireland players would be generated and then there would be nothing for 18 months until another batch of Islanders arrived.

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When playing in N.I. I found that the Islanders would be generated in September, the following January the Republic of Ireland players would be generated and then there would be nothing for 18 months until another batch of Islanders arrived.

That's really strange, I get islanders every year in N.I. not that I need them anymore, but I still find myself looking for them.

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That's really strange, I get islanders every year in N.I. not that I need them anymore, but I still find myself looking for them.

Are they all definetly newgens with no history. I found in my game AFC Wimbledon signed a lot of them and then released them a year or 2 later around that date. So they showed on my unnattached search but had actually been around a season or 2.

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Are they all definetly newgens with no history. I found in my game AFC Wimbledon signed a lot of them and then released them a year or 2 later around that date. So they showed on my unnattached search but had actually been around a season or 2.

I'm fairly sure while I was playing in Northern Ireland, I was getting Islanders each season, however it may have taken a few seasons before they did spawn each year. I recall initially someone in either this or Dafuge's thread saying they mainly started from 2010, so I should definitely get some soon.

So far I have been drawn in the FAW Premier Cup as well as the other 2 welsh cups, and after a quick glance at the first round rules, it looks like this cup at least has some prize money in it.

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Are they all definetly newgens with no history. I found in my game AFC Wimbledon signed a lot of them and then released them a year or 2 later around that date. So they showed on my unnattached search but had actually been around a season or 2.

In all honesty I don't remember and I'm at work so can't check on it, but they might not have all been newgens.

I'm fairly sure while I was playing in Northern Ireland, I was getting Islanders each season, however it may have taken a few seasons before they did spawn each year. I recall initially someone in either this or Dafuge's thread saying they mainly started from 2010, so I should definitely get some soon.

So far I have been drawn in the FAW Premier Cup as well as the other 2 welsh cups, and after a quick glance at the first round rules, it looks like this cup at least has some prize money in it.

How many cups to you get to compete in?

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The is the Welsh Cup (FA cup), FAW Premier Cup (includes the Welsh clubs that play in England) and Welsh Challenge Cup (league cup).

And hopefully eventually one of the European cups!

Nice, might have to have a look at a possible game in Wales then. After playing so many years in N.I. I like to have a number of cups to play for.

Only problem would be running into all the same problems that I did in N.I. but just in a different country.

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Can i just ask what's an Islander as im not entirely sure, who this entails, and im starting a game in N.I and it seems these Islanders are beneficial to N.I teams.

They are players from countries such as Bermuda, Montserrat etc. Read back a few posts and I gave details of when and how to look for them. Some are crap, but some of them are very very good for a league like N.I..

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Can i just ask what's an Islander as im not entirely sure, who this entails, and im starting a game in N.I and it seems these Islanders are beneficial to N.I teams.

Players generated from nations in N. America, excluding Canada, U.S.A, Costa Rica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica.

These largely revolve around

Monserrat

British Virgin Islands

Anguilla

Bahama's

Barbados

Caymen Islands

Turks and Caicos Islands

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