[FM24] Avant Garde with En Avant Guingamp

[TangoFM]

Intro

I'm going to be completely open with you. I lost my love for FM a few years ago and have just been playing out of habit. I wasn't engaged, I was just going through the motions. Interest waned and before this year, I've hadn't touched the game for months.

Next revelation, I sometimes go back to my favourite game threads on this forum, to read them through rather than pickup any book from my shelf - nostalgia hits hard, and I long to be rekindled with the game I've played since CM98/99. 

So with that in mind and inspired by @_Ben_'s 'Swiss Army Knife' thread - I'm back. I must admit I have no idea how long it'll last. I've not had a long-term successful save in a number of versions of this wonderful game. But I'm 'into' this one right now.

With FM24 re-installed I got to it. But who to manage? Keep things simple. Don't overthink it. Where have you had the most success as a virtual manager? France. What type of save do I want to have? To build a semi-decent club into a club that has success in developing talent, with a story, a focus. Trophies are not going to be the measure of my success, my aim is to enjoy the process of developing the club as a whole.

So here we are.

Teye Mvunu is the alias I have taken for this save. A ex-professional. Malian international turned manager. A traditional manager, inspired by the likes of Arsene Wenger and has the style to manage the whole club - to leave it in a better place than when he arrived, not just coach the players. 

Why Guingamp? The French league is called 'the league of talents' and with good reason. I wanted to start outside of the top league and I feel Ligue 2, is a great league to start. Many strong clubs exist there and many ex-top tier clubs too. I feel Guingamp, who are predicted to finish 8th by the media provide a solid base to build upon but are not expected to be promoted straight away. The likes of Bastia, Amiens, Caen, Ajaccio, Valenciennes, ASSE and Troyes all will battle it out to reach the promotion playoffs. It's a very competitive league.

The aim is of course to reach Ligue 1 but in time, my natural style of building clubs is to build around younger players, I want to build a solid team for when we're promoted but that might take two or three years. The board are projecting promotion in my fifth season, so no pressure there. Also some good news as they want me to build the clubs youth system and play entertaining football. Seems like we share some values there.

Interestingly the board want to 'be competitive' against Brest when we played them also, nothing like abit of local rivalry. Local rivalry is something we have plenty of, and will be another feature of this save. Brittany, a hot bed of football talent. Rennes, Nantes, Lorient and Brest are all from the area and all play their football in the top tier. We are, at the moment, the lowest big Brittany club. We want to change that. My idea is that not only will we build a team with strong young high potential players, it would be cool to have those based close to the club, in Brittany. Inspired by Ben, for sure. The rough plan, mix home-grown and Brittany players with West-African talents, inspired by my manager alias. Half inspired by FC Nordsjaelland, the Red Bull model, and others. A true way to become self sustaining and profitable for smaller clubs. 

That's it for now, more soon! 

[TangoFM]

 

Wow, just wow. What a start to life in Brittany. 

Here's how we line up, pretty simple 4-3-3 but it's also the first time I've used an AF for a few version of the games so a little shift for me. 

A deeper post to follow about the save soon!

Edited February 11 by TangoFM

[TangoFM]

A bromance is blossoming between myself and Mehdi Merghem. 

In truth, he was somewhat shoehorned into play as a centre midfield on attack in my setup, to allow for Hugo Picard and Amine El Ouazzani to play in the starting winger positions. He's hit the ground running with a number of goals scored and assist. (I don't have the exact figure as I'm too far in the future of the save) but the way he's playing has been truly impressive, he's the most influential player in the side. No doubt.

Squad building

It's my natural instinct to give younger players a chance, it's in my DNA. I tend to favour them, seek them out on purpose, there's something rewarding about developing this type of player. 

Upon taking over I immediately noticed these older players, I tend to have unreasonable thoughts when it comes to players 30 or over. The top three players in this list are in the last year of their contracts so I'm losing value, I won't be able to sell them to reinvest and I feel uncomfortable with that. Of course, it's natural that any squad takes time to 'make mine' but these thoughts pop in my mind and I know they are unreasonable. But I need to understand why I have each player on the books. What's their role? How are they helping us? and how are we helping them? What's the plan for each player? 

In the case of these four players, all of them would most likely be starters under an AI manager but with me in charge, they have all been replaced by younger, higher-potential players. Barthelmé was replaced by the aforementioned El Ouazzani. Courtet by Siwe, Manceau by Sidibe and Lemonier by Riou. 

I'm focusing on Courtet and Manceau being effective for our tutoring setup but they will be making most appearances from the substitutes bench. One thing I'll manage is the amount of starts, as they are older players, they will also be influential players. Any upsets could throw out any harmony.



In addition, these three younger players have been promoted and will bring some depth to the midfield.

On the pitch, we are flying.

 

 

[TheMartello]

On 10/02/2024 at 13:40, TangoFM said:

 

Wow, just wow. What a start to life in Brittany. 

Here's how we line up, pretty simple 4-3-3 but it's also the first time I've used an AF for a few version of the games so a little shift for me. 

A deeper post to follow about the save soon!

Did you use any Player Instructions?

Looking forward to see what you can do in Ligue 1!

[TangoFM]

On 11/02/2024 at 18:20, TheMartello said:

Did you use any Player Instructions?

Looking forward to see what you can do in Ligue 1!

Thanks - although we aren't quite there yet...

Only PI is 'sit narrower' on the LB. 

[TangoFM]

Local pride! 

The tenth round of the French Cup paired us against our fierce local rivals, Brest. Our first match against any of our aforementioned Brittany rivals.

Brest manager Eric Roy well and truly embarrassed himself in the press both pre and post-match and we completely dominated them on the pitch.

"You started it!"

Nice to get one up on him and our bitter rivals.

Youth Intake



Things are looking good. Particularly with these three - Moussaoui, Leon, Quere

[TangoFM]

First signing for the club in January. My first choice and only solid right back option, Sivis, is heading off to African Cup of Nations so I really needed some cover, a cost-effective loan deal suits both parties.

Below you can see four players that have left the club, all outsiders around the first team squad but none have made many appearances. I want to shift some dead weight and get some wages off the books and raise a small amount of cash.