Tips on starting with no badges

[craiigman]

In all my years with FM I've never started with no badges and unemployed. I have played as lower teams, but often get overwhelmed because I can't use my real life knowledge, also the same when lots of regens are populated. My longest saves usually only go 3-4 seasons in.

I've started my save, these are my attributes:

I holidayed until October and I have been given a job in the Welsh Cymru South with Haverfordwest. I only loaded England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland.

I'm aiming to play a simple 442 for most of this save, I've watched @Rashidi's lower league saves so have an idea about offering trials to players. But what other tips have you guys got for me?

[deaks500]

Love this kind of save and i always start unemployed and no badges. What kind of save are you aiming for? For example, are you wanting to do an RPG/journeyman style save where you go in level 1 in this instance, and aim to become the best in the world hopping from club to club to improve yourself? Or stick with current club and become all dominating with them?

Some tips you could use -

- Do your coaching badges as and when you can/allowed to, its dependent on club finances weather the board will let you so ask when you have a bit of money in the bank

- Dont employ uncesesary staff, if you dont have an under 23 team, no need to have a u23 manager or coach

- If you are club hopping, dont bother with youth at these low levels, intake will be poor and there not going to develop into anything worth selling

- In fact , forget about selling players , non existant down at these levels, no ones got or paying any money for players 

- Loaning players is going to be your bread and butter at this level, try to get a senior affiliate club to loan them from at no cost

- Transfer fees are non existant at this level , frees & loans are your primary source of player recruitment 

- Take players out of contract on a trial (2-3 weeks) before you sign them, in fact offering trials is a quicker and better way to scout players than actually scouting them , saves you money.

- Some players at this level don't require a weekly wage but maybe and appreance/ goal bonus, these bonuses are taken into account in your wage budget so dont ignore them and over spend on the bonuses.

- i find that players with good physicals are more useful than technicals at this level.

- Get yourself a big target man and route one football (thats a preference btw but i had sucess in wales with a 442 route one)

- In wales specifically , TNS are dominant and its hard to catch them competitivly, but if you get into Europe (euro 2 competition) then there is money to be had there so prehaps make that a target initially rather than get disheartened with trying to compete with TNS from the start.

 

There are probably more and better educated people with better advice but these are a few things to consider when starting this way, i hope you enjoy it and stick with the save, its very rewarding when you see your manager profile and reputation grow.

[tieio]

Sorry to necro this thread, I am just having an issue related to this and wanted to see if anyone had some suggestions.
I took a job with no badges etc at Trelefin in Wales and 4 seasons in we finally have money but the board still will not let me take coaching badges, they say things like "we have to be selfish here, we don't want you to move on to bigger teams" etc and no one else will hire me, I apply for jobs but am laughed off at every turn. So I am trapped at this club! What would you do with this? I got the team to 2nd in the division, obviously not caught up to TNS and have made money foe the club but they refuse to let me go for coaching badges. I am stumped, no teams even in Van north/south will consider me since I still have too low a rep and no badges!

I see I am not the only one who has had this happen... 

 

Edited March 9, 2023 by tieio

[Daniel Evensen]

I'll give you a tip on what not to do.

Don't go in and start selling important players.  I did that with Ingolstadt 04 (a difficult squad to manage in this year's game even if you've got great experience), and wound up being sacked after losing 9 in a row.

It's not as easy as it seems.  Either that, or I just suck at this game, lol.

[Maviarab]

First tip is..why would you ever start with no badges?  First badge takes a few hours and is £120 purely online.  Second badge is not much more.

In reality, anyone would do at least the furst badge themselves.  In reality, you'd be lucky if your local pub team gave you a job without it.  Getting stuck at a club is a problem within Fm because of the way it's all coded and the fact they won't add in a system for you to 'take them yourself'.

 

[Daniel Evensen]

3 hours ago, Maviarab said:

First tip is..why would you ever start with no badges?  First badge takes a few hours and is £120 purely online.  Second badge is not much more.

In reality, anyone would do at least the furst badge themselves.  In reality, you'd be lucky if your local pub team gave you a job without it.  Getting stuck at a club is a problem within Fm because of the way it's all coded and the fact they won't add in a system for you to 'take them yourself'.

 

Yeah, quoted for truth.  If you really are going to be "realistic" about it, you should start with at least one badge.

[kingjericho]

I love LLM. But it definitely should be approached in a different manner than when managing big clubs. Some tips:

• Technical attributes don't matter. Everybody is poor. Focus on mentals and especially physical attributes.
• Arrange pre-season friendlies against big clubs to garner some income.
• Never offer more than 2 year contracts to your players. There are lots of free agents and your good players can quickly be replaced by a better free agent.
• Don't bother scouting - use trials instead. Since you'll have a limited budget for transfers and scouting, offer trials to free agents and your Ass Man will have a report for all of them.
• Save money on scouts, analysts, and U18 staff. Free agents on trial are scouted by the Ass Man and/or coaches.
• A good Ass Man can be also a DOF and a HOYD.

[tieio]

On 10/03/2023 at 11:35, kingjericho said:

I love LLM. But it definitely should be approached in a different manner than when managing big clubs. Some tips:

• Technical attributes don't matter. Everybody is poor. Focus on mentals and especially physical attributes.
• Arrange pre-season friendlies against big clubs to garner some income.
• Never offer more than 2 year contracts to your players. There are lots of free agents and your good players can quickly be replaced by a better free agent.
• Don't bother scouting - use trials instead. Since you'll have a limited budget for transfers and scouting, offer trials to free agents and your Ass Man will have a report for all of them.
• Save money on scouts, analysts, and U18 staff. Free agents on trial are scouted by the Ass Man and/or coaches.
• A good Ass Man can be also a DOF and a HOYD.

Oh I know how to play the game, I am winning a lot, no issues there, just wanted to know more about the employment bit, the lack of being able to take badges yourself in the offseason or something is game breaking to be fair.

[tieio]

On 10/03/2023 at 06:53, Maviarab said:

First tip is..why would you ever start with no badges?  First badge takes a few hours and is £120 purely online.  Second badge is not much more.

In reality, anyone would do at least the furst badge themselves.  In reality, you'd be lucky if your local pub team gave you a job without it.  Getting stuck at a club is a problem within Fm because of the way it's all coded and the fact they won't add in a system for you to 'take them yourself'.

 

It was a challenge, I had never done it before and there are those who think this the "only way to play"... it is not reasonable to not be able to take a badge or two on your own, this is seriously game breaking lol I tried to ask those who challenged me to this game but they say they have never had issues having a team allow them to get badges... like this helps?

[phnompenhandy]

On 10/03/2023 at 20:53, Maviarab said:

First tip is..why would you ever start with no badges?  First badge takes a few hours and is £120 purely online.  Second badge is not much more.

In reality, anyone would do at least the furst badge themselves.  In reality, you'd be lucky if your local pub team gave you a job without it.  Getting stuck at a club is a problem within Fm because of the way it's all coded and the fact they won't add in a system for you to 'take them yourself'.

 

I don't play LLM for 'realism'. I find the game played normally to be too easy. Starting with zero qualifications at least makes the first few months challenging.